.THE START, of December
:.was the'signal for my heart’

to sink. when I was a novice -

school-naarm: It meant that -

Christmas:was just over, the...

top ‘of three weekends away -
“and what were our > plans for

i of all the oe8
ous entertainments, but a a

beyond: that. the ‘school concert was
nly

have Christmas, wasn’t it?

: There'd be a tree, though the
Christmas variety wasn't thick in
that scantily wooded part of the
North, and the children would *
make decorations with colored

= wnaper and paste, and some would -

*-bring special things from home. .
The inost of these people were

~. Scandinavian, used to hard living, |

>» ‘That made for, variety. because

and taught them to the children,

vintage sears -who taught them to the rest of us.» °°

One family, the Moes, had half a
- “dozen assorted children; all of

whom annually got into line on n the "

»,, dren, too, they looked forward all stage and sang their nstional :
the school: year to the Christraas: ’ anthezn.
concert =~ for one thing it meant a“), ‘This was an established part of

bag of candies. for sure, and getting _ every concert; And of, course *°:-":

‘they'd have to practise their part of .
the program every day, everyone fe

of fall those people and: not being
C because the, whole did; and after three years:of it we

all sounded. like authentic:

Finns and Galicians amongst them.

‘they brought their songs with them, ©

Sunday, December 10, 1995 - North Shore News - 38 :

Nort kas,

© To this day Sam likely to burst
inta “Yalvey alska detta londit,
some desteiger fram” when it

661 stood on the
» front of t the stage and |
_ wept, while they |
pulled the bedsheet

curtain i together. 9 )

“English. version, but. we figured it.
_-Was' praise for the homeland, and,
deeply felt. : Eat .
At the end of my fi rst concert,
in Sylvan Glade’s one room::
school, thirty miles from’ every-"
where, { stdod on the front of the: .
stage and wept, while they pulled.
the bed-sheet curtain together, Ie
was the worst entertainment I'd’.

“ever seen, and, I was’sure Md never :
Bet Over, ite. :

There was no, time 3) brood,
because now it was dancing time, ;
~'and the only tool'I had was my.
violin: There was in fact an ancient
“pump-organ in the school room,

’ but the mice had got in ‘and ‘eaten
all the felts. -.,

‘The dancing, :F have. to tell yo
"WAS no howling success either.
tried Turkey in the Straw, 1 tried
«Let Me Call You Sweetheart,

_ tried ate Bells, but'a lone fiddle