Memoirous

“Sleigh Ride” 1948 Composer Leroy Anderson Lyricist Mitchell Parish Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy and cozy are we We’re snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be Let’s take the road before us and sing a chorus or two Come on, it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you I thought about this song a few days ago while out on a walk with my grandson. You see, he was just having his first realization of “Snow Day.” Meaning, no school. A heavy snow had fallen and then a light rain, then a temperature drop. All this meant that the school district cancelled classes—thus, his nursery school followed suit. His sense of time and what it means has been getting more and more honed. The other day he said you know what today is? I said Wednesday. And he said, Winter. He’s beginning to understand the seasons, the divisions of time, how the day and seasons break down, what these sections are called. Out on a walk to do errands we went to ...

Another Christmas memory . . .  O Holy Night is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians). I remember it as the finale to the Christmas Eve program at the Presbyterian church we attended in Kettering. It can be a long night until the next morning to hold off on opening presents. At least the car ride and time at church filled those tense, anxious hours. O Holy Night seems to be the perfect vehicle for a soloist, and, indeed, the woman who sang it annually was a trained professional, the daughter of one of the congregants, who came down from New York City. I remember one snowy Christmas in particular when there was speculation whether she would make it in time. Yet, always, in the end she rose up from the robed choir to take her place at the podium. The lights in the church were dimmed, lit mainly by the Advent candles, all of them now burning. The coughing and fidgeting ceased—in expectation. Or...