I’ve Loved Music From 5-Year-Old Me Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
To the senior-citizen version of that little boy singing Garth Brooks “The Dance” for a charity fundraiser
Singing is in my blood.
It will be until the day I die.
I’m blessed.
How I wish my parents had the foresight to record 5-year-old Arty singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in my grandma and grandpa’s living room back in 1957.
If they had done so and passed the recording onto me, I would have included it as a link in this article.
Unfortunately, they did not.
Fortunately, six and a half decades later, the highlights of that experience have stuck with me.
That’s how special that day was. Here is my recollection.
Picture This
There I am, all of 5 years old, shyly standing off to the side in my grandma and grandpa’s living room, dying to grab center stage.
My mommy, daddy, and grandparents are yacking away, talking about whatever grownups talk about that little kids have zero interest in, oblivious to my presence.
My self-dialog is going something like this:
I gotta sing, I gotta sing, will they ever stop talking?
It reaches the point where I can’t bear waiting any longer, so I take a few tentative steps towards the grownups and in my sweet little Arty voice sing:
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
Up above the clouds so high, like a diamond in the sky
There I was, in all of my glory — four pairs of eyes so keenly focused on my singing that it was as if I was auditioning for American Idol and my parents and grandparents were the four judges. It gets even better — I got a unanimous standing ovation and was voted into the next round.
It was absolute heaven — that perfect combination of singing and recognition.
I was hooked.
Fast Forwarding to Later Years
I never made it as a professional singer.
That’s ok.
The lack of fame or recognition has not diminished my joy of singing even one iota.
Singing and performing has been my #1 passion throughout my entire life.
I have so many fond memories. I have no doubt I’ll continue to accumulate more.
Here are a couple of memories going back to my teenage years.
- Singing folk songs with my friends.
I recall as if it was yesterday my friend Stu and I singing the Peter, Paul, and Mary song 500 Miles. Stu was singing lead, and I was singing harmony.
Just a minute ago, I watched the YouTube video of the song.
Tears came to my eyes when it got to the harmony part. That’s how much music resonates with my core self. I don’t even need to pay attention to lyrics. Taking in the blending of harmonious notes is enough to elicit that degree of emotion.
Here’s the video. The harmony comes about 30 seconds into it.
2. In junior high school, singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handels’s Messiah
OMG — how could there possibly be a more beautiful musical composition than this!
The harmonies are exquisite. I just gotta find another opportunity to perform in this again. It’s time for me to hunt down a chorus I can join and summon up the nerve to ask the chorus leader to consider including this in the next program.
Here’s the video link:
Other Fond Adult Singing Memories
Below is a video of 61-year-old me singing The Music of the Night at a show I was part of back in 2013.
Frankly, I’m not thrilled with how I sounded. It predates my taking singing lessons. That being said, I suspect you’ll pick up on the passion in my voice and how into the performance I was.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the good fortune to sing in a number of choruses and at various performing venues, including nursing homes, community concerts, and at shows in my retirement community. I almost forgot monthly karaoke night, which happens to be tomorrow in our clubhouse. I can’t wait for that.
Far and away, the two performance highlights of my life are:
I proposed marriage to my wife at a barbershop chorus performance
That was back in 2017. There had to be over 100 people in the audience. My wife knew in advance I’d be singing one song as part of a quartet.
She had no clue of any details beyond that.
Picture this:
There I am on stage, singing a song in 4-part harmony. I was singing baritone. Towards the tail end of the song, I step away from the quartet, walk down to where my wife is sitting in the second or third row and get down on my knees.
My wife has a most perplexed expression on her face. That’s an understatement.
I pull out the engagement ring from my pocket and complete the lyrics to the song, words that were perfectly fitting to the occasion:
Won’t you be my bride?
OMG — was I nervous! That was apparent from the trembling of my voice.
OMG — that was one exciting, precious moment, indelibly written on my heart forever and ever.
Thankfully, my wife said yes. (I guess you figured that)
How could she not after such a spontaneous romantic proposal, lol. That’s not to mention how humiliating it would have been if she responded no or hesitating said: let me think about that for a while- I’ll get back to you.
Number 2 on the list — I sang a song to my wife at our wedding
The song was the Tony Bennett standard The Way You Look Tonight. My friend Frank accompanied me on the saxophone.
Once again, my wife did not see it coming. Nor did any of the other wedding attendees.
It was a special moment that was pure joy. One that I shall never forget. Nor will my wife.
Last But Not Least
I was thrilled to recently participate in an Internet telethon to raise money for stroke awareness. Here is the video of my performance.
I’m no Garth Brooks, but I did my best. It was an honor to be asked to sing and one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.
I know many of you may have already seen the video. I chose to include it for those who haven’t.
My Wish For You
Find a hobby you’re passionate about and do your best to carve out the time to engage in it.
We all have so many things we need to do, whether it be going to our jobs, paying the bills, grocery shopping, or the like.
Taking time for ourselves to do things we want to do but are not necessities can so easily be an afterthought — that is if it’s a thought at all.
Do you have any old hobbies that really spoke to you earlier on in your life and have fallen by the wayside? If so, see if you can find at least a few minutes a day to reengage in them.
Perhaps you’ve never had hobbies you were passionate about. If so, take a few moments to think about activities you may have always been curious to try, but for some reason never got around to giving a shot.
There are multiple benefits to having hobbies. This article lays out a few of them. I suspect one or more of the reasons will click with you.
I hope you’ve found this article an interesting read. I’d love for you to share any thoughts you have.
I cherish giving shoutouts for articles that are deserved of thousands of reads, yet only have a few hundred.
I do this for two reasons. One is because the author deserves the recognition. The second reason, equally important, is my conviction that many other readers will benefit from reading the article as much as I have.
Here goes a shoutout to Natalie Gasper for the following inspiring article:
Be well, guys.
Art
