May the merry bells keep ringing

Christmas week has arrived and here at the Signal American we’ve taken in almost every holiday program and festivity available in the area over the past five to six weeks.

 Starting early with the Art Show and Sale, then taking in the beautifully decorated trees at Weiser Memorial Hospital’s Festival of Trees was just the beginning.

 Weiser High School choir and band concerts, the Upper Country Singers ringing in the season, and Weiser’s All Church Cantata, filled with so much of our community’s wonderful humanity was exceptional.

 And, for me, there’s nothing like the excitement of the Pioneer and Park school students’ Christmas programs every December. 

 I had the pleasure of being the fifth grade music teacher at Park School for a few years. With that, I was the only one who had raised their hand when the job had come open. It amounted to two and a-half hours a week, spread over three days, so that might have contributed to the low turnout of applicants. Fortunately, I was also substituting for classroom teachers at the time, so it fit nicely together. And, later, I got to move into a part time position in Park’s office, that included assisting in classrooms as needed. 

 The best part of it, at least for me, was my own grandkids were filtering through Park School during those years, so as they came along, they got to help pick out some of the program songs. Kids are so fun in that 8 to 11 age range. 

 The annual performances were something my classes started working on pretty early in the school year, and I’ll admit the first one was where I took home the valuable lesson of “less is more.”

 Besides the pleasure of getting to watch my own grandchildren growing through their couple of years in intermediate school, I realized a lot of friendships with the community’s kids were being made. It’s been five years since my last program, so the 2019 group of singers are now sophomores. Seeing them now as young men and women making their way through high school and watching them as they get ready to move into the next phase of their lives is a huge pleasure.

 Celebrating my 74th Christmas this year, it has occurred to me that I’ve never spent a Christmas anywhere other than in Weiser. There are sweet memories of snow covered streets, and the look of snowflakes falling under the town’s street lights as our folks would take us for a drive at least once during December, just to see other people’s trees decorated and displayed in their living room windows.

 Other memories hold long drives across Oregon, coming home for the winter break from college in Eugene; our first few Christmases after we were married; and the fun of watching our children grow each year. It didn’t take too many years for me to finally understand what my Dad meant when he would say, “I can’t figure out where the last 20 years have gone.”

 Well, with all of this meandering, we at the Signal American wish our entire community the very best and brightest holiday season. Fill it up with tender and sweet moments that will be precious memories with all of those you love and hold dear.