Page 12 - MLD Book

only nine years old. I had a number of organ students through the U of L Preparatory department and I simply had to give that position up because two or three times a week there would be a bus crisis and I would have to go get her. Since teaching was not my first love because I am not that patient, I wasn’t too upset about giving that up, although subsequently Melvin brought me into the church music department at U of L to teach church service playing and harpsichord literature, and that was more to my liking and expertise. (My teaching career spanned Gardencourt, Kentucky Southern on Shelby Campus, Reynolds Building where Laura Hefley was murdered, and finally U of L campus. Most memorable was teaching at Gardencourt where a spinster piano professor we named Minnie Mouse had the studio right above me. She was always coming down to ask us not to play so loudly “because it blows dust out of my cracks!” – She was a spinster, remember!).
The most ironic part of the whole bussing thing was that after Michelle got to her designated school, she was in the advanced program in a fifth grade with only SEVEN other students and they were ALL WHITE! So to spend two hours a day to travel to integrate and then not have any students of color in the class – odd for sure! The plus was that she loved Mrs. Pirtle and her class and says to this day that she learned more in that year than in any other in her school career. It was just the transportation that was the killer. Maria, being two years older, was bussed from Ballard High School to Central High School three years later. She only had to take one bus. Michelle’s turn came up again as a sophomore and she was also bussed to Central. Although Maria didn’t like Central much and went back to Ballard after the mandatory year, Michelle chose to remain at Central another two years until graduation.
One of the people who demanded a lot of attention at Calvary over the years was Barbara Bruce. Along about this time in the mid seventies, she decided
that Calvary should sponsor a scout troop. She of course became
the leader, and before it was all said and done, we had Cub
Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts all over the place. Literally! There were many good things that came out of this association with scouting, including some who became active at Calvary itself as acolytes, ushers, and even choir members. But Barbara and her brood literally took over for a while, and that was not without fireworks from matriarchal and patriarchal stalwarts at Calvary who considered Calvary THEIR church only.(Some of those remain today!) Barbara became the acolyte “mistress” and ruled their participation in the services with an iron and very audible
hand! She was in the military earlier in life. Although she thought her actions were invisible, they were definitely NOT! SHE BECAME KNOWN AS THE TRAFFIC COP and her actions and directions were kin to the military. It came to a head one Maundy Thursday when, at the stripping of the Sanctuary, she lifted a heavy kneeler up above her head and amazoned it triumphantly to the Sacristy. It was amazingly funny and my choir started laughing. That set off Ned Reiter (a very devout, brilliant and complex churchman who ultimately died under suspicious circumstances), and Ned was so horrified at the choir behavior that he left the
service. And for a few months, he pouted before finally returning. A curious reaction, seeing as how Ned’s son Justin was in the choir and laughed as heartily as everyone else! As I