Something I Wish Had When Teaching

The Ballad of Baby Doe

Always through the changing of sun and shadow, time and space,
I will walk beside my love in a green and quiet place.
Proof against the forms of fear, No distress shall alter me.
I will walk beside my dear, clad in love's bright heraldry.
Sound the battle's loud alarms, Any foe I shall withstand.
In the circle of his arms I am safe in Beulah Land.
Passion fades when joy is spent, Lust is lure for gold and crime,
Beauty's kiss is transient, Love alone is fixed in time.

Death cannot divide my love, All we sealed with living vows.
Warm I'll sleep beside my love in a cold and narrow house.
Never shall the mourning dove weep for us in accents wild.
I shall walk beside my love, who is husband, father, child.
As our earthly eyes grow dim, still the old song will be sung.
I shall change along with him, so that both are ever young.

The Ballad of Baby Doe, by Douglas Moore and John Latouch (1956)

My 30 Year Singing Career

If one is considered to be a professional once they are paid for their services, then I made my "professional debut" at age 11 when I began touring through Connecticut with a troupe of Irish dancers.  No, I didn't dance (and don't ask me).  My job was to give the dancers a break while I sang a set of Irish songs and later in the program a set of Broadway tunes.  God, can you imagine an eleven year old singing "Climb Every Mountain" or "You'll Never Walk Alone" along with several other inappropriate  selections?  How obnoxious I must have been!  I continued performing for close to thirty years until I felt that public school teaching, along with the lack of consistent practicing (if practice doesn't make "perfect" it certainly makes "better"), was beginning to take a toll on the reliability of my voice. What I could easily do in my 20s and 30s was becoming more difficult and I knew that I couldn't do both well much longer. It just seemed that when I was in the mood to practice I didn't have the time and when I had the time I wasn't in the mood. The decision to stop singing came in the middle of a recital which was going quite well.  I had peaked and it was only a matter of time, in my opinion, that my voice would begin to decline.  Why not just end with this recital while I'm on top?  With the exception of a wedding commitment I had a couple weeks later, I cleared my calendar of future engagements and "turned off the pipes" for good.    Shown below is a scene from  my  junior high school musical in 1967 at Our Lady of Victory School in West Haven.  I have no memory of the name of the show or any of the music but I'll never forget my character's name:  Herr Sforzando . . . an eccentric opera singer.