Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas Song


Here I am driving to work, wondering where all the snow is. This has been a very unusual year as normally by this time we are knee deep in snow; trying to find a place to shovel it all. However this year we have little to no snow. I think our first snow fall was in late November and it was all of 2cms. As the unusually warm temperature continued, what little snow we had melted leaving a thin layer of dust and dirt everywhere.

I stare at the barren landscape to each side of me and think to myself “How am I going to get myself into the Christmas Spirit?” Then like a sign from Santa Claus himself, my favourite Christmas song starts to play…Mary’s Boy Child, by Boney M. I start to sing along as it plays…

I remember the first time I ever heard this song; I was in grade 6. My teacher was Ms. Price; she never married and was obsessed with Don Johnson. We were in a split 5/6 class in a portable right beside the playground. On the back of our portable door, Ms. Price had a life sized poster of Don Johnson. She was the coolest teacher!

We had a Christmas concert coming up and because we were the oldest in the school she wanted us to be the coolest group to perform. The next day she brought in a ghetto blaster from home with the Boney M cassette tape and played it for us. She had all kinds of instruments on the table at the back of the room. We were all pretty excited to get started!

I remember my friend got to play the triangle and of course because she was playing one I wanted to play one as well. But there was only one triangle to be played; I got stuck with what I thought was the worst instrument. To this day I have no idea what it was called, I just know that it was wooden and I held it in my hands and hit it together. I remember thinking that this is the lamest instrument ever. But looking back on it now, I realize that 1) it was the loudest instrument and 2) I played to the beat of the song…meaning that I had rhythm and could keep a beat. I should’ve actually felt honoured. I've attached a photo below, but it didn't have the ridges, it was smooth and you just hit the stick thingy (technical term) to the instrument itself.



After a month or two of practicing, we were the best performance at the Christmas concert. I remember thinking how cool I was standing there playing that instrument. I also remember getting over the fact that I was playing that instrument and played throughout the whole song and my girlfriend who I was jealous of only got one part in the song. Funny how we think…

To this day this song is my absolute favourite Christmas song and part of that reason I think is because of how cool Ms. Price was. Just thinking about that Christmas concert has definitely gotten me into the Christmas Spirit…I love this song!

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