Saturday Live!

Saturday Live is a Billings School District tradition. It is a carnival held at Pioneer Park in which most every school participates with a booth or attraction. My former grade school and church music teacher, Mrs. Pittack, asked me to join her students as they sang the National Anthem and other patriotic songs to kick off the afternoon event. She has made the Star Spangled Banner a permanent part of her curriculum in schools and does a great job preparing students (like me!). They gathered at the performance stage and I’m pretty sure there were over 100 students standing on stage. They sang The Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America, and America the Beautiful. Then I said a few words on how these songs are an important part of music education, but more importantly, as our responsibility as American Citizens. The attendance was a record high and many people were gathered around the stage. What a great event!

In the evening I sang at my old high school, Billings Senior High, for their homecoming football game on September 30. A former Miss Montana, Kristen Garlock Brook, made the arrangements and met me at the stadium. After working with the microphone in the announcer’s box, I went down to the field where I was to sing the National Anthem. Once the cheerleaders were in place with flag in the center of the field, I raised my microphone and sang the first note…and that’s all they heard. It turned out that the batteries were low and gave out right as I started singing. Thankfully, the crowd on the other side began to sing, and soon the entire stadium joined in to finish what I could not do without a microphone. It was actually a nice feeling to hear everyone else sing the Star Spangled Banner in a huge crowd like that. Sometimes things never turn out as planned, and often the way they are handled makes them successful anyway.
Afterwards, some of the girls on the sidelines were very sweet and asked for autographs. That was the first place I was asked to sign shoes!