23-May-99 quick note

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My mother and Anne are both here for a few days, not conicidently at the same time. My mom was east for her sixtieth college reunion, and we made a quick trip out the pike to Northampton this morning to get her.

My mother, a current Smith student, and some of my mom's classmates

Then we went in to Brookline where the choir was singing at a street fair for Israel Independence Day. Streets were blocked off, but we showed a cop my parking permit as an event participant and got to park relatively close, so my mom didn't have much walking to do. I got a big welcome from the choir, which was rehearsing in the parking lot when we got there, because there weren't any basses there yet. We did several of the numbers from the Manna concert, so there hadn't been a lot of preparation for this performance. There were lots of people walking up and down the street, and many stopping to listen. We did Samachti, and I remembered what the conductor from the Manna concert had said about thinking of Jerusalem, and the street full of people turned into the mid-rechov, Ben Yehuda Mall, the pedestrian shopping street in Jerusalem. We had a reasonable audience until it started to sprinkle. Umbrellas went up, the audience dwindled, and we cut out three numbers and finished quickly. I had a great time, though, with my mom and Anne and Arlene all being in the audience. As we folded up, one of the altos said, “Now you know how Gene Kelley felt, Singing in the Rain.”

I'm going to cut this short and probably not update for a few days (what else is new) because my mom is staying in the room with the computer, and besides, I want to spend some time visiting.