all rise

It officially feels like Christmas to me. Tonight we went to the Clayton Holiday Pops concert by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. My wife sang with the chorale. As in past years, the program began with the Leroy Anderson arrangement of the "Christmas Festival Overture." That particular piece reminds me of all the Boston Pops records my father had. The Overture is a medley of several traditional songs like "Joy to the World" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." When the chorale joined in for "O Come, All Ye Faithful," I was hit full force with the Christmas spirit.

Later in the evening when the "Hallelujah Chorus" began, some people in the audience stood up. Eventually we all did so as not to feel stupid. I didn't know why we were standing, so I asked the woman next to me. She didn't know either. Is it a Baptist thing? Or maybe a Southern thing? My wife said the audience also stood for the "Hallelujah" last weekend at a concert she did at the Cumberland County Playhouse.

Before most of the songs, Maestro Lucas Richman would turn to the audience and chat about the upcoming piece. As he introduced the "Carol of the Bells," he said that the song had some connection to puppeteer Shari Lewis. He was trying to say that Shari was on the "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" show. I thought everyone knew that it was actually Burr Tillstrom who was the hand inside Kukla and Ollie. In an attempt to be helpful, I yelled out the name of Shari Lewis' puppet "Lamb Chop" from my seat in the audience. Wouldn't you? Unfortunately the Maestro didn't finish the story so we'll never know what puppets had to do with the "Carol of the Bells."