WHEN I WAS A KID

When I was a kid, I sang in our school/church children's choir - fifth grade and sixth grade  - I was a soprano at that time, I'm sure.   This choir only sang at Christmas and Easter.

The choir director was Mr. John Contadino.  He played the organ - we had no piano - and directed the group of about 40.  Our church had built-in choir stands of carved wood in a semi-circle around the organ and behind the altar.  A very formal setting.

Contadino was quite an accomplished musician and a writer of music.  He worked at a number of parishes in Cincinnati as organist and choir director; served as the organist for WCPO-TV and WLW-AM radio and later directed the Cincinnati Youth Orchestra.   He died in 2003.

My most vivid memory of being in that choir was that after a practice when I was in the 5th grade I had my first cigarette - a gift from Denny Moriarty's big brother Johnny who stole it from his big sister -  who probably stole it from her parents.  We were standing on the corner of Drex and Fenwick Avenues.  It made me sick but that's the way it worked in 1954.
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