The Music

The music was always loud, and sometimes even noisy

Yet it didn’t emanate from tv sets or cell phones ringing, and it always carried a message.

Mothers calling from windows in strident voices to youngsters roller skating along the city streets. Their voices shouting messages of loving care and concern. No day care, or texts, but always vigilance.

The honking horns of cars driving east to the “right side” of town were constant reminders of the great opportunities in our beloved country. Study hard, try more and someday, maybe someday, you will live east of the Park.

The streets were flooded weekly when the choir voices resonated from the 11 o’clock high Mass in St. Paul the Apostle Church. The glorious sound reaffirmed every belief, every hope and every dream of those privileged to hear the medley of voices accompanied by the majestic organ broadcasting God’s gift of faith. The memory still lingers in the hearts of all those once privileged to hear the beauty and accept the message.

The streets were never quiet, but rarely, if ever, angry or evoked fear. Rather the rhythm provided comfort along with a sense of community.

It was only in later years when the silence dominated the empty streets and no one called children from the windows, that fear festered and the music stopped.

Sometimes it returns today with the voice of an anxious Mother in a supermarket or the refrains of an old melody in a film and occasionally with the impatient sounds of traffic.

But even though the sounds are softer, the music still plays.