On the South Side

Every year around this time Annette and I attend a Christmas Caroling party. First we go out in the cold and sing for some select houses. Then, after being properly frozen, we go inside for more singing and fun. The party was started many years ago by a fellow south-sider. Then when one of her friends who had always led the group was murdered, the mantle was passed to Annette and she reluctantly leads the biggest group of Type A personalities you'd ever want to meet. The crowd is full of people who can sing, act, write etc.; many of them professionally. Like herding cats, it is. Anyway, many of them are Catholic, so this year was especially poignant as the Arch Bishop of St. Louis just announced that the local Catholic church/school would be closing. St. Cecilia's has been a part of this neighborhood for very long time. So, our hostess had us singing at the homes of the elderly folks who were hit particularly hard by this news. I can't imagine going through that, but I t

Last night (Sat.) we held our annual Christmas sing-a-long at church. In the past we've done it in the sanctuary, but it gets a mite chilly up there in the evenings this time of year. So, we did it downstairs in the fellowship hall. Since we now have a sound system for down there it just make sense. So, we invited everyone, I made some wassail punch, everybody brought cookies and snacks and a good time was had by all. I even borrowed a karaoke machine from a neighbor and I found a Christmas karaoke CD with some all time favorites on it. Annette and I did our Bing Crosby and ???? impersonation on Silver Bells. (Who sang with Bing on that one? Try to get it before Rob does.) The preacher even got up to sing one for us. A fun time was had by all and I wish everybody could have been there. Then, this morning, at Church, it was the Children's Christmas Program. This is my fourth year being the director of that. Each year I challenge myself to doing something that is the epitome o

Jennifer was telling a story how her daughter's boyfriend had his guitar out at the house one evening when she asked him to play a Christmas song. I think her quote was something like, "he looked at me like I had worms coming out of my ears." I don't know whether that meant he didn't know any or he wouldn't play any. I don't know which is worse anyhow. I've lectured on this before, but it really burns me up, so now you're going to have to listen to it again: The guitar is meant to be played as an accompaniment to the melody. Now, this is not say that a guitarist can't take a solo during a song; that's fine for 8 or 16 measures. But a young guitarist should not start with the solo mindset; he or she should graduate into that. In the meantime he should learn some songs! Is that so much to ask? "But wait, but wait; I can't sing," he'll say. Get over it! Everybody can sing in their range. And for God's sake; at Christmas?!

For lo, the days are hastening on By prophet bards fortold When with the ever circling years Come 'round the age of gold When peace shall over all the earth It's ancient splendors fling And the whole world sends back the song Which now the angels sing

Remember, it was a full lunar eclipse. Edgar Renteria , whose jersey number just happens to be 3, made the last out of the last game of the World Series to give the Red Sox their haunting victory of the Cardinals. Care to take a guess who else played with the number 3 on their jersey? That's right, Babe Ruth as a Yankee wore the number 3. And now Edgar, one of the best shortstops in the league is going to the Red Sox! Why!? Why, Edgar, why!? You're a sensitive guy; you won't like it there! Can anyone doubt the curse continues? Today also marks the 60th anniversary of the start of The Battle of the Bulge. It is still to this day the largest battle the US Army has ever fought. To sum it up, Hitler decided for one last giant push in an effort to split the Allies up and cut off big groups of them from supply lines and each other. Tactically, it was bold but never had a chance of ultimately working. If you think conditions in Iraq are tough, these soldiers were in horrible,

I was in a rock band. We weren't very good, though we practiced all the time. During those years we practiced in the basement of St. John's Episcopal Church on Arsenal across from the park. I have some good memories of that basement, including meeting Annette for the first time. But on this night we were just running through some of our standard stuff. Standard stuff, like Beatles and Dylan. So, it's 1980 and we're playing Beatles and Dylan. Any wonder why we weren't getting the good jobs? We always played Beatle songs at practice, and this Monday night we practiced "The Ballad of John & Yoko." After the practice broke up, we all went our separate ways; me going home of course. Dave went to O'connell's to hang out for a while and around ten o'clock he called me, "Hey, did you hear what happened man?" My heart skipped a beat before he said another word. The tone and gravity in his voice was from another world. He sounded so

I can't remember a time when I didn't think of Dec. 7th as Pearl Harbor Day. I have an early memory, perhaps I was seven or eight, of being in Sunday School one morning when the teacher (Mildred, who still worships with us every Sunday; I think she's about 100 years old) asked for the date. I spoke up loudly, "It's Pearl Harbor Day; Dec. 7th." Many books, films and TV shows were to follow; it became part of the cultural mythology that has informed my world-view. Now, it's rather difficult to express just how much the event shapes my world-view. Well, OK, I'll try, if you insist. The attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the US into World War II. That war was, according to the Wikipedea, "the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world." And, so it was. Most people alive today have no concept at all about the scope of it. Not just how it affected everyday life, but what held in the balance. This was the event that ende

My dad had a procedure to shore up his abdominal aorta this past Tuesday. His heart/aorta is fine but he's struggling with the incisions to his groin that they went through to do the procedure. I went to Steak N Shake with him the Thursday before, kind of a last smoke before the surgery. I mustered up the courage to call him Monday night to wish him well. That actually went pretty well. I managed to state simply that I was calling to wish him well and he managed to thank me for doing such. This is big stuff. Today he had enough strength to call me. He wanted let Annette know how much he appreciated her coming up to the hospital after the surgery. That night I had a long meeting at church where several people besides me, including his sister, were anxious to hear any news. It was nice when I received a text message from Annette, "He's out of surgery. He's OK." This wonderful technology did not help me however, when I promptly forgot to call my sister with this n