Sunday, April 18, 2010

Abingdon Episcopal Church


Last Friday, the Chesapeake Bay Children and I attended a school concert at Abingdon Episcopal Church in neighboring Gloucester County.

The church itself dates back to the 1600s but this structure was built in 1755. (She says, as if she's any sort of authority. She did, however, read these dates in a book, so provided she didn't transpose the numbers--which is highly likely--she presumes they're in a close proximity of accuracy, give or take a few centuries. Either way, that's a long time ago.)

Abingdon looks almost identical to Ware Episcopal, which dates back to approximately the same period and is the sight of another school concert the Chesapeake Bay Children and I attended.

Click here to read about that episode which basically assures my Mother of the Year Award, due to arrive in the mail any day now complete with an apology letter for taking so long.

At Friday's Abingdon concert, CB Daughter and I sat in the audience while CB Son played in the hand bell choir.

It was a long performance, especially since the choir sang four thousand songs, and the hand bells (the only reason we were there) were featured only two or one three times.

Wanting to get as far away as possible from other people to distance ourselves from the throngs of spectators and gain a better view of the hand bells, Chesapeake Bay Daughter and I sat up in the balcony like birds watching everyone else down below.

The perch gave us a unique perspective, and as luck would have it I had my camera with me.

Although the interior is beautiful, the particular photos from our balcony perch turned out rather boring except for the two below which I took by zooming in close to a window behind the pulpit.

I did this while Chesapeake Bay Son was probably doing something very important, like trying to ignore the fact that his mother was in the balcony taking pictures of windows and other things completely unrelated to the concert, as he struggled to concentrate on his music.

But he's used to that. Poor guy.


The late morning sunlight shining through the windows was exquisite. And while everyone else turned their attention to the bulletin to see how many more songs before this was over the adorable children singing and the older ones playing music, Chesapeake Bay Woman kept looking at the window in the background with laser-beam focus.

(Did you know that laser-beam focus and Chesapeake Bay Woman are antonyms except when it comes to photography and then they become Siamese twins? Also yes those are tombstones in the yard outside, probably dating back to who-knows-which-century.)


The shot above is my favorite.

Chesapeake Bay Son played a wonderful cow bell set of hand bells and later went on to play one very impressive game of lacrosse, during which his mother (who does not know the rules of the game other than it's legal to hit, clobber, push and shove and why wasn't this game available to her as a kid--and can 45-year-old women play?), hollered to her son who plays the last line of defense before the goal, "WHACK HIM!"

The spectators on either side of her laughed.

She was the only one hollering. Evidently lacrosse is a very solemn, dignified game, much like being in the sanctuary of a historic church.

What did you do this weekend?

10 comments:

Jamie said...

That particular church is also haunted and is now home to the graves of the Page family which were relocated from Rosewell Mansion (which is also haunted). I think "Whack Him" is a perfectly acceptable thing to scream at a lacrosse game... I am not a solemn and dignified spectator. This weekend not much going on possibly a trip to the library or even in to work for a couple of hours- lease try to contain your excitement

Mrs F with 4 said...

I used to play lacrosse at school (yes, I went to THAT kind of school) and I don't remember it being solemn or dignified, or anything except excruciatingly painful.

We are having the most wonderful weekend. Our unexpected guests are still with us, and likely to be so for some time (THANK YOU, Icelandic volcano!). The children are LOVING the time with their godfather, who fortunately reciprocates; Mr F and I could not be happier to have this time, mainly spent laughing uncontrollably, with our oldest friend. (I mean, the friend we've both known for over 25 years, not the one who IS the oldest. ALthough he IS older than me. Just. Clear now?)

Pueblo girl said...

This weekend? Oh you know, argued with my partner, failed to make any progress whatsoever in cleaning, unpacking (yes, still unpacking) or organising the house, didn't cut the grass, surfed the net while waiting for the storm clouds to lift....

Unknown said...

This weekend PBJ and I watched Crusty swim in my flooded backyard. We sprinkled some salt in the water and told him it was "home". We're getting more rain today, and maybe if the earth moves we can create some surf.

That church window is beautiful, and you can never have to much cowbell.

nativedevil said...

A beautiful church. Jamie, glad you told us it is haunted, cool.
"Whack Him" reminds me of when I coached the senior class against the faculty at the high school my senior year. They brought in a huge football coach who actually taught at the middle school -A "ringer"- so after a few minutes, I called time out and told my team "get that guy off the floor-take his knees out if you have to!!" I was high-strung in those days. Of course, I did teach my kids that the only good Dallas Cowboy is a dead one LOL.
Lacrosse has gotten huge at our high school (Salem HS near Roanoke)
been a good weekend, rented a redbox movie last night ("Up") and the wife and I watched it together WARNING: good movie, but some sad parts. Grocery shpping today, dinner with a friend tonight.
P.S. Got MRs. Trusch a birthday card last night. Was tempted to get the one that showed pirates exposing their pirate "booties", but thought better of it HAHA

Karen Deborah said...

I went to church and took dozens of pictures in the yard, and sang songs, and was happy.

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Jamie-I did see some of the Page graves. There was one particular tombstone, sectioned off by a wrought iron fence, that was so old you couldn't even make out the print. Rosewell - I've definitely heard that was haunted.

Mrs. F - I will bet that you were a very good lacrosse player, no matter how painful it was. I'm glad that your company that was forced to linger longer is (are?)making you laugh - uncontrollable laughter is the absolute best.

Pueblo Girl-Thank you. Just thank you. It's comforting to know there is someone else out there with a To Do list that seems to fall by the wayside for any number of reasons. Just so you know, surfing the internet is an accomplishment and need to be added to every list (then checked off) you make that talks about things needing doing. That is time for yourself, therapy if you will. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

GJ-I think we need some cowbell at Blog Fest. It will go perfectly with the margarita machine and the karaoke that the Baroness has requested. (And which we will gladly provide, because really what's not to like about either one?)

Nativedevil - You were just demonstrating a very healthy competitive nature, good-hearted of course. Did you have any involvement with the powder puff game? I thought I was a junior and we played your class, but maybe I was a senior, who knows. In any case, the competition that night was ugly. To this day I think there was cheating going on and we should have won. (For all I know we did win and I'm only remembering/focusing on a particular touchdown I ran that didn't count and oh was I angry. But this has nothing to do with anything...) The Mrs. Trusch info goes up tomorrow. Should I be concerned that I don't know what a redbox movie is? If so, don't tell me.

KD-Singing is almost like laughing. It's good for the soul. (p.s. It's only good as long as I'm not doing the singing. Then it's very, very ugly and not good for anything.)

Dreading the start of the work week tomorrow but enjoying the remnants of this Sunday. Have a great week. -cbw

Meg McCormick said...

I dig old churches. Can we add it to the tour? We can check out Matthews Mark's ghost, then hop on over to the church to sniff out additional evidence of hauntings.

I have a T-shirt that says, "We need more cowbell"! I'll be sure to add that to my Blogfest packing list.

foolery said...

CBSon is in hand bell choir? ME TOO! Tell him when I come in July that WE'RE JAMMING. As long as he plays the bigguns. I don't play the bigguns.

And "Whack him!" is perfectly acceptable, as long as you did truly yell it on the lacrosse field, and not during the hand bell recital. That would not go over too well.

Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...

Church and groceries and burgers on the grill. The end.
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