Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: HARMONY (11/03/22)
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TITLE: All This Drama Over A Song? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mariane Holbrook
11/04/22 -
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I was spared a head dunking only because Mother appeared in the doorway and sighed. Putting on her best "no-nonsense" face, she addressed me. "There must be a billion songs you can sing while you're wiping the dishes besides, 'Oh, the cow kicked Nellie in the belly in the barn, but the farmer said it wouldn't do her any harm.' You harmonize so well on the songs you both like. Since you KNOW it annoys your sister, why do you insist on singing that one?"
I shrugged my bony shoulders and replied, "I dunno. It's a great song that Daddy taught me."
"Well, he should be ashamed of himself", Mother huffed and left the kitchen.
My sister was three years older than I was and took on the role of my mother when I was an infant. With five kids already in the family, Mother welcomed the extra help. My sister over time became my mentor, my protector, my tutor, my inspiration, my disciplinarian, my best friend, and my worst enemy. I loved her more than anyone but there were times when I would have swung at her with a 2 x 4 if I could have gotten away with it.
But she let me tag along when she visited her friends. She cared enough about me to take away my rights to her candy drawer when I received a bad report card. She let me accompany her on babysitting jobs, then shared her earnings with me. We slept together until she went to college, leaving me bereft.
We even sang duets at church and spent hours practicing my alto part. Our harmony was pretty good so why was there such disharmony in our home when I sang about a silly cow kicking poor Aunt Nellie? Okay. I hereby confess there were other occasions when she had reasons to chase me with a switch from the lilac bush in our side yard.
When she was 14 years old and I was 11, we were asked to sing a duet one Sunday night at our small church (back when churches held Sunday night services). She was tense because her boyfriend was sitting in the fourth row, waiting to hear her sing for the first time.
Why we chose that morose, melancholy hymn, I don't recall. Perhaps it was because we lived in an area where three small villages were bound together in what was known as "The Valley". We felt the lyrics were somehow related to our hometown. These were the lyrics:
WE ARE GOING DOWN THE VALLEY
We are going down the valley one by one,
With our faces toward the setting of the sun;
Down the valley where the mournful cypress grows,
Where the stream of death in silence onward flows.
Refrain:
We are going down the valley,
Going down the valley,
Going toward the setting of the sun;
We are going down the valley,
Going down the valley,
Going down the valley one by one.
(How could we have known that this song from our hymnal was only sung at funerals?)
We practiced every day for a week, concentrating on our harmony. On the night we sang, we were doing well until the second verse when my sister screeched a wrong note. She was so distraught that she stopped singing altogether, while I kept on singing alto alone. When I realized she was no longer singing, I did what I always do: I got outta Dodge. Dashing through the open side door on the platform into the pastor's office, I hid behind his desk, hoping for death or the Second Coming, whichever came first.
Someone in the congregation giggled. Then the pastor stood up and said, "Well, I think they did well, don't you? Let's all give them a big handclap".
What happened next is kind of a blur. All I remember is that when I finally arrived home, I was greeted at the front door by Mother, Daddy, and my sister. And 3 more long switches were missing from the lilac bush.
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