Faith, Folklore, and Friends

While we were at Sugarlands last Saturday, we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Herbert Clabo. He is an interesting man, to say the least.   Mr. Clabo was born in 1911, and early next year, he will be 103 years old.  We wondered if he had a secret of longevity, and he was happy to talk to us about it. I think it depends on how you live.  I went to Sunday School 35 years without missing a Sunday. I think that probably helped.  I've always tried to be a purty good fellow.  I've always been poor and skinny; that might have helped, too. Watch what goes down the red lane (throat?); it's your body, take care of it. Choose turnips over pudding. There are too many fat people in the world today. I'm doing purty good right now. I never went to the doctor until I was ninety, and he just starting pouring them pills down me.  I hiked in the mountains until I was ninety-nine. Mr. Clabo was born and raised in the area where Roaring Fork trail is now. He ...

The little Baptist congregation in the place I grew up had a loud, out-of-tune upright piano and someone to play it most of the time. Some congregations were not so blessed, and sang their hymns a cappella, whether it was a part of their doctrine or not. Hymnals were printed with shaped notes to indicate the different voice parts. The most popular hymnal was titled Sacred Harp , and thus it became known as sacred harp singing (sacred harp referred to the human voice as a musical instrument). Some summers, there would be a singing school at the church where children were taught the parts and how to make hand movements to accompany the music. Sadly, I never attended any of the singing schools, and the first fa so la I learned was in high school chorus. This was in the sixties when The Sound of Music was a popular movie, and one of the songs our choral director selected was Do-Re-Mi . I still haven't learned to move my hands correctly to the music. Sacred harp music is alive and wel...