Our Best to You

In another life time, back in the 40’s and 50’s, as a university student, a wonderful program came on every night at 11 o’clock at the wonderful 50,000 watts WPTF Raleigh NC, the station is still very much on top of today’s world. The program was “Our Best to You” with a marvelous host, now deceased, named Jimmy Capps.

As college students across the state were studying in their dorm rooms, or otherwise, they could hear the best in the music of this era with dedications to a student in a certain dorm in Chapel Hill to a student in a dorm on the Meredith campus, or Peace College, etc. This was the romantic era of the last century. When young people could understand good music and were paying their way through college (there were no grants and few scholarships at that time) and knew their future depended on their own efforts not the “tooth fairy” mental attitude of today’s youth who just want things given to them, including their education and the promise of a job in a socialist existence after graduation.

Our best attended military academy’s, our best endured the competition of professional schools, our best survived in the financial and business world, without government interference and government “bailouts”. Our best were voted into the local, state and federal political power groups.

In my county, a lesbian, Julia, represents the good hard working people of this county in the legislature. Her reputation is a matter of newspaper reports i.e. her failure to pay taxes, her domestic divorce from her partner, Melissa, and her fight over the custody of a small child which Melissa produced through artificial insemination. In this county, Representative Wright is is jail for corruption. One U.S. Congressman, Ballance, is in jail for corruption. Former Speaker of the House, Representative Black, is in prison for corruption.

Our best does not seem to apply any longer to musicians, and other artists. Recently two paintings were hung upside down in a gallery in London and of all the thousands who viewed them, no one recognized this mistake. The history of this republic is marked by the best minds, not the most popular, getting the scholarships, the most incompetent achieving political office, not the one with the most money, the best reputation as a law officer, not an incompetent who just needs a job. When did we lose our appreciation for quality in workmanship or character? When did we lose our appreciation for knowledge gained from great literature and great art.

Albert Einstein said ”A person whose brain does not experience wonder when studying the universe and an appreciation for the great things of the world might as well be dead.” More importantly, we have great pity on those who do not have a memory for greatness; even a remarkable radio program. Often, I turn the dial on a radio. I cannot believe the lyrics, the musical beat, the insanity recorded and played. At least, in a Voodoo village, the beating of the drums did make some musical sense. There should be some poetry, some rhyme or reason, involved in lyrics. The words of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Diana Shore brought thoughts to our psyche which we could share with the artist and author. Without some melancholia, some gentleness, some want... even the sharing of a love story, there is little reason for popular music. Don't tell me that the harassment, embarrassing words coming from today's boom boxes are the best the artist and performers have to offer. Once, in Africa, a professor of music from Canada told me that beating on a cardboard box with a stick was a form of music, maybe so!

I start each Sunday morning listening to a wonderful older lady presenting her program, Musical Memories, from the historic Moody Church in Chicago. This past Sunday was Martha Reed Garvin's twentieth anniversary. She is heard around the world. There are still people who appreciate the old hymns of faith. Martha plays the Steinway Grand Piano and sings the old hymns. This past week I wrote her a letter and sent her a check to show my appreciation. I told her in the note, in my world of blackness, memories of the old hymns sung in the country church where I was raised, verses from the Bible I learned as a child have seen me through these dark days. So it is with the oldies, but goodies, past secular-popular performers... Kate Smith, the Judy Garland, the Judy Collins, and certainly Sarah Vaughn. Their voices singing popular songs will stay close to our hearts just as hymns of faith will stay close to our hearts. A reservoir of hope in a time of struggle.