On Thursday this week the new choir met as usual. Being so close to Christmas, with all its activities and dinners, there were only a few of us, but more than one is still an opportunity to sing together so we met.
When I arrived at the usual venue the alarm kept going off and it proved to be impossible to sing inside so we gathered in a small group on what is called “The Town Square”, an area with a small stage, some lawn and paving, and a tall metal Christmas Tree, opposite the venue. We did some exercises and, as is usual in this group, laughed a lot while we stretched and leaned, breathed and vocalised. Then we sang.
We sang canons and rounds. We sang South African lullabies in harmony, and a Maori waiata. We sang Latin and English. We sang and people listened. Some hooted their car horns as they passed. Some glanced and walked on but smiled. Some stopped. It was Great Fun.
Two women walked up to the group as we ended. They asked if we were singing still and when we said that we had finished they looked a little crestfallen so we sang another song. Then we chatted. Over the course of the conversation one of the duo asked about the choir, saying that she worked for a magazine and might ask to do an article about us singing outside. Then Colleen, for that is her name, said that she was an author and had written a book called “Violet’s Scarf“.
Violet was a New Zealand girl who lived on a farm outside Riverton in 1915. One day a Red Cross worker visited her school and asked for contributions for soldiers serving overseas in World War One. Violet knitted a scarf because she felt she needed to contribute. One of her brothers, George, was a volunteer in the army and she knew her other brothers would be following. For a month she knitted and then the scarf was tagged with her name and sent overseas with thousands of other gifts.
Violet’s scarf took a year to arrive in France.
Loaded onto a horse-drawn waggon, the scarf travelled again, finally arriving at a New Zealand camp near the front line of the fighting. Two soldiers climbed into the waggon and threw out the parcels to the men who were waiting eagerly for the gifts. George caught one and opened it.
It was his sister’s name that he saw on the label of the scarf that he drew out of the packet…
George returned home with the scarf and the label, which is now in the Hocken Library collection at the University of Otago in Dunedin.
A shriek! One of the choir members jumped for joy.
“My mum did the research for your book!”
Another choir member added:
“And I ordered your books for all the local schools on behalf of the Returned Servicemen’s Association.”
Many hugs and excited chatter and photographs later, and after a rendition of Still Nacht in German, the two left to continue their walk. What a lovely surprise, all caused by a faulty alarm. An early Christmas present for us all.
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