MUSIC AND MEMORIES – a spirit reflection by Ellie Kell
Do you ever hear a piece of music and suddenly find yourself transported back in time? That happened to me at a jazz workshop recently, led by Willie Sordillo. He played a swing piece from the Tommy Dorsey era and I found myself smiling and remembering seeing my friend’s older sister, Edie and her husband Bing jitterbugging. Bing would even throw Edie into the air and catch her and swing her through his legs and they’d then pick up dancing once again. As an 8 year old, I thought how great it would be to be able to dance like that. But, alas, I’m about as coordinated as an elephant on roller skates so never mastered the jitterbug.
That began me thinking about church hymns and music and how they tend to send me back in time when I hear them. Jesus Loves Me is the first piece of church music I ever heard and I remember vaguely sitting on the lap of Mrs. B. in the nursery school at the church we attended. She had the most comfortable lap and when she’d sing to me, I thought that she was one of those angels that I saw in a picture book my mother would read to me. To this day I think of those days and hope Mrs. B. knew how much I loved her and how safe she made me feel while in her care..
I joke that if you want me to follow you all you need to do is play “Just As I Am”. This hymn was played at my confirmation and I love it. Later as a young adult I attended a Billy Graham rally in Boston Garden. I sat in the third balcony with my young adult friends and when they called people forward and I heard “Just As I Am”, I went forward – not because of any words Billy Graham said but because that hymn just propelled me down the three flights of stairs across a crowded floor to where Billy Graham’s people took down your name and were supposed to contact your local church. I was devastated to find out they sent nothing back to my congregational church for either me or the other young adults from my church.
A hymn we don’t sing often is “Day Is Dying In the West” but when sometimes in an evening service this is played, I am taken back to Northfield School for Girls where in high school I attended Congregational Church Camp there for one week. Every evening we had vespers on a hill and would sing “Day Is Dying in the West” as the sun would set.
I’m not sure how I learned the hymn “Nearer My God To Thee” but somehow as a child I heard it and internalized it. When I went through a period where I was fascinated with funerals after attending my great aunt’s funeral when I was around 12 years old, that was the hymn we’d sing when I buried critters, birds, ducks, turtles and even bats. You don’t hear that hymn much today but a few years ago I was watching a rerun of the old Titanic movie and they played that hymn at the end. Immediately I had to smile remembering my officiating at these critter funerals. I’m sure my family wasn’t sure what to make of that but as I remember they (and neighbors) humored me and attended these little funerals complete with scripture readings and sometimes eulogies. Somewhere in the land surrounding the summer cottage we stayed at back then are little graves for said critters.
Whenever I hear “We Shall Overcome” I see myself at a Massachusetts Conference United Church of Christ worship at Abby Chapel on the Mount Holyoke Campus and a Saturday night service. As we processed from the chapel that night, I found myself singing this song over and over again.
Are there songs that you hear that were a part of your past? I encourage you to allow yourself to be transported back to a time when a special hymn or piece of music really spoke to you. This is a gift from God given to you forever. Thanks be to God for Music and Memories.