When I was a boy still being dressed in monogrammed sweaters by a Mom who also seemed to favor the bowl cut hairdo for her boys, I looked forward to going to Sunday night church service. On most Sunday nights, the choir would rest from their gruesome morning recital, so those moments before the long, boring sermons were always filled with requests from the pews. I had two favorites, their numbers memorized so that when Mr. Decker, the music director, would ask for a hymn I could raise my hand and depending on my mood call out one of the two selections. Most times, I would ask for number 685, the true and steady march of "Onward Christian Soldiers." To me, this hymn came as close as you could get to the Casey Kasem top 40 that I had listened to earlier that afternoon. The organist would pound the bass, making the entire sanctuary shudder, waking up even the most devout slumberer in the congregation.
And then there was 414, "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder," perhaps the most requested song in the entire hymnal. Its popularity resulted not from the words--I thought it was "Roll Is Called a Piano" until I was able to read--or the music, but it was Mr. Decker's delivery. Mr. Decker looked like an old Ronald Reagan. He'd been a choir leader in one church or another since World War II and had now been relegated to Sunday nights when all he needed to do was turn to the right page and make sure that he could read the small print in the hymnal. But for "Roll" he reached back to those glory days when his voice could make the blue hairs swoon. On the final chorus, everyone knew to let him take over, and take over he did, stretching the final yonder out until his waddle was the color of Jesus' wound in the stain glass over the choir loft.
"When the roll is called up yooonderrrrrr..rrrrr...rrr...rrrr" [pause and then fast] "When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there!"
So in memory of Mr. Decker and my bowl haircut, this week's song on the brain is Johnny Cash's version of #414.
Comments