Page 10 - Book Eleven Havelock

Page 8 CHRISTMAS CONCERTS at HAVELOCK GOSPEL MISSION Written Feb. 2010
Shortly after we arrived in Havelock, a lady named Mrs. Kinnaird invited Dad to her Havelock Gospel Mission where she felt he could help out. She had been co-minister at the Mission with her husband but he had recently died and she was carrying on alone. Since there was no Baptist church in town our whole family was soon attending the Mission. When Rev. Andrew McLaughlin the United Church minister heard that Dad had two years of theological studies at McMaster University before switching to teaching, he also invited Dad to the United Church. But by that time we were well situated in the Mission. So Rev. McLaughlin asked him if he would at least teach his adult Bible Class. So for several years Dad taught the Bible Class in the United Church at 10 am then hustled over to the Mission for their worship service at 11 am.
At our first annual Christmas concert at the Mission in Havelock, the management decided it would be cool to make history by having the carol 􏰀We Three Kings􏰁 sung by three boys named ‘Ross􏰂: Ross Southward, Ross Clark and Ross Goheen, all about age 10. They would sing the first verse together, then each boy would sing a solo verse and they would all join in the chorus together. We lined up for the first practice. It required only two minutes for everybody to realize that some modification to this historic ‘Ross􏰂 trio was necessary. The problem was that Ross Clark couldn􏰂t sing. There was no lip-sync in those days so Ross Clark was replaced by Gord Southward and history was not made.
I recall another grand performance at a Christmas concert in Havelock Gospel Mission. It was a few years later and I was about 13. My Dad decided to cook up a Goheen Orchestra. Instrumental. None of us had any skill on musical instruments but not to worry, the concert was more than three weeks away and we could surely learn enough in that time span. Dad reported pretty good success with a Hawaiian orchestra he led at Normal School many years earlier. That􏰂s where he met Mother. So his confidence and enthusiasm ran high to do it again with his family. Besides, Dad had recently acquired a clarinet at a pawn shop or somewhere. He would learn to play 􏰀Silent Night􏰁 and we could all play other instruments and entertain everybody at the concert. I
would play the melody of the carol on Hawaiian guitar, Allan was to strum chords on another guitar to provide the beat while Vernon and Winston rounded out the rhythm section on two ukuleles. Shirley thinks that she too was in this orchestra with a mandolin. We all worked hard to learn our parts. Since Dad and I had to actually play ‘Silent Night􏰂, we had to work hardest.
Everything went fine for about two weeks. The boys and Shirley picked up their chords pretty well and I got better and better playing the melody and Dad􏰂s squeaks and squawks on the clarinet began to lessen down almost to a tolerable level. Then, without warning, with about two days to go Dad announced that he was withdrawing from the ensemble. It was probably just as well. He realized he wasn􏰂t going to make it with his clarinet and he knew he could not face the crowd at the concert who came to hear music, not squawking. But I was terrified. Now I was the sole provider of any music that might or might not be recognized as ‘Silent Night􏰂. But Dad blithely encouraged us all to persevere. So there we landed, on stage, for the concert. Our concentrated efforts managed to get us all the way through our one verse of Silent Night.
When we were finished the audience gave us a generous round of applause. I was so relieved it was over but Allan was perplexed and quite agitated when the applause began.
He still had two more bars to play!