Monday, June 11, 2007

Spirit of Branson

Sunday morning began as a glorious bright sunshine day. Since we were not scheduled to sing this morning, several of the boys availed themselves of the opportunity to attend sunday worship services at two local churches. The pastor at the Lutheran church welcomed the boys and spoke about how impressed with the piety of these young boys. They said they would have loved to have them sing at their church and invited the boys to stay at their church. They seemed to be most impressed with the bus that dropped them off more than anything. At least we have a place to sing if we ever return. Many of the boys chose to sleep in, and given the hectic schedule, that was not a bad choice. Many of them swam in the pool, ate breakfast and several sang around the grand piano in the lobby. The tenors and basses have begun spontaneously bursting into Vive L'Amour whenever we are in a public venue. It certianly turns heads and the boys love the attention. This Sunday morning served to recharge our batteries, physically and spiritually.

For lunch we ate at Mel's Hard Luck Diner where all the waitstaff double as crroners. I think that just like in Nashville, every working person harbors aspirations of being a star. Each waitperson had their own personal CDs for sale in the gift shop. We heard everything from country to motown to Captain and Tenille. We then took a short hop over to Spirit of the Dance. The crowd was not as big, but was just as responsive to the boys. Especially for Chatanooga Choo Choo. The stage manager asked how many costume changes we would be having and whether we needed a changing room. I didn't realize why he asked until we saw the show. There must have been 20 costume changes. The spirit of the dance was a high energy dance marathon with both Celtic, modern and jazz dance elements with dramatic music and lightning. The boys seemed enraptured by the performance, or it might have been the costumes of the female performers.

After a quick change and freshening up, we went to Papa Grand's pizza for a buffet. The boys seemed to have a ravenous appetite, apparently many of them were exhausted just watching the dancers. The seniors stayed behind to go out for their senior dinner. This annual tradition gives Mr. Ross and Mrs. Knight an opportunity to spend time with the senior boys on their last tour and for the boys to express their gratitude to their directors and for what Kantorei has meant to them. The seniors bought a very nice Mandolin for Mr. Ross and some musical spoons and a washboard for Mrs. Knight to use with the prep choiirs. They enjoyed a lovely meal and then videotaped interviews with Mr. Ross for future generations of Kantorei boys to see. The other boys enjoyed the Branson Fun Factory with a game of laser tag and then glow-in-dark mini golf. The boys were more competetive with each other at golf than at laser tag, if that seems possible. We then headed home and celebrated the birthday of one of the boys with cake and singing. Mentally, physically and spiritually, it was a fulfilling day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the comments and photos. Evan checks in regularly with quick calls, so it is nice to read the blog to fill in details.
Sally Burie

the Hansels said...

Hi Larry,
We really enjoy reading your blogs. You are a very descriptive and interesting writer. And your typing is incredibly accurate--for the most part there are no typos. But in this entry, we noticed one word that we weren't really sure of. Were the waitstaff at the Hard Luck Cafe aspiring "crooners" or "coroners?" Knowing that you are a physician made this difficult for us. ;-)