The following is from my dear brother, David Clemmons, from an email he sent to a small number of us. It is republished here by permission. 🙏🏼
Dear Family,
It is a Wednesday evening and twas usually choir practice night this time of the year. Mama Margret would pack Mouse Douglas and myself into the Pontiac LeMans and drive us to Providence Forge, a little community about twenty miles from the River’s Edge.
The Providence Forge Presbyterian Church was our site of pilgrimage each Wednesday evening, as it was Mouse Dewey’s night to stay late for his Master’s course which he was taking in the mid-1970’s after hours at NASA for Business Administration through George Washington University (GWU).
This time of year was particularly important because the choir was gearing up for the “I Love America” cantata. Mama Margret directed the choir, I even had a little skit role with Reverend Buzzy Close, the pastor at the Memorial United Methodist Church in Charles City County. He and I would have a conversation back and forth with one another about the Revolutionary War and the founding of America.
The Choir performed this cantata in different churches and community centers throughout the region - Henrico, Chesterfield, New Kent, and Charles City Counties. The ensemble was mostly white, predominantly women, but also comprised a couple of Native American and African American participants as well. In those days we would occasionally encounter some settings that would refuse to let us enter as a result. Such is the way of these things.
On 4 July 1976, we performed in front of many thousands of people at William & Mary Hall with the Air Force Tactical Air Command Band in Williamsburg. It was in all the local papers, even on the evening news ;-). I was nine years old at the time, Star Wars was making its way into theaters, and the US was celebrating its 200th Anniversary, so to speak. My how the times have changed.
Within this patriotic, Christian-based cantata, there is a song called “Red, White, and Blue.” Howard Ormond, the Principal at New Kent Middle School, was the soloist on the song. His skin looked “blue” to me when I was a kid and I thought he was the most beautiful man in the world. But it was his voice that opened my heart more than anything I know how to describe. He would place the microphone between both of his hands and hold it right up to his mouth. Mama Margret would give a nod and smile to him that twinkled in his eyes’ reflection, whilst she readied the remaining choir members in preparation for their accompaniment.
“Proudly it waves Old Glory…” his bass-tenor voice would steal itself over everyone and everything in whatever room we might be at a given performance. “…over the land of the free…” “Promise of hope and freedom…” “symbol of liberty…” His voice would still be relatively muted through these words, simply articulating them for the audience to hear, as if he was reading, rather than singing.
“Red, white and blue are its colors, colors both vibrant and clear. Colors with far deeper meaning then that at first may appear.” And with that final syllable the shift was on… His voice powered into the microphone with these words:
“Red is for blood of patriots who have died to free us…”
“White is for justice and government of law…”
The crescendo of his voice on the word “law” would make the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention.
“Bluuuueeee…”
The number of syllables he could place into that one word with the intonation of his voice, I was as though mesmerized.
“…is for honor and faith in what we do…” voice scaling down and again at soft, articulation zone.
“This is my flag…this is Old Glory…the red…white…and blue.”
The microphone would move away from his mouth and remain in his left hand. Mama Margret would make a gesture and the choir would come in at this point and re-deliver his opening lines all the way through to the word “appear.”
Then Howard would place the microphone back between both hands and raise it to his lips. His eyes would close and his chin would rise as his gaze seemed to be looking into another world. The choir would ready itself to sing along, but in muted tones to allow his voice to be the primary deliverance. And deliver he did!
“Red….is for blood of patriots who have died to free us.” Intensity…building…intensity…building…INTENSITY BUILDING…
“White… is for justice and government of law… of laaaaawwwww” -
he would repeat “of law” at max crescendo and tears would course down the faces of people in the audience, as they do for me, even to this day when I hear his voice echoing in my mind.
“Bluuuuuuuuuueeee…is for honor and faith in what we do…”
Howard’s more muted voice and choir sync into common harmony…
“This is my flag, this is Old Glory, the red…white… and blue.”
The choir would then gently sink into the final words of the song, but I never heard them, that I remember, as I was always still hearing Mouse Howard hit those three lines and those key words. Yes, I was still very much in my formative years at the time, but I could tell that something special was happening for all who heard Howard reverently birth those words from his lips. Doubtless, it was partially influenced by the smile that appeared on Mama Margret’s face, a smile that let Mouse Howard know he had brought the house down and could drop the mic any time he liked. ;-)
And so it is, on a Wednesday evening before 4 July 2022 that I bring you a tale from the Mouse Guest Archives.
Wishing you and yours a most memorable 4th of July wherever these words find you in this world!
P.S.
The link to the whole “I Love America” cantata can be found Here:
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- although it is not the Charles City New Kent Community Choir singing, and not the greatest recording, you can get the gist. Howard’s song can be found at the 26:03 minute mark, and is about two minutes long. Here are all of the words to that song:
Red, White, and Blue by Jonathan Sentz.
J W Peterson's Red, White and Blue
Proudly it waves Old Glory over the land of the free
Promise of hope and freedom, symbol of liberty
Red, white and blue are its colors, colors both vibrant and clear. Colors with far deeper meaning then that at first may appear.
Red is for blood of patriots that have died to free us.
White is for justice and government of law
Blue is for honor and faith in all we do
This is my flag, this is Old Glory the red, white, and blue.
Long may it wave o’er the land of the free
Long may it wave o’er the land of the brave
Long may it wave.
Sent from my iPad