Music and our family

As we were driving home from Cedar Rapids last night from a music festival that William was in, I was thinking how music has been – and still is such a big part of not only our family, but also of Daryl’s family growing up. I watched Daryl’s parents 50th anniversary tape the other night, and it was so cool to see what their family did for the music. Daryl, his brother, and his sister-in-law sang for the mass, his brother played the piano, his sister played the organ, and his nephews played the trumpets at the end of the mass.  So you can safely say that with that much emphasis on music in his home growing up, we would also have it when we had our family.

I wished that I kept track of all the music concerts, plays, contests, funerals and weddings that someone from our family was either singing at or played for.  I think I would have quite a list!  The list would start when Daryl and I were just dating. He was in community theater group and one of the first shows that he was in was the musical ‘The Music Man’. I would go and watch him until all hours of the night for play practice and then drive back to Decorah to go to work the next day. To be honest, I think I just sat in the back by myself and watched him – Wow, the power of dating huh? For our wedding, Daryl sang to me during the Mass and he also sang quite a bit just around the house those first years. Then the boys came along and they started singing and playing instruments as well. The one story that kind of tells how our house was when the kids were growing up was when my sister-in-law was at our farm and we were talking outside. She looked at me and asked if I had the radio on outside? When I said no, but then noticed one of the boys coming up the road with the riding lawn mower (they would mow Daryl’s mom’s lawn in town) I knew what she was hearing. Kyle would always sing when he was outside, and this time he was singing so loud that it you could hear him coming down the road. (I guess it was the making of a loud strong voice)

Now that we’re ending our time at the Public High School and soon William will be off at college, one of the things that he’s planning on doing is joining the college choir. Kyle was in his college choir and he really enjoyed it. He traveled not only in the states singing, but gave him his first chance to go to China to sing. I’m really glad that William is planning on continuing with choir after High School. I think that if you enjoy it now, it’s something that you can enjoy forever.The reason that I say this is because Kyle has been out of college for a couple of years now and he’s still very active in the music world. He’s been able to sing for the President of South Korea, the British Chamber of Commerce, he’s been in a couple of musicals in Seoul, and also teaches music to the elementary children in South Korea. Daryl continues to sing at weddings and is part of a local music group called Fusion. And for me? The truth about me is that I just plain stink at any music. I was never good, nor do I claim to be. To say how bad I am, we have to talk about my Jr. High days in school. We had around 147 kids in our class and not everyone could be in choir. So we had tryouts. There were two kids who didn’t get in. You guessed it – one of my best friends and me! So when William is in Europe next summer traveling with the Iowa Ambassadors Vocal group, I’m thinking he’s very greatfull that he was able to take after his dad and not me on this one!

Daryl and William singing at our High School together at Christmas

The Camarata Chamber Singers performing at the British Chamber Commerce in South Korea

Kyle in South Korea with his kids at their Christmas Concert