Australian Thoughts at the Weekend
Susan Lehmann
I had the privilege of working in Public Relations for the
Salvation Army and then in fundraising (bequests) for Blue Care, a Uniting
Church of Australia agency. Blue Care provides
in home care for the aged and sick and also residential care for aged
people.
Blue Care was originally known as the Blue Nurses but they do much more than
nursing now. The nurse who calls from home to home is still affectionately
known as the "Blue Nurse".
When I worked for these organisations, I wrote a poem for
each which tried to capture their work at Christmas.
THEY CAME AT CHRISTMAS
In white shirts and caps on a truck they came
And stopped our kids' street cricket game
They played a Christmas song or two
And then they called for us to sing
So we kids sang to everyone's delight
Of baby Jesus birth on a Silent Night
Another Christmas they came again
After mum had told us with heartfelt pain
That this Christmas there would be no toys
And we were the saddest of girls and boys.
Mum told us there were many like us
And that we would not make a fuss
But simply enjoy whatever we could.
They came this time without the band
But they brought to us a Christmas grand
They put bags and boxes on our kitchen table.
They said they knew we were not able
To have the Christmas we would like
Because dad's workplace was on strike.
Now their love gifts meant without his pay
We could celebrate with joy on Christmas Day.
Another Christmas they came to our place
They came again without the band
And they carried no gifts in their hand
But they came on a mission of love
They with tears said from their God above
And we knew they could do no more
Than pray for our dear brother lost in war.
Again this Christmas throughout this land
The Salvos will come with song and band.
They will come to some with food and toys
And somehow share in many Christmas joys.
They come that they might with everyone share
The very essence of the Christmas season where
In Bethlehem's
stable God's gift Jesus was born.
(Ray Reese - Christmas
2003)
NOT ALONE AT CHRISTMAS
Joan lay all alone on this hot summer morn
The sun beaming in woke her just after dawn
It would be another day long and alone
Age had wearied her right to the bone.
With the dawning that this was Christmas Day
Her memories came of children at Christmas play
She remembered her own sisters and brothers
And a happy house crowded with so many others.
Then many years later when her children came
It was a happy house with kids just the same
There was laughter and food and presents of toys
Exactly right for each of the girls and boys
She thought of how they grew years quickly went
Then her eldest son to War in Vietnam was sent
Life about then seemed to become so very sad
As a heart attack took her husband the kids' dad.
The other kids soon seemed to move on with life
As they took for themselves a husband or wife
Kids were soon at play again but in distant places
And all Joan could do was remember their faces.
Joan lay all alone on this hot Christmas morn
Cards eagerly from their envelopes she had torn
Wishing Mother a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Each with a message this Christmas they would not be here.
Joan lay on her bed lost in her thoughts once more
Soon there was a loud knock on the front door
Was it that a son or daughter had come to visit
She grabbed her gown and shouted "Who is it?"
She flung open the door to see who stood there
Joan saw the one person who really seemed to care
A cheery greeting and a wide smile a friendly face
A Blue Nurse had brought Christmas to Joan's place.
The nurse handed Joan a small gift and a handmade card
And when they hugged she felt Joan hug so hard
A shower was soon done and Joan dressed in her best
She felt this Christmas she was specially blessed.
Not only at Christmas but every single day
A Blue Nurse calls to get Joan on her way
A life that alone is so long and people bare
Is broken by the Blue Nurse's loving care.
Ray Reese Christmas 2005
[Look and listen: (Band): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyVo97VGdBE
Or
Look and Listen: (Songsters): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y7KNFrtrQw
]
..........................
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Writer (Only):
Susan Lehmann
I was to go
carolling with the Senior Band commencing as soon as it was light enough to
play. I quickly got dressed in my Junior Soldier's uniform and headed to the
breakfast table, wishing mum and dad a sleepy "Merry Christmas" as I
arrived.
Dad told me there was a present under the Christmas tree
that I should open now. The rest could wait until I got back from carolling,
when my brother and sisters were awake. I soon found the reason I was
invited
to open this particular present. It was a music stand I could use when I
played
in the band. I remember thinking later if it was not something useful that
morning, I would not have opened any presents until I got home in time for
Christmas lunch.
In those days, we rode from street to street in the back of
a truck. Forms from the hall were tied to the sides of the truck and the
bandsmen took their place on the truck in a square formation. Even in that
early post dawn hour of Christmas Day, families appeared on the verandas of
their homes and on the side of the rode to greet the band. Some of the
timbrelists
moved from family to family collecting donations and giving out the
Christmas
issue of the War Cry.
We enjoyed it when the truck driver stopped the truck in the
shade under a tree. The bandmaster made comments about the tree muffling the
pure sound of the band. To most of us that was only a technical detail as we
enjoyed a cool interlude. One hazard we did encounter under some trees were
swarms of mosquitoes which made the tree their home. However, a few well
placed hits and they were
soon dispatched to the next life. At times though, they seemed to be queuing
up
for their opportunity to be despatched to eternity.
In those early days, we had breakfast about 8am at the Corps Sergeant
Major's
home. His wife was recognised as a good cook. We agreed. Now, I can't
remember
whether it was while we were eating breakfast or right after that the CSM
put
on his mantle radio and we listened carefully to the national broadcast by
the
Melbourne Staff Band. Refreshed and inspired we trekked out to the truck to
continue our morning's carolling.
I had only been a "helping" member of the Senior Band for
about 5 years when it became impossible to maintain the Christmas Morning
carolling as many bandsmen with their families were away on holidays at the
time. A bigger effort was put into the
pre-Christmas carolling to make sure as much as possible of our Corps
district
was covered.
Our family was one of the families that would go away for
the Christmas New Year period. It is summer holiday time in Australia. Now
as luck or otherwise would have it, we visited my uncle and aunty who were
Corps
Officers at Southport Corps, on the Gold Coast. Their small band still
played
carols from dawn on Christmas morning. So, it was into another truck, and
off,
not this time to residential streets as at home, but to the seaside camping
areas where we would play amongst the tents and caravans.
People appeared out of their tents, sometimes still in
pyjamas but often in their swimming attire to listen to the band. So
throughout
the morning, stopping only at a Salvations home where we had breakfast in a
large
tent in their backyard, we moved on from camping area to camping area right
down the Coast.
The morning ended with the band at the Beachcomber Motel, in
Surfers Paradise where the bandsmen sat on deck chairs and lounges around
the
swimming pool. People appeared on the balconies above us and threw coins
down
to us. Occasionally a note would flutter down. These were the early days of
television, and bandsmen were excited to be filmed by the news team for that
night's television news. Excitedly, we would gather in our individual homes
around our television sets to see ourselves on the evening news.
Interestingly, Southport Corps Band is now the Gold Coast
Temple Band and I am a regular member of the band.
As I think of the early Christmas morning Christmas carols
one carol which comes to mind is "Christians Awake". I remember one Corps
where
two friends of mine along with other bandsman got tired year after year of
the
Bandmaster saying he had not missed a Christmas morning carolling in all the
many years he had been a bandsman. Looking accusingly at others, he would
always add not only was he never late but he was always first there ready to
play.
In a casual conversation they found out what time the
bandmaster set his alarm for. However, with the cooperation of the rest of
the
band, they arrived outside his home, and just before the Bandmaster's alarm
went off, they played "Christians Awake!"
He laughed as he came out to the band but his bandsmen knew him well enough
to know he was not happy.
Christmas carolling has been reshaped over the years. My
early days of carolling were spent playing in residential streets. These
days
our band and many others are more likely to be found in shopping centres. We
also play carols in high and low care accommodation for aged people and in
independent living retirement villages. The other feature is playing at
outdoor
carols services.
Another change is the music we play. Initially we played
only "Christian" carols. I remember when a bandmaster asked us to play
"Jingle
Bells" (from the 1964 SA carol book), one bandsman refused to play it.
Although
he happily played Jingle Bells in the march "Christmas Joy"! These days
again
from the SA carol book, we not only play "Jingle Bells" but "Rudolf, the Red
Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is coming to town" and similar secular Christmas
songs.
It was a small corps band faithfully playing Christmas
carols in my wife's neighbourhood that reminded her of the babe of
Bethlehem. It reminded
her, too, of days spent at Sunday School at the Corps. She went back to the
Corps and eventually became a Soldier and Local Officer. She left the Corps
for
the Training College. Today, she serves the Lord
quietly, in a ministry of encouragement and prayer.
1 Corinthians 13 (New International Version)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal
1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but
don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
My prayer is that the playing of our bands and the singing
of our songsters will be more than the creaking of a rusty gate to the
families
we encounter.
The Band Lad
At eight I was in the Young People's Band
All said in my band uniform I looked grand
Then I first played carols from a printed card
And my 2nd Baritone part seemed very hard
It seemed I had to play notes without reason
But this was my part in the Christmas Season
My mates on 1st Cornet seemed to have it made
As there was some tunes in what they played.
One day the YP Band Leader came to me
He said today in the Senior Band you will be
The Bandmaster wants a few more players
He said not outstanding stars but stayers
Who will benefit from the experience
When they play in the band in years hence
So with the seniors in the band I played
And a life's banding foundation was laid.
Christmas carolling here came with summer's heat
It seemed that some of winter's snow would be neat
It was hot and we dripped with perspiration
As we played our Christmas season's exultation.
A solo cornet player in sucking for air inhaled a fly
He coughed and spluttered as if he was about to die
The bandsmen all around him struggled to play on
They couldn't for laughing until he said it was gone.
The bandsmen between carols told a story or three
And the old days brought amusement to a kid like me
Some told of days before they went to fight the war
Incidents from before I was born certainly did not bore
They held my interest as they told of other days
And how as bandsmen they carolled in other ways.
One told of playing carols in the very cold snows
When the rain froze in icicles on his cornet and nose.
Many years have passed since when carolling we marched
From street to street in the heat with tongues parched
My playing of carols has proclaimed the Saviour's birth
And now my recounting those past days brings joy and mirth
I have played my carols on cornet, horn, tuba and trombone
But after trying euphonium I am back where I began on
baritone
I played in prisons and hospitals, parks, churches and halls
On radio, and television and now I play in beachside
malls.
It might be for some ice and snow and for us here flies and
heat
But Christmas carolling as a Salvo bandsman you can't beat.
It brings a sound of joy to a busy and wonderful season
With a message God's love for us was the only reason:
That God sent his son Jesus to live on earth among us
And it is Jesus birth that we celebrate with all this fuss.
So as Salvo bandsmen we play carols wherever we are able
To tell of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem's humble stable.
Ray
Reese
Christmas
2005
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