Roukos Live: A Night at Old BC

Two days before Thanksgiving, Lawson stopped me in the hallway and said, "I need to let you know that am singing in the Christmas concert next weekend--December 8th."

"Hold on a minute," I replied before I went into the bathroom to clean out my ears.  When I returned, I said, "Now what did you say?"

"I'm singing in the Christmas concert next weekend at the cathedral."

So I had heard correctly.

"You?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Music is going to come out of your mouth?" The last time Lawson sang was--well, I've never heard Lawson sing. In church, Lawson stands during the hymns, patiently listening until the music stops. Here's a picture of Lawson singing:

"Yes," he said. "Believe it or not."

"What provoked you to sign up to sing in the Christmas concert?" There had to be more to his decision than holiday spirit.

"I need extra credit for my biology class."

That's when I stopped asking questions. Instead, I put December 8th on my calendar and looked forward to Lawson's musical debut.

In the week that followed, Lawson went to school, attended lacrosse practice afterward, and did his homework. Never did he mention choral rehearsals. When I asked if he'd practiced that day with Father Ronald, the answer was always no. I asked him, "What are you going to sing?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I guess I'll find out when I get there."

I thought, This ought to be good. "What time do you have to be at the cathedral Sunday?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "I think around 7:00 that morning."

"So you're singing at the 8:00 Mass?"

"No, it's a Christmas concert."

"I think you need to call Mills and find out when you should be there." Mills always has the answer.

"I'm pretty sure it's 7:00."

"Call Mills."

"Mom, I know what I'm talking about."

"Call."

So Lawson called. No, I take that back. He texted. "Mills says we have to be there at 5:00 pm. The concert's at 7:00."

That sounded more like it.

So after a weekend of crossing the state for BC's game in the GHSA AA semifinals and a Lawson family reunion, my son and I ventured downtown for a night of Christmas hymns. Stephen opted out. He wasn't interested in waiting two hours for a concert when football was on TV.  "Besides," he said, "he hasn't practiced a bit for this thing. I don't want to go listen to that."

I couldn't argue with his logic, but I just had to see Lawson performing live. It might be my only chance.

So in the two-hour space between arrival and curtain time, I walked downtown's Broughton Street with Carmen, mother of Mills. Then we found seats near the front of the sanctuary for the big performance.

First of all, the cadets filed in, seniors first, in order of rank, and they looked so distinguished in their Class A uniforms.

And the cathedral itself is beautiful, as you can see from the photo above, so the ambience alone made the evening worth it. The concert included musical selections on the organ, a few songs by a soloist, and some carols by a local barbershop quartet. But the BC boys sang most of the songs. Some selections featured the BC chorus alone, and then others included additional boys from the religious studies classes (and, I suppose, the biology classes).

Still skeptical, I envisioned Lawson mouthing the word watermelon through every hymn, but he surprised me. If he was faking it, he did a pretty good job, but I dare say the boy was actually singing!

To the left of Lawson is Mills. And to the left of Mills is Harrison Hughes. All three boys sang like adolescent angels. And then there was the kid to the right. He was having none of it, which made me wonder why he showed up at all. Look at how he didn't even bother to read the music. I wanted to sneak up to the front of the church and whisper, "Just mouth the words elephant shoes," but I thought I'd be too conspicuous. So there he stood, waiting patiently for the concert to be over. I wonder if he's going to get extra credit in biology for standing there.

Was it the Mormon Tabernacle choir? No. But still, the concert got me in the Christmas spirit, and I got to see Lawson sing. Few people will be able to say the same.

Check out the video of the live performance on YouTube!

Football, the Farm, and Family--Otherwise Known as a Big Weekend

As I type this post on a Sunday morning, I look back on the last 48 hours and wonder at how they zoomed by so fast--almost as fast as a thousand folks from Savannah (the Remlers included) zoomed up I-16 to Barnesville Friday afternoon. For that's how the weekend started--with a  mass road trip to watch the Benedictine Cadets take on the Lamar County Trojans for the GHSA AA semifinal football playoffs. The winner of that match would compete for the state title on December 14th at the Georgia Dome, and BC fans across Chatham County trekked across the state to cheer the team on.

We group text messages spoke of our anticipation as Buttimers, Remlers, Kings, and Lowenthals kept track of their progress:

• "The rest stop in Laurens County is clean."
• "We're in Twiggs County."
• "Where can we eat dinner in Barnesville?"
• "We're ordering pizza to take to the stadium."
• "We stopped at Five Guys in Macon."
• "We're already at the game. Stands are filling up!"

The Remlers had a quick bite at Subway before heading over to the athletic complex to find a parking space. And boy, were we glad the Buttimers warned us of the fast-growing crowd on the visitors' side of the field. It's an odd experience driving four hours away from home and then running into everybody you know. We arrived an hour and a half before the game (good idea because still we had to look for seats), and there we found the Buttimers, Thompsons, Bergmans, the Sharpleys, the Stricklands, the Mahoneys, and the Saunders. The Kings and the Lowenthals showed up shortly after that. We sat with the Irelands, and behind us was Deb Antosca, BC's principal. It was a social event rivaling the St. Patrick's Day parade. By the time game time approached Savannahians in maroon and gray were creeping up the bleachers looking for places to sit down.

"I've got one seat next to me," I called to someone in the aisle.
"I need three," he replied, holding up as many fingers.
"Well, I've got one here."
"But I've got me, my wife, and my dad," he persisted.
"Wait, let me check," I said before turning to peer and the six inches of empty metal bench to  my left. "Nope," I replied. "It's still just one seat."
He moved on.

At kickoff, the field was surrounded by spectators from both sides, their only option to watch the game on their feet.

And the noise! I don't know where I've been to miss this nice little trick, but it never occurred to me to put coins in a milk jug to make noise. I can just imagine people all over Chatham and Lamar Counties chugging down their 2% Borden so they could make what has to be the most obnoxious noise maker in football history. Those who really planned ahead showed up with cow bells. When the Cadets had the ball, the visitors' side of the stadium sounded like a stampede of dairy cows on their way to the feed trough. And when the Trojans had the ball, the stands across the field looked like the spectators were shaking white balloons.

Both teams played hard, and they played well. That was a nail biter of a match. In fact, I watched every moment of that game closer than I've watched any Georgia game in Sanford Stadium. But at the end of the game, Lamar County scored a field goal in the last two seconds, and the contest ended with a score of 10-7. That was BC's toughest game yet, and while they could have hung their heads and slunk back to the locker room, they gathered together in front of the crowd and sang the school fight song, which I thought was pretty good sportsmanship.

As the crowd milled out of the stands and back to the parking lot, I listened to commentary about the play. "They should have seen that fake field goal coming." "They gave it up at the end." "They just didn't play to win."

I said nothing, but I couldn't help feeling a little frustrated. It's really easy to sit on our fat butts in the stands, chomping on boiled peanuts and snuggling up in our BC maroon blankets and then say our boys didn't play to win. I might be a voice alone here, but this is the way I see it:

Those boys are only fifteen to seventeen years old. Ever since they got out of school last May, they have been on that field practicing, even in 100 degree heat. And when school started again, they were still on that field after school Monday through Thursday, practicing so that when they got home they could hardly hold up their heads to do their homework. They've played football every Friday night for the past fourteen weeks, accruing a record better than any BC team in history--thirteen games in a row. Looks to me they did play to win. They played their hearts out. They just didn't win Friday night.

And that's fine with me because even though they won't be playing in the dome next Saturday, they can finally take a break and they can spend a few months not risking injury for our entertainment. When those Cadets went home Friday night, I hope they did so knowing that that crowd of about 1500 in the Lamar County Stadium was a testament to how proud everyone is of them. They had a great season.

Family Fun at the Farm

With football season officially over, the Remlers drove down Highway 341 to Hawkinsville, where we spend the night at the camp house.

The next day, the extended Lawson family gathered at Rena and Johnny's camp house for the annual Lawson Christmas reunion. We ate good food, shared photos from the year's events, caught up on what's going on with our families, fished, played, and generally had a good time. I picked up the following news and interesting facts about my relatives yesterday:

• Dawn Taylor is a baby fanatic, and mothers everywhere have to keep close eyes on their little ones when Dawn is around. Fortunately, twins Stella and John Peterson allowed her to get her baby fix.
• Stella and John know how to walk but got few opportunities to do so because of relatives scooping them up and planting kisses on their heads.
• Asher Lawson and Jean Peterson are pretty sharp anglers. Unfortunately, Jean was not quite ready to hang up her pole when it was time to go home.
• Even though Helen Revell is the same age as Davis, it came as a bit of a shock to learn she's already in college.
• In a few months, Lawson Remler will have a cousin with the same first name.
• Bops, Nan, Harriet, and several other relatives share my gross enthusiasm for watching gruesome medical videos.
• Rena and I have been reading the same books and didn't even know it.
• Susan and Sammy have recently returned from a wonderful trip to Italy. 
• Greg McKenzie (the younger) is a sophomore in high school, even though he looks like a senior and presents himself like a college graduate. He did not play football this year, but really enjoyed running cross country.
• Sydney and Gretchen have gotten sewing machines, and I am already planning a sewing camp where we can make some fancy pants!
• Jane Revell brought her friend Matt Oliver to the reunion. He's a resident at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, so maybe we'll get to see more of Jane when she comes to Savannah for a visit.

Every year we have this reunion I leave it resolving to keep up with my relatives more closely in the next calendar year. I did the same thing yesterday, and I think that will be my new year's resolution. We're too fun of a group to only see each other in December.

Thanksgiving: Yes, It Was Blogworthy

While sitting by the campfire Friday night, sister in-law Betsy Hunsicker asked about the Thanksgiving weekend in Hawkinsville: Was it blogworthy?

Few Thanksgivings aren't.

And several T-Day elements made this holiday worthy of online posts:

The Prodigal Son: We haven't seen Davis Remler since August, so it was great to have him back in the house for the week. Even Lawson was glad to see him. That arrival alone was worthy of an online announcement, but there was much more.

The Hunting:  Davis, Ben, and Lawson spend much of their time out at the farm stalking deer, hogs, squirrels, ducks, pretty much anything on four feet or on the wing. Although Davis and Lawson had no luck, Ben came home with a cooler full of duck breast and venison. All I can say is I'm jealous. I wish Davis hadn't hunted the whole time with a cross bow because he saw a twelve-point buck that could have been dinner from here until July 4th, but because he didn't have a gun, the stag got away.

I've had some requests to refrain from publishing photographs of dead wildlife on the Remlerville blog, so out of respect for those readers, the following image has been doctored up:

The Good Food:  Our crowd easily eats its way through two turkeys: one smoked and one fried. It's hard to decide which one is better, so to avoid the confusion, we simply eat our way through dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, spinach casserole, fresh-baked bread, ambrosia, and lots of assorted desserts. And after all that, nobody really cares which turkey was better. Nobody starves to death at this family gathering.

The Birthdays:  In addition to giving thanks for all our blessings, several relatives made wishes on birthday candles this weekend: Hannah Taylor turned 14; Laken Hunsicker turned--wait a minute--is it 17? I think it's 17. And Ben Remler turned 23.

Nieces and Nephews:  It's always fun when cousins can get together and play, and it's also fun to see how much all the nieces and nephews have grown. I think Lawson wins the prize in the growth category, but Courtney wins the prize in the survival of the first semester category, and Garrison wins the prize for cuteness. Sydney the beauty queen is always Miss Congeniality, while Gretchen wins the Grand Marshal award, while Jackson won Fishapalooza. Asher wins the award for best fishing hat, while Annie and Charlie earn recognition for coming the greatest distance. Elizabeth wins the prize for the best story about an encounter with a state patrolman.

The Good Fires: The Lawson clan can't survive the weekend without burning something, and we had a fire going all weekend. The pinnacle of the occasion is the Friday night wienie roast, where scores of frankfurters and marshmallows bite the dust for the pleasure of our tastebuds. By the time the evening's over, everybody smells like smoke.

The Fantastic Football: So that Davis could make it to his plane on time, the Remlers had to depart after that wienie roast and head back to Savannah. One drawback of the weekend was that we missed the playoff football game between BC and Calhoun High School. Fortunately, we listened to it on the way home, so we heard the Cadets put a hurting on their opponents. It certainly was Black Friday for the Calhoun Yellow Jackets. 

But those weren't the only yellow jackets that got stung over the weekend. How 'bout them Dawgs, coming back in the second half to beat Tech in double overtime? We heard that splendid outcome on the radio as well.

A Comfortable Trip Home: And even though Davis wasn't especially excited about making the trip back to the cold state of New York, Delta made his trip a little more bearable by upgrading his ticket to first class. Again, a little jealous. Delta's never upgraded me to anything other than the exit row. I asked Davis if the flight attendant brought him a shrimp cocktail. He said no, but that his seat was mighty comfy.

Good way to end the holiday.

So, yes, Betsy. The holiday was blogworthy, and we're glad you contributed to its success. We hope you and your family (often simply referred to as "and them") have a comfy flight home too--one more blessing to be thankful for.