Someone in my writer’s group suggested we listen to “Oh Happy Day” every day to keep things
in perspective; to keep a positive attitude.
Times are hard between the pandemic and the current political
climate, but they could be worse. Things could always be worse.
I listened to the song that day and then remembered a three-CD
gospel choir set I had, which I unearthed and put in the car. Not only did I
listen to “Oh Happy Day” (uplifting), but also to “Nobody Knows, Nobody Cares”
(same idea as “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” – and they don’t really need
to), “His Eye is on the Sparrow” (I’m not alone), and “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”
(obscure words but super-catchy song). These are the gospel versions of these songs,
not the hymnal versions (if these songs even exist in the hymnals of any church
I ever went to, and I am not sure that they do). It reminded me how much I LIKE
gospel music, or “spirituals,” which have uplifting musical messages.
Then I remembered Glee Club.
When I was in second grade at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary
School in Providence, Rhode Island, one day I was plucked out of class and
brought to the auditorium for Glee Club. I don’t remember signing up for this
or why anyone thought I should sing. I guess it was a privilege? I was studious
and an advanced reader so maybe I didn’t need to spend as much time in class? I
don’t know. (I do remember taking extra workbooks home for my brother and me
and writing potty words to fill in blanks, like nonsense mad-libs. We cracked
ourselves up and no doubt drove our mother nuts, but that is a story for
another day.)
We had moved to a first-floor apartment in a triple-decker
in Providence after living in a 3,000-plus square foot single-family home in
Newport, off Bellevue Avenue when my parents divorced (because my mom thought
she needed to go back to college to finish her degree at University of Rhode
Island and probably other reasons that I can only surmise because I was only
just turning seven when we moved).
It was devastating, to say the least. We were plunged into
poverty. I used to get free hot lunch back in the day when everyone knew you got
free hot lunch because they’d call you to the office to get your free lunch
token.
As I recall, Glee Club was a bunch of kids singing happy
songs at the tops of their lungs – like loud and joyfully. It was not at all
like the chorus that my kids experienced in elementary (and middle school, for
the one who didn’t pick up an instrument to escape chorus) where many of the
kids mumble or even mouth the words, and God forbid should they emote at all in
any way, though there were the occasional outliers and the elementary school my
kids attended had a pretty good music program.
It was Glee Club where I learned about spirituals. We sang “Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Down by the Riverside” and something about Mary and
Martha that I can’t remember.
I realize today that these are religious songs. I don’t
think there’s any way these songs would fly in a public elementary school nowadays.
(And because I grew up Unitarian, I likely would not have heard them.)
My kids said the Pledge of Allegiance and at least one of
them stepped out into the hallway after morning message to sing patriotic
songs, which included, “God Bless America” and yes, this was within the past 10
years. But blatantly religious songs like the ones we sang in Glee Club would
not be politically correct today. I imagine perhaps they were touted as
American folksongs, which they are. And if it weren’t for “Down by the Riverside,”
I would not have a ready example to teach my sons about the correct use of “lay”
vs. “lie.”
(“Basically, boys, it’s lie, lie, lie. Never say ‘lay’
unless you’re going to lay down your sword and shield. You can lie down to take
a nap, and you lay your head on the pillow.”)
It has been during the pandemic and the current political climate
that I have really been missing church.
There are many reasons we’re not currently going: our pastor
retired and it’s just not the same, hockey and roller derby are on Sundays, and
then there’s the pandemic itself. No one is congregating.
I’m thinking when it’s time to go back, I am going to find a
church with a “glee club.”