It's been a busy last few weeks planning for Eli's 2nd Birthday and keeping busy at work.
I know I promised Westphalia Youth Choir for my next topic, so I thought I would stay true to my word and give the people what they wanted. Anyone from Westphalia that grew up in the late 80's and early 90's was most likely a member of the Westphalia Youth Choir.
We sang at church about once a month and also made appearances Christmas Caroling and during the Westphalia 4th of July Picnic. Christmas Caroling was the best because it always followed a pizza party at the Fire Hall. Those who witnessed my devouring of 6 pieces of pizza as a six-year-old after caroling still remind me of it to this day. In fact, I think that moment was probably was the beginning of my competitive eating career.
In 3rd grade I ate 8 hamburgers at Shane Schechinger's birthday party. You might think that was a lot, but we did go swimming beforehand. I put many men to shame with my eating abilities and most recently took the title of Food Service Spagetti Eating Champion in college where I ate 7 plates to Shane's 6. The rest of the competitors weren't even close enough to garner mention. At least I know I have a fall back career.
Kobyashi ain't got nothin' on me
Anyway, back to Youth Choir. It was 1989 and I was in 1st grade. Matt Gross and my cousin, Dana Schmitz, had been chosen to perform the solos in "Do You Love Jesus?", the song for 1st Communion that year. At the last minute, Matt had to leave town for the weekend and that left the choir short a soloist for 1st Communion. Choir director Jan Rau and organist Gloria Schmitz had me step in and do the solo. The rest, as they say, is history. I've since gone on to win 3 Grammy's, sell 3 Platinum records, and make millions.
Actually, in reality it was more like a scene from the Wonder Years where Kevin's voice starts to change and his voice goes to hell. That, and the fact that I quit Youth Choir when I was 12 because I didn't want to sing Yankee Doodle Dandy with the choir at the 4th of July Picnic while my friends were throwing Black Cats and squirting Magic Ink on anyone they could find.
My mom still had a cassette tape of that performance and I just converted it to MP3 for all to enjoy. Here you go:
Is that Theodore? No, it's Kevin Malik.
Next time I'll have videos and pictures from Eli's birthday. I still have some work to do to get the videos online, so it will probably be a couple days.
3 comments:
Matt,
You probably have more meat packed in your colon than John Wayne did.
Also, at night you can usually find me in my house without the lights on listening to old Westphalia Youth Choir tapes while a single tear runs down my cheek.
I remember the Great Food Service Spaghetti Eat-Off as the most miserable I've ever been in my entire life. I think I got 4 plates down. I started really fast, to overwhelm my sense of pain, and then "took a break" to try and get a second wind. No such luck. The next 2 hours were spent lying in my bed wanting to die and promising myself I'd never eat so much ever again. I thought I was going to explode.
Schmitz, you are a machine.
This comment brought back many memories of our Westphalia Youth Choir. Wish I had some of those performances on video! I especially remember the Christmas performances during Mass. "Come One, Come All" and "Haul out the Holly" and "Violet in the Snow". Man, we were cute, huh? ;)
I also liked caroling at Little Flower Haven et al... the smell not so much, but making the old folks smile was worth it!
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