I am usually excited when a night of karaoke fun and fellowship rolls around and Tuesday night is karaoke with Starmaker Karaoke and Sound System at YOMP in Milton. But this was to be no ordinary night of singing , no sir , it would be a very special night for several reasons. First and foremost is that at 12:00 a.m. it became my wife and my wedding anniversary. July 3RD , 1975 in the quaint little town of Mifflinburg , Penna. We two became man and wife on that wonderful day in the biggest downpour of rain in a long time. We didn’t care one whit about the rain , only that we were , after living together since February of 1972 , finally getting married. It has been a most fortuitous blending of two lives with two young daughters thrown in the merry mix just to make it interesting. I could not have imagined that it would turn out to be the single most important decision that I would ever make , save one. The day I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my personal savior was number one but only by a small margin. I will not go into the entire relationship as it progressed over the years except to stress that marriage is only what you choose to make it and we have been blessed on so many levels that it is almost magical. But now I go back to the other reasons for this joyous night. Eddie is going to be leaving on Sunday morning for a five day visit with our son , Kenneth Leroy Barnhart Jr. and his lovely wife Jessica and their absolutely beautiful three daughters , Kylie , Peyton and Brooke. They live in Hookset , New Hampshire and it has been over three years since mother and son have been face to face. I wasn’t invited for this visit because I just do not travel well enough anymore. My son knows his and is grateful that his mom is going to come for a visit. Our dear friend Keith Keister will be driving our Kia van up and dropping her off and then returning almost immediately. Then , he will be going back up to retrieve her on Friday morning. I am hoping that she and they have a wonderful time catching up on so many things. Kylie , the eldest of the girls will be playing all-star caliber baseball while she is there , as Chuck said that she will be playing two games. But , for this night it was she and I with many of our friends out at my favorite pastime , singing karaoke. Keith also has the distinction of being able to make certain songs into karaoke songs and has been very prolific as of late in finding many of the older songs that I so love to sing. I started out tonight by singing one of those songs. Roy Orbison covered a great song called A LEGEND IN MY TIME , and I did it for the very first time. In an homage type mode I sang my next song to my wife. I am an emotional man and needed to practice singing this love song in my cellar for about a dozen times. I pronounced myself ready to try it and put it in with Debi. I was very happy with the effort and she was as well. A ONE IN A MILLION YOU by Larry Graham came out just fine and I managed to get through it with no tears. Thank you my love. Back in the early sixties a soul singer named Garnet Mimms sang a song called A QUIET PLACE , that was my third song and Keith did a great job putting it together for me. I will be singing it again. For my last turn I was going to sing , again for the first time, a Neil Young classic , HEART OF GOLD. But Eddie requested that we sing what has kind of become a standard for several of “ the gang “. HALLALUJAH . Sheree Frey started us out followed by Myself second , and a newcomer to our little group , Becky Keister Taffera in third position. Bill took over for verse four followed by Keith bringing it home. I do so love to do that song, as do the rest of our little group. I was finished singing for the night , but I want to call attention to a very poignant rendition of a song by Mr. Tim Johnson. His father passed away only yesterday and Tim sang a spirit lifting tear stained version of the beautiful GO REST HIGH ON THAT MOUNTAIN. He received the only standing ovation of this night for his touching tribute to his father. God bless you Tim. Sometimes you just know what is right and good in this sometimes twisted world and this was one of those times
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 06:08:48 +0000