Last night I started my holiday (Thanksgiving) cooking. Going to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving and making my specialities which are sweet potato casserole, (no marshmallows allowed!) cranberry/apple relish, and that old dinner standby– salad.

After having made vat after vat of cranberry relish, I really don’t want to see anymore exploding cranberries for a while. I have several lovely blisters on my right wrist to show for my battle with the berries. Glad that’s over with for now…until Christmas.

This afternoon it will be time to play w/ the sweet potatoes. After slicing them to manageable and boilable size (I got the monster sized ones this year) they have to boil for 45 minutes. I’m amazed each year as I see just how dense those suckers really are. No wonder they need to boil that long.

Meanwhile, during the boiling phase, I’ll multi-task and take on an unplanned but necessary activity: give Abby a bath to remove the remnants of splattered cranberry relish from her neck. She took her “honorary” title of sous chef to heart, I guess. Perhaps I should wait until after the sweet potato casserole has been put into the baking dishes, as it has been an Abby tradition to lick the mixing bowl…

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving ya’ll!

My friend Paul Schmidt from Knoxville sent me this. He’s always good for a salty joke or fifty. And don’t get him started on the blond jokes…So, I figured out that my list falls somewhere between the age 32 revised list and the age 42 revised list…

How I missed the spirit of the Christmas holiday

Christmas 2000

The holidays are upon us, and my husband and I wanted to capture some of that festive, warm spirit. Having moved from Florida a year and a half ago, many of our holiday traditions were left behind with our family and friends. In Orlando, we have enjoyed the Orlando Ballet Company’s A Nutcracker Suite and the Orlando Theater Project’s Scrooged for many years. There were numerous tree decorating, cookie baking and bonfire parties we would be missing. We needed good cheer and a twinkle of magic to help us in our new home. My husband and I decided to attend the City of Gatlinburg 20th Annual Community Chorale A Traditional Christmas. It had been advertised as a living Christmas tree performance, and we felt it would be an excellent start to our new holiday preparations. Many of our coworkers belong to various choirs and had been talking for weeks about their Christmas programs, but they occur later in the season. We wanted some holiday cheer NOW! So with great anticipation we set off to find our holiday spirit.

We arrived at the Gatlinburg Convention Center, just as the lights were dimming. As we stole along the back of the chairs to find a comfortable place to sit, we noticed the huge holiday lit, 6 tier, 40 foot Christmas tree, and in front to the left, a baby grand piano. The accompanist, Jana Stiles, was playing a soft medley of Christmas songs. We looked over the program and were amazed by the number of choir members-25! How would they all fit on that tree? The musical selections combined religious and secular songs, some of which we hadn’t heard before–or so we thought. The choir began its procession to the tree, amid much confusion, while the accompanist played a melody I couldn’t place. It soon became apparent that there was a shortage of choir members, because the tree was barren of singers in spots, and the top two tiers were completely empty. They were missing nine members. My hopes were beginning to descend.

The program began with Sing a Song of Merry Christmas by W.A. Mozart/ W. Ehret. I was still looking forward to hearing joyous voices singing about the comforts of the season, but had to lower my expectations as my husband reminded me this was not a professional group, but a community group. With that understanding clear in my mind, I sat back to enjoy what I could of the performance. Soon, my ears were assaulted by an off-key rendition of Christmas Grace, which was Christmas-tized version of Amazing Grace. The program began to get better with the piano duet of All Alone Beneath The Mistletoe/Ring Those Christmas Bells. My husband laughed at me because I preferred a non-vocal performance to the choir. A duet between the chorale director Mark Cheramie, and Sandra Pinkoski of Vivaldi’s Laudamus Te was the highlight of the show. His operatic tenor and her soprano soared the glorious music around the room, and filled the space with peace and joy. Finally, some spirit, some cheer! And that’s when it hit me: this chorale group lacked spirit and joy in their voices. They were singing as if their hearts had been taken out, and their souls stomped upon. Why? Could it have been because they were missing so many of their number? They had lost their confidence, I imagined. It didn’t help that the audience was slowly sneaking out. The rest of the performance was lackluster, with one or two exceptions; a solo from the divine voice of Mark Cheramie of Gesu Bambino and a warm group rendition of Still, Still, Still.

Well, we hadn’t quite received the Christmas spirit we were looking for, but on the drive home, my husband remarked that he had been thinking about what my late father’s reaction to this performance might have been. We both agreed he would have groused about as much as I did, but he would have ended up singing along-whether anyone else in the audience did or not. He would have enjoyed it just for the sake of the people and the music-not whether they were on key or off; or if a young man’s voice was changing amid his solo. (It did!) It was the spirit of coming together that he would have enjoyed so much. I was shamed, because I had missed the spirit all together.

Published on February 18, 2000
The Knoxville News Sentinel
By Walker Johnson

Most shootouts happen at high noon, but last Friday one took place 30 minutes early. At 11:30 a.m., folks from the Journal Broadcast Group arrived en masse at the WIVK glasshouse in the Knoxville Center mall with their eyes narrowed and money flashing. Carollynn Hammersmith, Journal promotional director said the Journal people were there to free the captors of the house and return them to safety.

“We watched the promotion and saw the conditions inside the house, and we knew that both of the contestants were unhappy. We just felt there had to be two winners. The promotion was great, but the people in the house were doing all the work. The contest outgrew WIVK and just became about these people,” she said.

So when did Journal Broadcasting decide to offer $10,000 to the first one out of the house? Hammersmith said it was sort of spontaneous. She said that her stations (WMYU and WQIX) had talked about doing it, and Friday morning “it just all happened.” “This was not an attempt to sabotage WIVK’s promotion or some sort of guerrilla tactic, but it was all about the people inside,” she said. When asked if she called WIVK to tell them of the Journal’s plan to help the contestants she said, “Why should we?” Was it for the publicity or was it just about getting the two remaining contestants back with their families? Hammersmith insists it was only for the welfare of the contestants and had nothing to do with a coattail ride.

Steve Queisser, WIVK promotion director, said, “We are very flattered that competitors want to be in our contests. This just continues to reinforce the fact that we are capturing both the listeners and the attention of other stations.” Starting Monday, WIVK does it all over again. This time the prize is $30,000, and the bathroom breaks are limited to only one every seven hours. The house will start with seven contestants. When asked if the Journal would again come over with cash to lure out a contestant or two, Hammersmith said, “I have no idea if we would do it again. “We really try not to pay attention to what the other stations are doing because it takes our eye off the ball. They did have a great idea, but people suffered, and I am amazed they are going to do it again.”

Questions for Walker Johnson, a local broadcast personality, should be e-mailed to wonair1@aol.com or addressed to Walker Johnson, Weekend!, The News-Sentinel, P.O. Box 59038, Knoxville, TN 37950-9038.

It’s amazing that someone can sum up a person’s life in a few sentences. Big Ed was more than just these few words in the local paper. Oh so much more…

This time, I’m not tooting my own horn, but his…

EDWARD J. "BIG ED" HAMMERSMITH, 77, Orchid Lane, Altamonte Springs,
died Friday, Jan. 7, 2000.  Mr. Hammersmith was a bagger for Publix. Born
in East Eden, N.Y., he moved to Central Florida in 1973. He was a member of
Church of the Annunciation, Altamonte Springs. He was an Army veteran of World
War II. Survivors: daughter, Carollynn Hammersmith-Forman, Cosby, Tenn.; sister,
Catherine O’Hara, Anaheim, Calif. National Cremation Society-Beacon Chapter,
Winter Park.