Page 30 - MLD Book

1992
Although Senior Warden Terry McCoy admits he was a naysayer for the building project for quite a while (and I remember he made a career of taking the opposite view on most everything!), he finally admitted that the project was a good thing. Plans were finalized and excitement grew. A Kickoff dinner was held on April 26...and we’re off!! The food closet continued to grow and the stats for the year reflected gains to 1164 bags feeding 2535 people. As I write this in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic, we reached that number in just two months – little did we know what would lie ahead! On Christmas Eve, we received word of the death of Iris Gray, my choir member challenge, and yes, friend in spite of it all. It brought back so many memories for us all as we performed the Bach Christmas Oratorio part one that evening. On the brighter side, we did the music for the marriage of Alex and
Mary Wilson Redden in 1992, with lots of music (Cantata 196 of course) and good times.
And speaking of good news, secretary (or whatever she was) Ann Thompson retired that year, and boy, was I delighted. She was a totally humorless individual who lived only for her paycheck and her hour long lunch hour. Ben had hired her after they fired Morticia, so she gloweredinherofficeforovertenyears. Shewasreasonablycompetent,sotherewasn’ta good way to get rid of her. She was followed by the very exuberent Dianne Confer, who was a breath of fresh air, albeit not a genius herself.
This was also the year that I embarked on a detailed project of a document entitled An Historical Sketch of Music at Calvary Church 1860-1992. It is a document worth keeping, and is in my chronological pile year by year. Above all, it stresses the importance that the role of music played in the life of Calvary from the very beginning with the music budget being 1⁄4 of the entire church budget all the way to Waterhouse slashing it to zero, the tiny rise in my tenure up to $7500 and the big bucks now expended for paid octet and a director of music who does only music! And who can predict the future of choral music in particular, for at this writing it is felt that singing spreads the corona virus that has disrupted everyone’s lives.
1993
But we are now considering 1993. Terry McCoy continues as Senior Warden and the building project takes center stage. Exterior structures were in place, the Loft got a roof, what was to be Parker Hall appeared in rough form, along with new bathrooms, a food closet, second sacristy, and the second floor north addition. We bought a property on Third Street to replace parking that we lost when the south lot became part of the new addition, and Sally Reisz moved her business into that space for a time. The new construction offered a perfect excuse to remove the cat family, so there were no more cat choruses during services competing with the choir! We were able to outfit the new food closet with a triple freezer, a single freezer (that just June 4, 2020, finally died!!!), a double refrigerator – all
financed by selling Dorothy Jones’s jelly that had escalated to unbelievable gourmet heights.
I can’t say enough good tings about the workers and managers who built our additions. John Campbell was the contractor and a finer gentleman you would never meet. Norman Berry was the architect and of course we go way back to Frankfort days where we were all together at the Church of the Ascension. The construction crew really got into the outreach program that was flourishing and we were just beginning to expand the clothing program. We needed a place to put the clothing so they donated the labor and materials to put two closets in the Loft to house the clothing. Eventually, with the building of the north entry in 1995, we did move to that area for distribution, but the storage remained in place in the