Archives for: 2007

From Utah:

I truly appreciate this site! As a newly called choir director, this is exactly what I need. Thank you!

From Idaho:

“you came up on my google search – YEAH!”

One of the songs for next year’s Primary presentation is “I Am a Child of God.” This is such a popular song that we want to do something special with it. I am trying to learn the sign language from the church web site. They have a wonderful link with many songs from the Children’s Songbook demonstrated in sign.

I noticed that I misspelled “Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire,” in the hymn arrangement listings. Did anyone else notice that I had posted that arrangement as “Prayer is the Soul’s Sincerest Desire?” It’s so easy to punch a couple of wrong letters on the keyboard!

Starting to work on our Ward Easter Program. We’ll have scriptures plus an arrangement of “How Great The Wisdom and the Love” and “I Stand All Amazed.” Plus some other hymns.

From Arizona:

“Thank you so much for being willing to share your talents!”

From California:

“My daughter is in our ward choir, so when I saw the link…I knew our choir director would appreciate your hard work. Thank you.”

Merry Christmas from the Pratts to Ward Choirs and LDS Choir Directors everywhere!

Our Ward Choir did a great job with our Christmas program this year. Then our wonderful choir members sang the program two more times at a nursing home near us. It was heartwarming to see smiles on the faces of people who don’t have much to look forward to during the holidays.

Tomorrow, ward choirs all over the world will perform their Christmas program in their Sacrament meeting. May angels join us as we sing praises to Him whose church this is, and may the Lord’s Spirit be with all choirs, accompanists, and choir directors everywhere!

Is everyone ready for their Christmas program this Sunday? Our Ward Choir is reading the Christmas story from Luke and singing traditional Christmas Carols. It’s hard to go wrong with great material like that!

Last Saturday at our Ward Christmas Party, I tripped over a chair with a glass of milk in my hand. The milk went up and I went down. Milk went every where – on the people around me, the chairs, the floor, but somehow not a drop ended up on me. Since I landed on my most padded part, the only thing hurt was my pride.

I found you through a Yahoo search! I can\’t wait to hear your arrangements. Thank you SO much,and God bless you for your generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I believe part of the reason hymn arrangements are so effective in worship services is that when we hear the same thing over and over again, we begin to tune it out. It is expected, we know what is coming next so our brains turn to other thoughts. When the ward choir sings, a special arrangement gives our ear a chance to focus on a slightly different rhythm, or harmony. It makes us pay attention and to focus more on the message.

I would be interested to know how all those ward choir Christmas presentations are coming. Does your choir sing several songs? Do you perform only one special musical number the Sunday before Christmas? My friend’s ward doesn’t have a ward choir at all. Every few weeks their Bishop gets up and announces that they will now sing a special hymn and anyone who would like to participate may come up and sing with the group. I think I would miss all the fun we have at practices if we did that.

“Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire” is my next project. The message is one of the most beautiful and poetic in our hymnal. So far, I am starting with a close four-part harmony, which would be very effective if sung accapella. The rhythm will be a rubato style. Of course, some ward choirs have difficulty singing without the piano, so if that is that case for your choir, you could just have the piano play along.

“I would be so grateful to receive this as soon as possible. We are trying to sing this for our christmas program and the arrangement we have now is much too difficult for me to play. Thank you so much!”

Last Monday my 18-year-old daughter was four hours late coming home from school. Naturally, I panicked. I called her cell phone and left several threatening messages. I texted her and told her if she didn’t call home she would never see daylight again. I called all of her friends and asked if she was with them. No one knew where she was.
I decided that when she got home I would check to make sure she was all right, and then I was going to kill her.
At last she walked through the door. I had the grenade launcher ready. “Where have you been!”
She looked surprised, “At work.” She answered, shrugging her shoulders.
“Oh. Right.” I forgot she goes to work on Mondays. Why hadn’t she answered her phone? Because she forgot to take it with her that morning.
“Well, there might be several messages you will want to delete.” I said sheepishly.

The handbells we use in Primary came in individual plastic bags. Those were noisy and started to fall apart. I bought a couple of dozen knee-hi nylons to wrap them in. Now they are well protected, are quiet, and I have a five year supply of knee hi stockings if there is ever a nylon emergency.

Today I’m sending out Christmas cards to all my choir members. I want them to feel appreciated, because they are! Perhaps I’ll even double their salaries.

Our power went out for four hours last Saturday, so my daughter and I went out to dinner and a movie. Then we went to the mall. By the time we got home the power was back on. I hope the power goes out again next month.

My son, Eric, who is currently at the MTC in Provo, was assigned a companion from California who has never seen snow. He recently included this in a letter:

“You know you’re from California when –
1. You are surprised to see real icicles.
2. You wear snow boots to class so you can walk through snow on the way.
3. You take pictures of everything with snow on it.
4. You are surprised to see the snow still there the next day.

I spent yesterday morning with my Mom. She was interested in my choir music and listened for hours as I talked excitedly about what I am doing now. She unabashedly thinks I am capable and wonderful and that’s just the way I like it. I don’t want her to be objective. If anyone doesn’t have a Mom like this, they should get one.

The top three things ward choir directors dread the most:

1 People who come up to sing with the choir who haven’t been to even one rehearsal.
2 Bishops who schedule council meetings during practice time.
3 Being told that choir director is a “left over calling” for those with weak testimonies.

I have heard it said, and I agree that singing with the ward choir is a worthwhile, spiritually enriching experience, even if we never performed.

Though she is astonishingly busy, Sally DeFord recently consented to do an interview for an article I am writing for yourLDSneighborhood. Due to her groundbreaking efforts in the world of LDS church music, she has paved the way for many others including www.freewardchoirmusic.com to share their music and talents with others. Watch for it to be posted in the next couple of months.

Hurray for email! The days of spending hours on the phone calling to remind choir members about rehearsals and performances are over. Just a click of the mouse and immediately twenty people know who, what time, and where.

In our ward, in addition to being choir director, I am also the Primary chorister. In Primary, we are learning to play Silent Night and Away in a Manger with handbells. Last week I thought to myself, “I must be completely out of my mind. I’m handing out bells to three and four years olds.”

I have been struggling to learn Spanish for about two years. While I do pretty well understanding what I read, it seems to me that it would be easier to speak it if my tongue were unattached and was floating around loose in my mouth.

I am working on a hymn arrangement of one of the most popular LDS hymns of all time; “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.” The key is easy, the chord progressions are simple and straightforward. The message is one of devotion and love. I’m going to try to work in a nice soprano descant.

From Las Vegas, Nevada:
“I am new to this calling and any help is greatly appreciated!”

“I googled \"lds ward choirs\” and there you were! Thanks for sharing your talents with the rest of us – at no charge, at that! May you be blessed as you continue to share it!”

My daughter just bought a teacup Chihuahua. When she takes it for walks she has to protect it from neighborhood cats that think it’s a mouse.

Goodwill to Men

The crowd was in a rioting mood. Several old women were trampled as the police tried in vain to hold back the crowds. Is this the description of war torn areas of the world or race riots in the 1960’s? No. Just the scene at Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving.

One year as I stood in line with my basket full of various electronic gadgets, I watched two men wrestle for the last DVD player in the store, and I found myself wondering,

Is this really how we celebrate the season of peace on earth, goodwill to men?

And when did the size and expense of gifts grow to include things like furniture and cars and even houses? When did our children start making out Christmas wish lists as if they were order forms?

When did we start feeling obligated to attend every Christmas party held by anyone remotely related or even just acquaintances?

When did we decide that it was our personal responsibility to make hand dipped chocolates for everyone in our extended family and our neighborhood?

When did we start doing all the decorating ourselves so our home was professional and artistic looking instead of filled with fond memories?

One December, haunted by my neighbor’s perfect decorations, I decided I would hide all the cardboard stars and shellacked pretzel ornaments my kids had made in school and decorate the tree with a theme. It would be perfect; I decided. I generously let my children help, but since I had kept out only the ornaments I deemed acceptable, we were finished quickly. My daughter stood back and with the practiced eye of a second grader said, “Something is missing.”

“Oh?” I said with a surprised look, smiling inwardly about how clever I had been. Still, the tree did look a little forlorn.

A half an hour later I heard my daughter shouting that she had found them. “They were in the bottom of your closet,” She announced with a suspicious stare. She hurried to hang them then stood back with a satisfied smile. She was right. The tree did look better. Maybe the only theme we needed was her happy face.

Another year, I was waiting in line to pay for my groceries, when a magazine advertisement with a brightly decorated gingerbread house caught my eye. In my minds eye I envisioned each of our extended family gathered around the kitchen table enjoying hot chocolate with marshmallows, while my gingerbread house sat in the middle sending out Christmas vibes all over the room. In a wild moment of what can only be described as insanity, I decided I would make a gingerbread house for every relative in the family. I might have even made a couple more for friends.

The next four weeks were a blur of gingerbread walls that refused to stay together, and powdered sugar on every surface in the house including the ceiling.
In the end, even though my houses were nothing even close to the one I saw in that magazine, at least I had finished them. I took my offerings to the relative’s houses heady with the feeling that I would give something meaningful. Something that might even become a tradition that would be remembered for years.

Instead, each relative smiled politely when they saw the gingerbread house, put it on an out of the way table and immediately forgot about until they saw the dilapidated thing sometime around Valentine’s Day and immediately chucked it.

I still can’t stand the smell of gingerbread, but the bigger lesson was that I had wasted the entire Christmas season and not enjoyed one minute of it with my family.

I once heard someone say that when we say Yes to one thing, we are saying No to something else. After that year I started using the Yes and No rule for all my holiday activities.

In other words, if I say Yes to making hand painted Christmas ornaments, I am saying No to running out into the snow to catch snowflakes and build a snowman with my son.

If I say Yes to putting up the tree by myself, I say No to singing Christmas carols while decorating with my children.

If I say Yes to home made baked goods for the entire neighborhood, I am saying No to a quiet chat around the kitchen table with my daughter.

If I say yes to a huge Christmas dinner with matching nametags, I am saying No to an unhurried reading of the Christmas Story from the book of Luke with my family.

If I say Yes to staying up all night to sew matching outfits for my children on Christmas Eve, I am saying No to a rested and patient mother on Christmas Day.

If I say Yes to spending huge amounts on presents, I say No to my children learning unselfishness and gratitude.

If I say Yes to racing around after that mythical perfect Christmas, I say No to peace on earth, goodwill to men.

“Hark the Herald, Angels Sing” is finished. It has lots of octaves and left hand over the top to create bells sounds. Jon Schmidt would be proud.

My husband got up at 4:00A.M. to go fishing this morning in 25 degree weather. He offered to take me along. As much fun as that sounded, I decided to sleep in this morning and stay warm. Well, someone had to stay home to feed the cat. Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices.

I have to admit, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Family. Good food. Giving thanks. What could be better?

I’m working on a fun arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I know it’s a little late for this season because most ward choirs started practicing for Christmas in September. But I had these ideas that I had to try, so I might as well finish it. I’m going for the sound of Christmas bells in the piano accompaniment. I hope it turns out as much fun to sing as it is writing it!

What makes playing for the care center so much fun is that they have an electronic piano that is obviously possessed. It doesn’t respond to the strength of your touch but plays either too loud, or too soft depending on where you adjust the volume knob, whether it is raining, and whether it is an even numbered day of the month.

Our ward choir sang at a local care center yesterday. It is actually a branch in our Stake, so we were there to sing for their Sacrament Meeting. I was so focused on the choir that I forgot that I was supposed to lead the opening hymn as well. When our pianist began playing, I was still going over the choir music in my mind. Then I looked up and saw there was no chorister. I jumped up to conduct, but had not thought to get a hymn book so I turned around and grabbed the closest one I could find. It just happened to be the hymnal the Branch President was holding. He was a bit surprised to have me grab it right out of his hands.

Well, at least the choir sounded wonderful!

I have finished a new arrangement of “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.” I am excited to have my ward choir sing through it. I tried to make the accompaniment reflect a troubled sea with a change of key and meter in the last verse.

Last night I volunteered at a Thanksgiving carnival for children at a nearby elementary school. Most of the children from the area were Spanish speaking, so I got a chance to practice my pathetic Spanish. We were decorating paper boxes with stickers of animals, flowers and stars. I was doing pretty well until I asked one little girl if she would like a sticker of a dinner plate on her box while I was holding up a sticker of a duck.

Yesterday I took some of my piano solos to a local music store that I had heard accepted pieces from local composers. Unfortunately I took a whole pile. The owner of the store took one look at my stack and began a tirade, saying things like, “I don’t have time to listen to all of those! There are thousands of titles to compete with…” etc. There was a lot of gesturing and hand waving.

In the end they agreed to listen to three of them. I think they felt sorry for me because I was stupid enough to show up with twenty piano solos in triplicate. After I played for them, they were a little nicer to me and kept three to look at. They said they would get back to me. Right. That’s going to happen.

“I have been the branch president and I know we have small budget to get sheet music. Please I would like to use your music - otherwise I am working with the music here in our branch still.”

Our Bishop changed the program schedule so we will record some of the music next week instead of this week – but Recordings ARE coming!

Here is a link of my Granddaughter singing “Twinkle, Twinkly, Little Star” and some other fun stuff: http://www.chocolatewebstudio.com/personal/sephoramrkrabs.wav

I am working on an arrangement of one of my favorite hymns, “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.” I’m going for kind of a “nautical” sound as if a ship is making it’s way across a stormy sea.

“Nearer My God to Thee” is a very simple beginning solo I wrote for one of my students who was asked to play something for Sacrament meeting.

In our ward children are asked to play simple hymns for prelude music in Primary or Young Women’s. It could be used for that as well.

We will soon be posting recordings of all the hymn arrangements and piano solos. These are not professional recordings, but will help give an idea of what the music sounds like. Recording in a studio would eliminate minor mistakes and background noise, but the cost is quite high and would have to be repeated every time we posted a new arrangement. Thanks for your understanding!

I will not be completing “If You Could Hie to Kolob” at this time. It is under copyright restrictions and cannot be copied without written permission. Writing an arrangement is considered copying. Hmmm. Does anyone have any idea how to get written permission?

I am working on a new arrangement of “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” I think if anyone knows what “hie” means they will have no trouble getting to Kolob.

The accompaniment is a little more challenging than I usually like to make it, but I wrote this one for my nephew who is a bit of a masochist.

Our Stake Choir recently sang “Come Follow Me” in Stake Conference in Spanish because we have a Spanish speaking branch in our Stake. When we posted it to the site, I accidentally left some Spanish lyrics in it. You might want to redownload that one if you got the Spanish words.

Also, occasionally, though I try to be careful, errors like that sneak by. If you find something wrong, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks!

Statistics show that many more downloads occur late Saturday night and early Sunday morning than any other time. It’s a good thing we don’t have hours like a store.

Do you have any suggestions or advice for other ward choirs? Do you have a secret that makes your choir the best in the church? How do you inspire your members to sing with enthusiasm? What is the best way to use rehearsal time effectively? We would like to hear your ideas. Post your thoughts on Linda’s Blog, or add them to the bottom of the “downloads” page and we will publish the best ones.

Thanks!

We’re trying to make the site more interactive by making the most recent blog entries accessible from the front page. We also optimized the site so in a week or two it will be found more easily through search engines. We’ve done a lot of work so you don’t have to!

My 3-year-old granddaughter is wearing a princess costume that lights up for Halloween. I wonder which will last longer – the lights or a three-year-old on a sugar high.

Recently, my husband Dave and I were travelling through Millard County in Utah and decided to stop and get a bite to eat. We stopped at a little steak house on the side of the freeway for lunch. You can’t miss it. It is between the pile of dirt on the left and the heap of rocks on the right. It had a paper place mat telling the sites of interest in the area.

It encouraged us to visit the nearby “intermountain power plant.” Since it is big. And very clean for a coal powered plant.

Also of interest is the “Paiute ATV Trial” (Yes, it is spelled “Trial”, not trail.) which is well-marked dirt you can ride your ATV on.

And, while you’re in Millard County, don’t forget to watch for the Snow Goose Festival.” Where you can watch geese fly by on their annual migration if you are lucky enough to be in Millard County in February and March.

I’m not sure about the geese, but I know I’m going to put that power plant in my next vacation plans.

We will be posting a nice tenor solo, “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing” soon.

My computer and I have a love-hate relationship. Me trying to coax it to do what I want. It telling me, “You didn’t say ‘please.’”

My clothes dryer broke down the morning we were taking my son to the Mission Training Center in Provo three days ago. These things always happen at the most inconvenient times. So he took the load across the street to our neighbors and knocked on the door asking to use their dryer.

They didn’t even bat an eye when they took the clothes and put them into their dryer. I think they are used to us doing things like that. One morning we ran out of milk and my daughter sprinted across the street with an empty glass, knocked on the door and asked for milk. Our patient neighbors brought out the milk and filled up her glass.

We can never move.

This year we are having a totally traditional Christmas program for sacrament meeting. We will have the Christmas Story in Luke read, with plenty of our favorite christmas hymns. “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Away in a Manger,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “The First Noel,” and, of course, “Silent Night.”

Most people don’t think of “Because I Have Been Given Much” as a Thanksgiving hymn, but it is.

One thing I’ve learned over the years as our ward choir director is that people like to perform music that they are confident singing. They like to know their parts well and know what the director is going to do. That’s one reason we start practicing for the holidays in September.

Of course, that means I am playing through Christmas music in July and Easter music in October. I have our other special musical numbers planned well in advance as well. That way when our bishopric approaches me about singing in only two weeks, I have several options up my sleeve.

I just finished an arrangement of “Come Thou Fount of Every Belssing.” This one is a tenor solo for a friend of mine. It may show up later for SATB.

Our Stake Choir performed my arrangement of “Come Follow Me.” We sang the third verse accapella. It was quite effective that way if your ward choir has confident singers.

When composing a new arrangement, I always try to follow the 3-4-5 rule which is: “All hymn arrangements are to be simple enough to be learned in 3 weeks, divide into only 4 parts, and can be mastered by the accompanist in 5 minutes.”

I just finished an arrangement of a traditional Thanksgiving hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.” If you have not started practicing for Thanksgiving yet, this may be a good choice. Set in a simple gregorian chant style, it is easy to learn with some interesting harmonies.

Hats off to Chocolate Web Studio for making www.freewardchoirmusic.com #1 in it’s field!

Be sure to check out the “links” at the bottom of my home page. There are many excellent sites with music resources for ward choirs and we are always looking to add sources.

Sometimes as our choir sings through a new arrangement there is an appreciative silence afterwards, but a few weeks ago I hurriedly wrote a descant for “Because I Have Been Given Much.” That time there was a stunned silence because it was truly awful! As I laughed and ripped up my copy, one of the men said, “I liked one of the notes.”

This Thanksgiving arrangement is about half done. I’m going for a kind of “gregorian chant” sound.

My brother’s ward choir has asked for an arrangement of “Now Thank We All Our God” (Hymn #95) to sing for Thanksgiving. So I’ll be scrambling to get that one ready for them to start rehearsing next week. Thankfully (no pun intended) it only has two verses!

We are making actual recordings of our ward choir singing the arrangements very soon. Hopefully this will make the site even more useful to all you great ward choirs out there!

Thanks again to everyone for your comments and suggestions. Some of you have been concerned about filling out the form asking for your name and ward and stake on the downloads page. Let me reasure you that we only ask so that we can make the site more useful. However, if you still don’t want to fill out the form, just leave it empty and click “submit.” You can still download as much as you would like.

“I have just been called to the ward choir position in a newly-created ward with NOTHING in the way of music except hymnbooks. Thanks for anything. I found you as I googled \’ward choirs\’ in total desperation.”

This morning as we were getting in the car to go to school, my daughter says, “Oh, I need a jar of dirt for one of my classes!”

Thinking fast I said, “OK, run downstairs and find an empty jar and go out into the back yard and fill it with dirt and I’ll go pick up the other kids and come back and get you.”

Luckily our back yard is a big pile of dirt from puting in a sprinkling system this summer.

When I pulled up in front of the house, my daughter jumps into the car and sure enough she is holding a jar of dirt.

“You found a jar! Good!” I say. She says, “Well it had jam in it so I dumped out the jam.”

“Ohhh.” I said, “I hope you put it in a bowl or something.”
“No. I dumped it down the sink.”

All I can say is she better get an “A” on the assignment!

All right all you dedicated ward choir directors! It’s time to turn in your 2008 choir budgets. This is mine:

20 matching sequined robes $2,000.00

2 amplifiers $1,000.00

1 spot light $500.00

6 hours recording studio rental $3,000

TOTAL $6,500.00

I scaled it back as much as possible.

Yikes! I just read my home page again and I feel like I just finished off an entire angel food cake. Did I really say I wanted to write ward choir arrangements “just for the joy of doing so?”

Yes, I am happy sharing my love for the hymns with anyone who will listen, but maybe it would be better to say that for me, expressing that feeling is just plain fun!

I never realized my entire life would be controlled by a flashing metal box with a keyboard attached to it, and I personally have had days where the answer to my problems seemed to involve my computer and a large wooden club. But, to avoid being a total embarrassment to my children I have struggled to learn words like “gig” and “blog.” Sometimes I just throw those words into a sentence to join in the conversation and make it seem as if I know what I’m talking about.

So if you meet me, I might say something like,"Yes, yesterday my gigs went down and my blogs got faster with a hard drive with gigs and blogs.”

Lately I’ve been having fun with the meters and melodies of three sacrament hymns. I think it will be really nice for a special number on Easter.

Yes, I am already thinking about Easter. I have actually planned our Ward Choir music through next summer! (Can you say “obsessive compulsive?")

These arrangements are written for a real choir (our own ward choir) to perform in real Sacrament meetings, so I try to have our choir at least run through a piece before I make twenty copies. It cuts down on simple errors like forgetting to dot a half note or leaving off a word.

Our choir members are pretty good sports to do this for me, and I appreciate their comments and opinions as well. But if you notice problems with the music, please let me know. There is a lot going on with four part harmony, an accompaniment, and sometimes an obbligato and it’s easy to let something slip by.

“Thank you so much for your website. I just got called to be the Choir director and am so glad that I found your site!”

“Thank you for sharing your talent with such generosity!”

“Thank you for the music! It sure helps when the budget is small.”

“I’m still learning how to conduct a choir. We just started a choir for our youth here in our stake. And finding a piece that they will sing is really difficult. I hope you can help. Thanks. And God bless you for your generosity.”

“I was looking for music as our ward currently has no budget. I just got put in as chior director and there is no music in our ward.”

“I just moved into a new ward, and have not yet had the chance to get to ward choir, however I have played the piano for 16 years, and am always looking for new uplifting music to learn! Thank you, thank you thank you! I look forward to going to ward choir for the first time with music to share!”

Thank you so much for all the kind comments! And remember - these arrangements are just a starting point. Use your creativity. Concider having the congregation join in on a verse that is unison. Or have someone sing a solo or duet for part of a verse.

Also, what if no one in your ward plays the flute or violin and the piece calls for an obbligato? The obbligato of any arrangement could be played by organ, or even on the piano, duet style.

Thanks for all your comments! It is very helpful to know how the music is being used all over the world!

I’ve written a couple of solo piano pieces that would be perfect for a special number in Sacrament meeting. One is very easy so even those who are not expert musicians can make a contribution. The other a bit more challenging.

It was a lot of fun working on “The Lord is My Light.” This one is partly straight from the hymnbook - partly surprizes. I think everyone will enjoy the movement in this one!

When I first heard the word “Blog,” I thought it was some kind of bizzare torture device. I was right.

I’m working on an arrangement of “Come ye Disconsolate.” The message of this hymn is so beautiful. I hope to give the acompaniment a little more color.

In order to support my “hymn arranging habit,” I plan to publish some piano solos I have written over the years for my piano students. For these, there will be a small charge so I can defray some costs of running a web site.

They are from very beginning levels to intermediate. If you would like more information on these, contact me at linda@freewardchoirmusic.com

I am from the generation that grew up with black and white TV. There were three channels to chose from. If you wanted to watch a show, you knew what day and channel it came on and were in front of your television set to watch it at that time. There was no way to record, rewind, or fast forward through commercials. We had no ipods, mp3s, dvds, pcs, or any other initials that stood for some kind of entertainment. A phone was attached to a wall and was used to talk to people - period. It couldn’t take pictures, play music or direct us to the nearest restaurant.

But I don’t yearn for those days any more than I yearn to go back to outdoor bathrooms and side saddles for women. I think all these changes are good! Look how many more things we can do and how many more people we can touch with just a few minutes and a computer.

Sure, we have to learn new technology every day, but it’s worth it. Besides, if we have trouble, we can always get help from any seven year old. They grew up with all this stuff!