This Christmas and holiday season for me involved attending several special Christmas and holiday programs as I normally like to do, and I did not have to spend a dime to see any of them.
Actually, that was my goal. To me, it is great that a city like Chattanooga has so many opportunities to see great holiday music in nice settings for free, even though I did make small voluntary contributions while at several of them.
I saw the Chattanooga Music Club and the Scenic City Chorale perform on a couple of mid-Sunday afternoons at the pretty First Cumberland Presbyterian Church off Moore Road in Brainerd and loved them both, and I also attended the Roueche Chorale at the also-attractive Brainerd United Methodist Church on a Friday night.
I also dropped by and saw Steven Richardson Severin play the organ during one of the three Wednesday noon Advent concerts at historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church downtown.
And someone kindly gave my wife, Laura, and me free tickets to see the Christmas-themed presentation of the one-man play about author and late-in-life Christian C.S. Lewis last Sunday afternoon in the Walker Theatre inside Memorial Auditorium. I enjoyed that as well, even though the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera was also having a program in the main Memorial Auditorium at about the same time, creating a few lines in this era of going through airport-like security seemingly everywhere.
They were all great, but I particularly enjoyed the first two at First Cumberland Presbyterian because the large sanctuary each time was only about half to two-thirds full and I could relaxingly sit back and hear quality music.
The Music Club one, however, was in mid-November, and I by nature and years of habit do not like to get into Christmas mode until the Friday after Thanksgiving, even if a radio station or two or a few retailers want me to do otherwise. Of course, scheduling and location might have been an issue for the group, so that is understandable.
The organ concert at St. Paul’s was also great, even though I by personal preference prefer singers or those who play other instruments. Also enjoyable was the small soup or chili lunch they always have with tasty cornbread and brownies and sweet tea! Since I am not a member, the latter involves taking myself out of my comfort level and meeting communicants and non-members during the dining, but that enriches the experience.
It also reminds me of when this Methodist used to attend the Friday Bach’s Lunch noon Advent concerts at Grace Episcopal Church in Brainerd with my late mother, Velma Shearer, before they were discontinued.
I always enjoy the St. Paul’s events overall, but it seems like I always have conflicts on those Wednesdays in December and am lucky if I can get to one of them.
The Roueche concert under conductor and East Ridge High graduate Jeffrey Roueche was also great and really had quality musicians and singers in its Lessons and Carols presentation. Laura and I attended that on a Friday night after it had already presented the same concert on Thursday, but it was still a packed house like Christmas Eve services are at many churches.
As someone who suffers from slight claustrophobia and other anxiety issues, that was a little less comfortable for me than the other concerts, although I did manage to sit near my preferred place in the back.
It was great and the music was wonderful, but I was wondering if maybe it could be shortened or rearranged slightly. The program actually had songs in the Lessons and Carols section that closely matched the words of the Biblical passages narrated by well-trained readers, including beloved Chattanooga TV institution Marcia Kling, and then some familiar carols after all that. We also lit candles to “Silent Night” and heard some Jewish and Hebrew words and a Shofar horn in a nice nod to inclusivity.
For some on a cold winter night, that might have been a lot, but I guess it is better for a quality program to be too long than too short. Mr. Roueche obviously has rare gifts, and it showed.
I also enjoyed attending the Bright School holiday tree lighting ceremony at the school in early December and listening to the young choir and hand bell group. I was impressed at how skilled both were, even though just getting the experience of playing or singing publicly is obviously more important than how well they perform.
The school is kind to invite alumni like me to come to the outdoor event in the quadrangle and receive a candy cane, and I went for the first time. You also speak into the microphone saying what year you graduated, and I proudly announced that I had graduated from the sixth grade way back in 1972. And believe it or not, I was not the oldest graduate, as another person there had graduated in 1969. All in all, the evening had a nice sense of community amid the holiday season, and I was glad I attended.
I would have loved to also attend one of the school choir or band concerts at Christmas at the Courthouse as I have done in the past, but I can never find a schedule for them online. That is also a great setting inside the rotunda area of the beautiful and historic court building and contrasts nicely with the more serious and somber matters normally taking place inside the walls.
And hats off to Courthouse officials for having a nice holiday tree out on the lawn and for its normal decorations on the pretty outside walls of the R.H. Hunt-designed structure. I just realized this holiday season that a lot of places downtown did not have decorations up.
I noticed that the beautiful plaza area of the Unum building facing the courthouse did not have any holiday adornments up when I was there about 10 days before Christmas, and it would have been a great place to have a winter wonderland of lights.
A lot of churches were also not heavily adorned on the outside. That included my church, First-Centenary United Methodist, even though it did have a nice adornment on an outside cross and was nicely decorated inside. It was also where I enjoyed some additional nice Christmas music on Dec. 22 and Christmas Eve.
But obvious hats off, of course, to the EPB officials for the creative way they decorate their windows every year and draw lots of people, including on a cold Friday night when I was there.
And I love the new tradition of the holiday trees decorated by different groups and displayed in Miller Park in a project sponsored by the Better Business Bureau and other groups. I believe this is the second year, and I could tell more trees were there this year. It was fun walking through and looking at them on a cold night. I especially enjoyed seeing all the young children with their families get excited, and it reminded me to stay happy and optimistic and avoid becoming a cynical and grumpy 65 year old.
Maybe other parts of downtown Chattanooga in the future can follow the leads of those that went all out, but without being too over the top as sometimes happens in residential neighborhoods.
And while we are at it, maybe Chattanooga can come up with a creative item to drop during the countdown if it ever starts consistently having a regular New Year’s Eve centralized gathering. How about a giant Moonpie or Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll?
I have always wondered if New Year’s would be as enjoyable for people if we did not have that beautiful and sentimental old song, “Auld Lang Syne,” to help ring in the new year. I love the tune and don’t get tired of hearing it regularly for about a week this time of year.
A couple of other traditions during the holiday season involve, of course, watching all the college football bowl games. And now we have all the playoff games, too. Tennessee fans are still disappointed with the showing against a good Ohio State team obviously quite determined after its loss to rival Michigan and wanting to defend the home stadium on the cold night.
Probably a little less under the football radar for local fans was the fact that Arkansas State beat Bowling Green in the 68 Ventures Bowl on Dec. 26 to finish 8-5. That is significant locally because Arkansas State’s coach is Butch Jones, who of course resigned as Tennessee’s coach during the 2017 season. And he appears to have the team headed in the right direction. And who knows if he can get back into coaching a higher-profile program like he did at Tennessee, if he so desires.
I know Vol fans soured on him as much for his cliches and maybe even haircut as for his won-loss record that seemed to be heading in the right direction midway through the 2016 season. But I always like to see when coaches get a second chance to redeem themselves.
Dave Clawson also righted himself after getting much of the blame in 2008 as the Vols struggled under his watch as offensive coordinator and Phil Fulmer was fired. Coach Clawson went on to lead Bowling Green and Wake Forest to several respectable seasons as head coach before stepping down after this year and two disappointing seasons with the Demon Deacons.
And, of course, who would have thought recently deceased former Vol head coach Bill Battle would become such a successful businessman in the collegiate licensing realm after having to resign in 1976 and appearing to be heading to anonymity?
Second chances in life are great, aren’t they!
A more humdrum and inconspicuous aspect of the holidays is having to take care of our leaves for those of us with trees in our yards or in our next-door neighbors’. Although raking leaves is normally associated more with Thanksgiving or early December, for some reason this year they seemed to all fall about 10 days later than normal, so I have been taking care of our yard in that realm just in recent days.
I have done this partially for several years, but this year I opted to experiment and see if I could mulch all our leaves rather than have to rake them into piles and place them along the edge of the front yard for the city of Chattanooga crews.
We have a lot of leaves, especially in our backyard that slopes down, and I actually started in November mulching a few while they were just beginning to fall. This also involved raking them off our driveways and patio into the yard before cranking up our older push mower.
I actually enjoyed it and found it easier and quicker than meticulously raking them. I understand it is also better for your grass and soil to be replenished with decaying nutrients.
The only drawbacks were that I did have to crank up a loud gas mower full of smelly exhaust fumes, and it was hard to mow on rainy or very cold days this time of year.
But late this week I had finished about 90 percent of my mulch mowing in only about a third the amount of time it has taken me in the past to rake them together, pick them up with my tarp, and haul them out to the front to wait often days for them to be picked up.
As a result, I will probably keep disposing of my leaves that way as long as I am able to traverse our hilly front and back yard.
Of course, I could not hear myself hum my favorite Christmas carols or “Auld Lang Syne” amid the humming of the mower.
But the nice ones I had heard at the various concerts in recent weeks were still quite audible in my mind as I worked away!
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net