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Weekend Update

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Cosmo in the Tree

It’s that time of year. Between concert schedules, Christmas parties, and a frantic work schedule I haven’t been able to post much. I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks off for winter break to catch my breath a bit. Here’s a quick update on what’s been happening, though…

Greenville Chorale

We did our Christmas Concert this year at McAlister Auditorium on the Furman campus. The concert last Friday night was well-attended. The music was more challenging than we had anticipated. We did Paul Patterson’s Magnificat, in addition to our standard fare of carols, etc. The Magnificat had difficult rhythms and strange jazz harmonies that didn’t resolve as expected. However, we made it through, and I’m sure the audience had no indication of the difficulties we had.

The Chamber Ensemble was asked to promote the concert on the local Fox TV station. We appeared on air Friday morning as part of the Fox Rocks segment. An octect from the group recorded in a fantastic new studio on Augusta Road, and we got some great audio tracks. Even though we recorded four songs, only about fifteen seconds actually aired. Here’s a link to a full song that they put on their website.

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Bearing the Pall

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Miscellaneous, Uncategorized

“What do you think they’ll have?”

“I think you could guess just as easily as I could”

  • fried chicken
  • sliced ham
  • green beans
  • macaroni & cheese
  • corn
  • biscuits
  • potato salad
  • deviled eggs
  • congealed salad – multiple varieties, but at least one green and one pink
  • banana pudding

And, yes, my sister and I nailed it. The menu was exactly as predicted. And it was comforting and tasty – just as funeral food is meant to be.

funeral food

But, backing up a bit…

Thursday evening I got a call from my father that my Uncle Raymond Johnson passed away after a prolonged illness. Uncle Raymond was 93, and was a quiet, peaceful man who lived his entire life in the town of Calhoun Falls. Uncle Raymond had married my father’s oldest sister, Mary, who had passed away several years ago. They had one son, Sherwin, who still lives in the area. The funeral was Saturday, so I picked up my sister, Glynda. then my parents for the drive down to Calhoun Falls.

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Two Disc Golf Courses in Two Weeks

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After nearly a year of being out of the game, I’ve had the privilege of playing two different disc golf courses on consecutive Saturday mornings.  While both experiences were a blast and made me want to get back to this regularly, both let me know how much had happened with the state of disc golf in the Upstate in the past year.

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Election Eve – 132 years ago

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Election Eve – 132 years ago
History and Genealogy, Local, Uncategorized

I’ve been re-reading Dr. A. V. Huff’s “Greenville: The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont.” I’ve just come to the portion about the “Redemption Campaign” of 1876, and was struck by the ironies and similarities with our current election. We may think the Obama-McCain contest has been ugly, but it … Read More “Election Eve – 132 years ago” »

Scenes from a Southern Funeral

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Scenes from a Southern Funeral
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Funeral-of-John-Lafayette-Smith

(Photo – Funeral of John Lafayette Smith, my great-grandfather)

This past week the father of a friend of mine passed away. I had known the family for ages, and I now work in the same office as my friend’s wife. I attended the funeral both as a long-term friend and a representative of his wife’s employer.

I wasn’t sure I should go. I had lost touch with this friend for over twenty years until his wife started working in our office. While I knew his family, I hadn’t been in touch in most of that time. Then I remembered one of my favorite essays from the This I Believe series on NPR. Deirdre Sullivan’s essay was entitled “Always Go to the Funeral,” and is summed up nicely in these excerpts…

“Always go to the funeral” means that I have to do the right thing when I really, really don’t feel like it. I have to remind myself of it when I could make some small gesture, but I don’t really have to and I definitely don’t want to. I’m talking about those things that represent only inconvenience to me, but the world to the other guy. You know, the painfully under-attended birthday party. The hospital visit during happy hour. The Shiva call for one of my ex’s uncles. In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.

In going to funerals, I’ve come to believe that while I wait to make a grand heroic gesture, I should just stick to the small inconveniences that let me share in life’s inevitable, occasional calamity.

The funeral took place in a rural Baptist church that was founded in 1806. The family received friends and guests before the service, so a line had formed outside the church. To combat the heat while waiting, the funeral home staff passed out fans and bottles of water.

With the long line, it took awhile to get to the family. My friends seemed truly grateful that I was there, and that made it worth the visit, regardless of anything else that might happen. Since my friend is a Baptist minister, he took part in the service itself. I was amazed at his composure, and ability to speak eloquently at his own father’s funeral. As with most evangelical churches in the South, not only were there comments about the life of faith just concluded, but concerns expressed for those in the congregation who might have strayed from that path.

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