Friday, December 29, 2006

Small World

Yesterday a guy named Lamar and his mom, Ruth, from Harrisburg stopped in. Ruth whipped out a letter and showed it to me. It was a Christmas form letter in red ink, and at the bottom it said something like, Do you happen to know Dorcas (Yoder) Smucker? She wrote a book. . .etc etc.

The letter was from Allan and Loyce Knutson of Grove City, Minnesota, who are the parents of Larry, who I graduated from high school with. And Allan happens to be a first cousin to Ruth.

So that was our small-world moment for the day.

Since the world is that small, maybe someone can help me locate something.

When I read through the Psalms, every so often a verse will jump out at me and dance through my head in a little song. "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion," for example. Or "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people."

But it seems no one else ever knows these particular little songs. The reason I know them is because we used to have a record of a group called the New Creation Singers, and they sang all these Scriptures set to music.

I would love to get hold of a recording of these songs, but I have been unable to find them anywhere. If you Google New Creation Singers, you get several more modern groups but not the one I remember. And Mom and Dad's record burned up in their house fire in 1987.

My memory is a bit sketchy but here's what I know: they were a small folksy group in the Midwest in the 70's. My brothers went to hear them once in Minnesota, and came home with a record which had a picture on the front of a wheat field with a young woman in a long granny skirt, holding a guitar, plus possibly another person or two.

I have no idea how well-known this group was, or how good they were. I naturally thought they were cool because my brothers did, but they must have had something solid to them if I still remember their songs 30 years later.

If this rings a bell with anyone, I'd love to hear about it. And if I could get a recording of their music, that would really be wonderful.

(Edited to add: WOW. Both the Internet and you Shoe readers are amazing. I got an email from Andrew, the accommodating community relations guy at Barnes and Noble who evidently not only hands out chocolate to authors but also untangles us 40-somethings from the Web. He sent me a link, I followed it, and there were all these New Creation recordings from the 70's, now turned into cd's. I clicked on a button to listen, and out came all my old favorites, clear as day. Two cd's are ordered. My thanks to Andrew and everyone else who went searching for me.)

Here's the link.

Quote of the Day:
"If a guy asks you out at Bible school, you better tell him he might not want to because he might have an article written about it."
--Emily's advice to Amy

5 comments:

  1. If it's the group I'm thinking of I heard them at the Nazarine church in Lebanon when our girls were small. I have several record albums (yes, the old LPs) of them at our place at CRR. I'll check next time we're there. But not the Scripture song one you mentioned, although I have heard such choruses. Others sang them too.
    Mary

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  2. It IS a small world. My husband's brother Tony from Athens, Tenn. mentioned missionaries from Poland in their Christmas form letter... I immediately thought of a blog I had crossed thru you... hey ! I "know" that family ! Yep. Small world.
    My mom gave me your book "Ordinary Days" for Christmas. I didn't even know about you or your books until this fall when a friend emailed me your blog address. And my mom didn't know about any of that. God did. HE knew all along your book would encourage me and it has. Thank you. I didn't mean to write my own "book" just to tell you that but here it is. THANK YOU and GOD BLESS !!!

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  3. I have never heard these singers myself, but my first thought after reading this post was, "check out eBay!" So I did, and there are several listings. None match your description on the cover, but it sounds like it could be the same group. The line on the bottom of the cover says "Singing the Scriptures". If you don't "do" eBay, let me know. I'd be glad to get it for you. JoAnn

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  4. I remember that too...My older sister used to have the tape I think.and I know the song,would love to hear them again.Do you have the link readily available?? Mary ann

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  5. I think that my former middleschool teacher at EP had that record, cuz i know all those song/verses too! We were required to take and set a verse to music, and i remember that Bonnies' brother picked a verse from Solomon that says "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothacary to send forth a stinking savor ........." The tears from laughter are rolling as i remember how he solomnly sang that in front of the class - it was very dirg-like in melody!!!!
    sil geneva

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