Friday, June 14, 2013

Conversation with Choir Director

This is part of a conversation with Sabrina Clasen, Snohomish Ward Choir Director, who has helped inspire me (John) to want to sing better. After 60 some odd years of not doing much singing I have grown to like the choir. She is somewhat reluctant, but I am arguing that the choir could sing most every week if given an email link to the hymn we would sing, and choir members could use the music on www.lds.org/muic to practice at home following the tones on the computer. Her job would be to meet with the choir before church for a couple of run-throughs. This would be in addition to the special numbers we prepare once a month. You can eliminate or diminish the parts others sing and just rehearse your notes (I sing bass). Perhaps she thinks I'm off base.

Sabrina,
Unfortunately, the sheet music doesn't really help me or people of my ilk who don't read music, except that as the note go higher on the score, you sing higher. I look forward to when we do numbers (from the hymn book) where you just give a link (eg. http://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/how-gentle-gods-commands?lang=eng) and we can sing along with our computer.
 
By the way, some years ago when Brett was off his mission and going to school in Bellingham, I devised this potential business which I was going to call "Church Choir" that would do exactly what you get from LDS.org/music but would be done on cassette tapes. It's amazing how great minds think alike! Brett could have helped me on the project but didn't have time. I had no musical or technical skills to pull it off, just business and financial (at least in those days) capabilities. I think, with the tools the church provides, a ward choir doesn't have any reason not to be able to put a bunch of harmonizing, competent singers, up in front of the congregation every week.
 
Could I have the list of hymns that will be sung in Sacrament over the next few months along with the theme for each week's talks? I would like to see what hymns could be sung by the choir that would complement the Sacrament Meeting talks. With a minimum of group effort, choir members could individually practice their parts and be ready for weekly or semi-monthly choir numbers. Wouldn't that be fun?

Monday, June 3, 2013

Cold War Memories

The following is a school assignment by a high school student friend, Naomi Dickson. She is studying the Cold War and interviewed Pat and I because we were really old and remembered our time during that period. So far, I think we remember more than we have forgotten. We corrected some spelling and a few chronicalogical inconsistencies, but the story is hers.  JCF
                                                                                                                                 Naomi Dickson
U.S. History
Mrs. Cote
5/2/13
     The Cold War lasted from around 1947 to 1991. It started when political and military tension grew between the West, including the United States and NATO; also the East, which included mainly the Soviet Union and Germany. The conflict was named the Cold War because the two major powers possessing nuclear weapons, both threatening each other, never met in military combat. The conflict was ongoing psychological warfare and consisted of indirect confrontations through proxy wars. The tensest times throughout this time period were during the Korean War, Suez Crises, Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War.
     I recently had the privilege of interviewing a couple that experienced this time in history. John Fawcett was born July 25, 1940 in Oakland, California and grew up in the next town, Berkeley. Patricia Pierce was born February 18, 1942 in Gunnison, Utah, on the kitchen table. They met in Moses Lake, attended a New Years Eve party with different dates and she went back to school and he went to Vietnam. 
     Five years before they were married, John enlisted in the Air Force. He was first sent to San Antonio, Texas for Officer Training kSchool and then received Aircraft Maintenance Officer training at Chanute Air Force Base, His first duty station was at Larson AFB in Moses Lake ("Moses Gulch") and served a year in Vietnam. Returning to March AFB at Riverside, California (where he had gone to college) he was later sent to a post in Guam. Upon returning to Riverside after three months he left the Air Force, and John and Pat were married back in Moses Lake, taking a 2 1/2 month, 22,000 mile honeymoon in a Checker Cab (not yellow but white).
     Two rules he didn’t forget after his initial 12 week Texas training were, “Don’t go outside without your cover (meaning hat),” and in the mess hall, “Take all you want, but eat all you take.” John learned to obey commands and to live in a very orderly fashion. 
     His job was plane maintenance, where he worked mostly administratively from his desk. His Vietnam “tour,” as they called it, lasted thirteen months. While in Guam, Patricia recalls planning their wedding by handwriting letters back and forth. She even hand typed, word perfect, about twenty letters to aerospace companies to seek employment for John after he left the service. John sent them off, but he was more interested in becoming self employed by buying a printing establishment. They were happy to be reunited once his tour came to an end. 
     The great event of Sputnik also had a great impact on them. Though it was “no bigger than a basket ball” (John Fawcett, personal communication, April 22, 2013), it could be seen clearly from the ground due to the sun's reflection. This satellite had meant the Russians were ahead in space technology, which was bad news for Americans. Along with most Americans, John came to the conclusion that too much information had been given to Russia. He knew a thing or two of the power of technology, as he was able to view the tools used to create the Atom Bomb at the University of California Radiation Laboratory where his friend's father, Earnest Orlando Lawrence, had split the atom making nuclear weapons and energy possible. Technology did not only grow in one direction. John recalled the first Presidential debate on T.V. (Nixon - Kennedy) It was new and had impacted society as people were able to view the event from inside their living rooms.
     Throughout the interview, I got to hear personal experiences from two people, which was different from reading it out of a history book. It made it seem much more real. From their lips came their story of what it was really like. John stated that “technology was changing so fast.” Media went from radio shows, like the Lone Ranger, to colored television, with shows such as Bonanza. This made the war much more real to them because they could see it and the devastation it was causing. The Cold War was an era they will never forget. 
     I did find that many of the events they related to me had followed the history I’ve learned in class, though not necessarily in order. In chapter 21, section 21-3, page 673, I read, “The Red Scare and the spread of nuclear weapons had a profound impact on life in the 1950’s. Fear of Communism and of nuclear war dominated life for ordinary Americans as well as government leaders throughout the era.”2      
     The fear of nuclear attack had been always constant in their minds, as well as the fear of the bomb shelters themselves. John stated, “if a bomb alert went off, you could be down there for days.” Of course, no one really wanted to be cramped up for any period of time.
     The light at the end of the dark and dreary tunnel was finally seen on December 8, 1987, when the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed. The “INF” Treaty was “the first arms-control Part to require an actual reduction in nuclear arsenals rather than merely restricting their proliferation.”1 Soon after that, the Hungarian government opened up its border with Austria and the West; the Iron Curtain was falling. On November 10, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. The Cold War lasted for 45 long years. My parents can vaguely remember that momentous occasion when the Wall fell, and sometimes we marvel together at the fact that it really wasn't that long ago.