Influence |
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| Dear Hal,All too often, we have an effect on someone else out there in the world and never know it. Last weekend, I realized - or was reminded - that you played an important role in my life, a long time ago, and I'm feeling the need to give you a little feedback on that point.I joined the Xenia Chapter when I was a high-school senior, in 1958. One of my most vivid memories of the chapter meetings back then is the eagerness with which everyone in the chorus always anticipated hearing a few songs from you, Virg, Paul, and Cliff (the Fun-Damentals / Cheer-O-Keys). I used to marvel over having such a talented quartet right there in the little old Xenia Chapter. We high-school kids (Gary Downs, Jerry Kelble, Harold Saunders, and I) were truly inspired by you guys. Your encouragement led us to form our own quartet, and that quartetting experience has turned out to be one of the most influential and satisfying things in my life.Gary became a music teacher in California, following in his dad's footsteps; Jerry is a dentist in Jamestown, Ohio; and I've lost track of Harold, who was a year behind the rest of us in school. I'm a research psychologist in Butler, Pennsylvania. As far as I know, I'm the only member of that quartet presently involved in barbershopping, and I've only recently returned after being away from it for many years. I've attached a little piece that I wrote for the Butler Chapter's bulletin about four years ago, not long after I got back into the Society. It conveys some of the affect that I discovered I still had for this hobby, even after being away from it for so long.At last weekend's contest in Toledo, when you shoved your way through the mob to pass on a few words of encouragement to me, I was a lot more moved than I likely appeared to be. It's stylish to be kind of blase about these things, but it was if there'd suddenly been a warp in the 30-odd years since the last time I had seen you, when you had done the same thing for my high-school quartet. About 5 minutes after we proceeded in opposite directions down the hall, I choked up a bit, with the realization that you probably had no idea how much of an influence you and the other late-'50's heavy-hitters from Xenia had on my relationship to the hobby that means so much to me now.Thanks, Hal, for being a positive influence 'way back in the Xenia that's not there any more, and thanks for the kind words in Toledo last week. Maybe next contest (prelims in the spring?) we can talk for more than 30 seconds.Best regards,
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