A Singing and Ice Cream Afternoon

Today we attended the third annual outdoor ice cream social and singing on the grounds out at Jerry and Sue Seal's lovely country cottage and flower garden. My guess is that there were at least forty folk (counting the kids) who came to visit, share goodies (all sweet and sugary) and ice cream, some of which was home-made. It is a wonderful time to visit and swap news and stories, and hopes and dreams, and meet a new person or two. I intended to take a few pictures to share, but got caught up in the visiting and treats and left the camera sitting all alone out in the car. Sorry!

Sue's yard was lovely and colorful with dozens of kinds of blooming flowers and shrubs. Jerry's hand at making the lawn and yard and vegetable garden look good was evident in the complete tidyness of the whole area. It's a big piece and it all was snazzed up real pretty and amazingly clean. Thanks guys for the loving effort.

Out came the "old songbooks" - Songs of the Church - in this case in green covers (much nicer and newer looking than my old set of loose maroon jackets). Alas, I seemed to be the only "songleader", but no one complained too loudly as we spent over an hour singing the favorite "good-ol'-songs" many of us grew up with so many years ago. Many of the selections were fun songs that were never quite usable in services, but which were the first and regular choices whenever anyone held a singing or a songfest at home. Maybe a couple of time a year a Sunday or Wednesday night would be used "to practice" singing, but we knew the music - we just needed a good reason to sing the songs we really liked to hear.

I think everyone today got to select something they enjoyed. We got stumped a time or two on songs we couldn't seem to get going - thanks, Dave - but that's OK. I used to be able to lead every song in the book we were using, but that was half a century ago. I'm a little rusty having not had to sightread the music for a long portion of eternity. In the long run, all types of songs were included, excepting perhaps the shorter "high church" hymns which sound pretty thin outdoors if not all four parts are equally balanced. What a treat it was. What a wonderful reminder of our a'capella character as a singing people who don't need pipe organs or drum-driven bands to make a joyful noise.

I had a great time and completely enjoyed the afternoon. Thanks to the Seals and to all who came and offered their support and voice to the songtime. Let's do it again soon.