Late 1990s and Today
So Blessed
by Matthew Beish
Favorite Memories
by Jen Greco
Early to Rise
by Heather Myers
Do You Remember . . . (Europe '97)
by Shannon Krebs
Krista is Generally Humorous
by Brenda Bowser
One Time I Puked . . .
by Krista Poppe
Wonderful Memories
by Heather Duda
A Tale of Poland
by Jennica Musselman
So Blessed by
Matthew Beish
There are too many memories and stories to share!
I thank God for the people and experiences I had during my choir
days. We were blessed to sing beautiful music under a wonderful
conductor. The Benediction continues to sing in my heart as I think
of my Lycoming days. Hello to everyone and God Bless you!
Favorite Memories
by Jen Greco
My favorite memories are of the Candlelight Services
and the performances at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC. I also enjoyed
rehearsals and the overnight trip where we performed in NJ and then
NYC. Thanks for the memories!
Early to Rise
by Heather Myers
On Spring Break Tour 1999 (somewhere in Michigan).
Susie Covert, Remi Mawokomatanda, Jenn Snyder, and I were staying
together. Remi and I were in one room and Susie and Jenn were down
the hall. I woke up, and since there was no clock in our room, I
checked my watch. It was 6:10 a.m., and since we were getting up
at 6:15 and I was first to shower, I got up. I showered, dressed,
did hair, etc. and then went to wake Jenn. She went to shower. I
turned the light on in the hallway and glanced at my watch. It was
3:15 a.m.! In the dark, I had mistaken 2:30 for 6:10. Jenn and I
both went back to bed and got up 3 hours later! Needless to say,
I stayed in bed until the alarm went off the rest of the tour!
Do You Remember .
. . (Europe '97)
by Shannon Krebs
Numerous memories flood my head when I think about
Choir and Tour Choir. Probably the clearest of these is the May
'97 trip to Europe! For anyone (and everyone) who was on that tour
or previous Lyco European tours, do you remember . . .
— the minute stature of all overpasses in
Poland?
— hostile hostellers in Gliwice (along with retro-style comforters?)
— the infamous pig roast and Olympic-style games (not a good
showing on the part of the U.S.)?
— singing the Peter Lutkin Benediction at the wall in Auschwitz?
— amazing concerts (and similar receptions after :) ) in Seligenstadt,
Szczecin, & Wagenfeld?
Krista Is Generally
Humorous by Brenda Bowser
I guess one would definitely be the night Fred's
mother was passing away and we were in California. The choir showed
its true colors that night. Even after more than a week together,
we were as close and strong as ever. Of course, any memory that
involved Krista [Poppe] is generally humorous, except for the whole
zoo vomiting thing — and even that had its moments.
One of the funniest Krista memories would have to be the night
we spent in a Polish youth center. Well, that whole day was so funny
that we were laughing ourselves into tears all day and all night.
It was the first time I think I've ever seen Krista squirm over
housing conditions. Oh, there are just too many memories to share
. . . I'll have to give this more thought.
One Time I Puked .
. . by Krista Poppe
One time – I puked at the San Diego Zoo. Actually two
times.
Wonderful Memories
by Heather Duda
I have several memories of the choir from my years at Lycoming.
After four years of tour, chamber, and large choir, who wouldn't
have a story or two to tell? But what I want to share is the impact
choir has continued to have on my life. My choir experiences make
for great stories and are some of the first stories about myself
that I tell people. I am always mentioning the trips, the embarassments,
and the laughter. And you'd be surprised how quickly you can bring
any conversation to a complete halt by saying that you sang backup
for Barry Manilow and performed at the White House.
I recently realized just how much the Lyco choir has become a
lasting part of my life. Every morning when I enter my office, one
of the first things I see is the picture of the 1997 Tour Choir
standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The photo sits
on my desk beside a wooden replica of Clarke Chapel. The picture
and replica always make me smile as I remember something different
about Lycoming, whether it is a tour moment or a candlelight service.
It seems that all of my best memories about Lycoming College can
be directly linked to my involvement with the choir. Thank you Fred
for the wonderful memories that truly do last a lifetime!
A Tale Of Poland
by Jennica Musselman
In May 1997, the Tour Choir traveled to Szczecin,
Poland for a two-night stop on the European tour. (Please note that
nothing in this story is an exaggeration!)
We got there after spending an entire day on the bus, and we hadn't
had dinner. At the chor house, Jan Szyrocki matched us up with our
hosts. Heather Duda and myself were paired with a 21-year-old Polish
girl who seemed very nice. She said that she didn't have a car and
so we were going to walk to her apartment. Of course, we were agreeable,
despite our suitcases, because Heather and I were the tour managers
and are generally polite. We set off, down the street . . . and
down another street . . . and another. By then, both of us were
really struggling with our luggage, but our host still didn't want
to get a taxi. Two other members of the Polish choir caught up to
us and convinced her that we couldn't make it all the way to her
apartment, and so Heather and I ended up paying for the taxi (which
was all right with us, actually, by that point). It turned out to
be an extremely good idea, considering her apartment was clear on
the other side of the city!
She lived in a tenement building that illustrated everything one
would stereotype a tenement to be: dirty, dilapidated, loud, with
dogs barking and kids screaming everywhere. Her live-in boyfriend,
who didn't speak any English, met us in the tenement's courtyard
and — thank goodness — carried our suitcases up the three
flights of stairs to their apartment.
The apartment consisted of one medium-sized room, one smaller one,
and a tiny kitchen. I didn't see any beds anywhere (or much furniture,
either), nor did I see a bathroom. It turned out that the bathroom
was a community one in the hallway, and it was only a toilet. Our
host didn't have a shower, and she didn't understand why we needed
to wash anyway, since we'd just had showers the previous evening.
We ended up washing in a large metal tub placed on the kitchen floor.
The water had been heated on the stove, since they didn't have hot
running water, either.
She also didn't expect to have to feed us dinner, and we were starving.
So we got rice with tomato sauce. Even so, we still felt really
guilty about eating their food, since they didn't seem to have much
extra. Heather and I ended up sleeping on a mattress on the floor,
without pillows. And incidentally, we slept next to our host's live
spider collection, which inhabited a corner of the wall about two
feet away from our bed.
The next morning, our hosts wouldn't let Heather plug in her hair
dryer and they looked at my curling iron like it was a device from
Star Trek. The girl walked us to the castle, where the choir was
rehearsing — about a mile or two. That afternoon, we were supposed
to spend time with her – per the Szczecin choir's schedule
– but she had to go to classes and work, so we holed up at
the chor house for the day with the lucky Lyco kids who were being
housed there.
She also didn't have time to come to the concert and party that
night, and her boyfriend made arrangements for another host to bring
us back to the tenement. We didn't get back until 2 a.m., because
our ride didn't want to leave the party until late. We also got
lost on the way back to our host's apartment, partly because nobody
knew exactly where they lived (including us) and they didn't have
a phone.
When we made it to the tenement, everything was pitch black, especially
in the stairwell. Marcus Myers and Trevor Loehr walked us up, but
I think they were more scared than we were! Our hosts had been in
bed for hours, and weren't happy to see us arriving so late, even
though it was their faults for leaving us at the mercy of another
driver. We went straight to bed. Because of the seven locks on the
door, we couldn't get to the hall toilet during the night —
and we were full of Polish beer.
The next morning it was time to go to the bus and leave Poland.
We were absolutely ecstastic when our hosts got us to a taxi to
take us back to the chor house. I remember Heather saying "It's
finally over!"
But it wasn't. The taxi driver, who only spoke Polish, hadn't understood
where our hosts had told him to take us, and we ended up at a school
far outside of the city. We tried to sing to him and use sign language
to let him know we wanted to go to the "chor house," but
it just didn't work.
For some reason, he took us to the castle, where we had performed
the night before. Heather and I got out there, hoping to find someone
in the castle who spoke English. At this point, we were already
about 30 minutes late for the bus, and we couldn't help but think
that Fred had our passports, and if the choir left, we would be
stuck in Poland! Heather was crying hysterically and I started yelling
at her, "We have to keep going! We don't have a choice! "
In retrospect, that bout of hysteria as we walked into the castle
is quite amusing.
Luckily, the castle's director spoke English, and he shipped us
out to a van driver, who took us to the chor house. We jumped out
of the van and hugged Fred, crying and crying. The nightmare had
ended. And now, it makes a great story to tell all our friends —
but it definitely left a bad taste in our mouths about Poland.
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