O Little Star of Bethlehem Barbie

O Little Star of Bethlehem Barbie

In elementary school, we had a Christmas concert every year.  One notable time my class sang The Coventry Carol.  All of the students sat on stage for the whole show and each class would rise as it took its turn to sing.  This was much easier than marshaling the children in and out for each song.

The school stage had two short flights of stairs leading down to the gym floor with a skirting wall that extended to hide the stairs from the audience.  Someone rigged a platform by putting some boards across the top of the wall for my class.  There was room for 24 kids in two rows, twelve stage left and twelve stage right.  I was kid 25 so my chair was on the gym floor and I stood on it when it was our turn to sing.  I was tall but the arrangement had my head at waist level to the others.

No one else from my family was performing that year.  We had a new baby at home so my mother could not attend.  Dad tried to escape too.  He suggested that I need not go.  This was craziness.  I had practiced.  My class needed me.  Dad suggested he could drop me off at the school and pick me up when it was over.  No, no.  Everyone's parents would be there.  What if he only came for my one song?  It wasn't just one song.  We would all be singing O Canada at the start and God Save the Queen at the end!

My adorable, long-suffering Dad came....  and stayed for the whole concert.