Singing To The Vets

Last Sunday, members of the High Point Harmonizers sang a few songs for some veterans of the US armed forces. The occasion was a veterans' appreciation day put on by the Sussex Elks Lodge, and we were in the lodge hall for the afternoon.

Earlier in the day, there was a ceremony at High Point State Park - the highest elevation in New Jersey at some 1800 feet - honoring the service of the men and women of our armed forces. Then they came back to the lodge hall for a short observance. It started with the Pledge of Allegiance and then we sang the Star Spangled Banner, which was received well.

After a short address from one of the Elks, we sang God Bless America, which was responded to with a good round of applause. Then we all ate dinner, which was quite good considering the number of people to be fed out of a small kitchen.

After we ate, we gave the crowd one more song. This time, it was On The Sunny Side Of The Street - a considerably different kind of song from what we had done earlier. That seemed to catch some of our audience by surprise. Sunny Side includes some choreography, which is totally absent from the patriotic songs, of course. We had a good time singing the song and our audience seemed to enjoy the performance. Everybody wins!

Last Night's Rehearsal

We had kind of a small turnout for rehearsal last night, but it was a good group. Especially as it included Tom McHugh for the first time since his hip surgery. He has apparently been going stir crazy because he's been unable to get out and around. They won't let him drive, yet.

Even though we were few, we had at least two guys on each vocal part, so we were making pretty good sounds. Well, we were until June, our director, announced that we were going to work on Sweetheart Tree. What? I kind of knew that I had music for that tune, but hadn't done more than give it a quick once-over. Well, I did more than that last night and will be working on it this week so I'll do better with it next week.

What we were making good sounds on was the Armed Forces Medley. We got through the songs for the Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Air Force, as well as the Stars and Stripes excerpt that ends the medley.

So it was a good rehearsal. It would only have been better if we all actually knew our parts for the medley and the song. Maybe next week.