King's Singers

When we were kids (the sibs and I, that is) we would go up to the Seminary building and watch Donald Duck cartoons on Family Night. My dad was a Seminary teacher in Utah, which meant that it was a full time job and he had keys to the building, which was located about 200 yds from the High School. It looked and smelled alot like church, but it had a candy bar machine, which I think would be an excellent addition to the mother's lounge. Can I get a witness?

On occasion, we'd head down to the Seminary building and drag the couches from the foyer into my dad's classroom and set up our own little cartoon theatre. We each got a little change to go get a candy bar and I'm sure there was probably soda and ice cream as well. Dad would hook up two VCR's and record a copy of the video that we had rented. I know, I know...it's illegal and the FBI will hunt us down like the dirty dogs we are then punish us with up to 50 years in prison or fine us eleventy billion dollars. I'm pretty sure we didn't grasp the wrongness of it back then...Dad being a teacher of doctrine and all.

So you might imagine we had a serious home video collection. You need to understand, however, that Dad didn't just tape one show on one tape. He taped show after show so that you had 5 or 6 different types of movies/nature specials/cartoons/General Conferences on any given tape. (My frugality has roots.) This led to a great deal of watching things in fast forward in an effort to get to what you were really trying to see. I specifically remember having a big thing for Johnny Appleseed, but in order to get to it, I had to fast forward through a nature special on Bengal Tigers and a bunch of guys singing a capella. Bo-ring. I must have scanned tigers and singers a hundred times before I ever gave either one the opportunity to educate or entertain me. I'm ashamed to say that I never did watch the tigers at normal speed, but once I stopped on The King's Singers, Johnny Appleseed was history. I developed a love for those particular guys and those particular songs that were on that particular tape. My mom and dad loved them too and it was one of the ways that I connected with my parents as a teenager.

I went home for a visit as an adult and painstakingly went through our video collection looking for the Johnny Appleseed/Bengal Tigers/King's Singers tape. Gone. I was crushed. It's one of those things that feels irreplaceable. I've searched for recordings of the particular concert that we had taped, but no luck.

Then just the other day when I was pulling weeds, I was thinking about that tape and wishing I could listen to it (I miss my dad) and a little voice whispered "YouTube!" (Isn't the Spirit up to date?) and I am pleased to embed for your listening pleasure....The King's Singers:




It made me cry, because of the memories, but I hope it at least makes you laugh a little. Or maybe you just think I'm more of a geek than you had previously thought. Either way.