Little Green Apples

I've been thinking about little green apples lately. It's because of a song that keeps running through my head with lyrics that say ...God didn't make little green apples...

Yet my soul screams that the words aren't true. God did make little green apples, and yellow ones, and red ones, too. I hum and mumble through the chorus for a day or two, straining to think of the words until I hit upon a line about it never snowing in Minneapolis. Right. Like that's true. Finally, I go on-line and search out the lyrics because I need to put the words into proper context.

The song, Little Green Apples, was originally written by Bobby Russell for Roger Miller, who released it in 1968. Amazingly, the song was released by at least 8 recording stars that same year, and several more artists in the following years including Frank Sinatra, The Temptations, and lately Robbie Williams and Kelly Clarkson. The song has staying power regardless of the age and genre. In 1969 it won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year as well as the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

But why does it say that God didn't make little green apples?

Listen for yourself in this YouTube version where it's sung by Glen Campbell who is accompanied by his daughter, Debby Campbell. Since the words are captioned across the bottom of the screen, you can read the lyrics or even sing along with Glen Campbell's smooth voice at  https://youtu.be/o9MKF5YBAo0




Although the line that God didn't make little green apples is used in the song, it's used along with other true facts to illustrate that the man singing the song believes his wife loves him because all the things mentioned are true. This love song is like a romance novel. We feel the warmth of her love because she shows it in every smile and gesture. And to those who would say he's a male chauvinist because he expects her to drop what she's doing and run to him, my answer is that we don't know what she's thinking. I truly wish this song had been written as a duet so that we hear what each believes, instead of her simply repeating his words, but it wasn’t so I will accept it as a beautiful love song that stays in my memory.

However, I'd like to point out that this is what happens when you hear...remember...or say something out of context. For one thing it probably doesn't make sense, but for another, you're missing an important part that may save you aggravation down the road. (Especially if you thought it was about you.)

For my part, I remembered one line that didn't make sense until I read it in the body of work that it was written. Some people take verses out of the Bible and use them out of context, confusing those who don't know the truth. Am I showing Christ in every aspect of my writing, or only when I think the story needs it? Will the reader need to re-read the story to remember the take-away value? Food for thought.

Are you familiar with the Little Green Apples song? Which version?

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Anita Mae Draper's historical romances are written under the western skies of the Saskatchewan prairie where her love of research and genealogy yield fascinating truths that layer her stories with rich historical details.  Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Her novellas are included in Austen in Austin Volume 1, The American Heiress Brides Collection, and The Secret Admirer Romance Collection. Readers can check out Anita's Pinterest boards for a visual idea of her stories to enrich their reading experience.  Discover more at:

Website - www.anitamaedraper.com 

Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/anitamaedraper/

The Grammar Nazi

Maybe you’ve seen the merchandize that says, “I’m silently correctly your grammar.” (Here’s one place to start if you’d like to purchase any.) Or maybe you’re one of the types who already purchased some. Yes, I must confess. Grammar nazi is one of my vices. I’m a stickler for accuracy in anything I read. I recently heard about a man who sneaks around England at night correcting error’s errors on signs. It’s not something to which I aspire, but I understand his motivations.

Grammar. Punctuation. Spelling. Word usage. Years ago, I worked as a technical editor, and I still can’t turn off that side of me. Indeed, one thing I learned early in my writing career was to never read my work after publication, so I wouldn’t see the errors that made it into print. To this day, I silently wince when I see errors in books, on signs, in news stories, or on the projector screens at church (when I’m supposed to be concentrating on using the words of the song to praise God, and all I can think about is the punctuation error on the wall).

One of the songs that gets me every time is “Amazing Grace.”

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when we first begun.

Do you see the phrase that annoys me? A common word usage mistake many people make is to misuse fewer/less. Use fewer for things you can count: I have fewer M&Ms than you (so hand some over). Use less for things you can’t count: I put less butter on my toast this morning because I’ve decided I need to cut back. (That’s what happens when I eat too many M&Ms.)

So why would the writer say “We’ve no less days”? Days can be counted, so fewer is the grammatically correct word choice…except the topic is eternity, and in eternity, the days can’t be counted.

Is this a usage error to keep the phrase to four syllables? Or is it a brilliant use of the English language to make a point? I haven’t decided, but I must admit, it certainly focuses my mind on the meaning of the words every time.

(Oh, and if you find a typo in this post? Please don't tell me. Its all ready published, so there's nothing I can due.)

Singing and Dancing with Joy

by Anita Mae Draper

Do you sing and dance when you feel joy?

As web mistress for our church, I update the website and social media pages, and place Facebook ads when necessary. That means researching images and videos when we're hosting special guests. Last week, I was previewing videos for the Watoto Children's Choir out of Uganda, East Africa, and I was struck by the sheer joy they show when they're singing and dancing.  

This is not your normal children's choir... 



Oh What Love - Be Exalted The Music Video from Watoto on Vimeo


As I watched their video I was drawn to the abandonment with which they sing and dance.

They reminded me of King David in 2 Samuel 6 when he is bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jersulam and we read in verses 14 & 15: "Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets."

Did you see that...dancing with all his might. With his arms waving and knees raised high like the Watoto kids in the video? Yes, I can picture it. 

Another example using joy in singing came to light this week as I watched a video of Revv52, a Calgary-based performance group. Our daughter Jessica had to go through 2 auditions before being accepted as a soprano in this unique group. Sometimes they are accompanied by a band, and at other times they sing a cappella.

In the following video, you can see Jessica at the 13-15 second mark as she appears on the right side. She's the brunette in the lacy top with her hair partially pulled back, exactly as you see her in the cropped photo above. 





And although this next video of Revv52 was taped prior to Jessica's joining last fall, I felt their joy as they sang and danced to Pharrell Williams' tune, Happy... 





Jessica has been on my mind this week because on March 20th she'll appear with Revv52 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

That's quite an adventure for a small town prairie girl, yet it shows what can be done when you accept and use God's gifts. The joy of singing has always been in Jessica's blood and it shows on her face when she lifts her voice. 

Just like it shows on the faces and movements of the Watoto kids...Spirit-filled and dancing with joy. 

The Watoto kids sing and dance with joy now, but it wasn't always so. The fact that they are part of the Watoto holistic organization means that before they were rescued, they were one of 4,000 children who were orphans, former child soldiers, or born to rebel leaders during the civil war. Today, Watoto has over 3000 of these children in their care. But Watoto isn't just the children. It restores dignity to women in "vulnerable" situations, empowering them with literacy, business and practical skills which ensure their own children have a better future. 

When was the last time you sang or danced with joy?

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Anita Mae Draper's stories are written under the western skies where she lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan with her hubby of 30 plus years and the youngest of their four kids. When she's not writing, Anita enjoys photography, research, and travel, and is especially happy when she can combine the three in one trip. Anita's current release is Romantic Refinements, a novella in Austen in Austin Volume 1, WhiteFire Publishing, January 2016.  Anita is represented by Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary Management. You can find Anita Mae at  www.anitamaedraper.com

Historic Restoration - The Sharon Temple

by Anita Mae Draper

Probably the most fascinating museum I visited during my recent trip to Ontario was the Sharon Temple National Historic Site & Museum located in East Gwillimbury Township, in the Village of Sharon. Created by the Children of Peace, a Quaker break-away group who were led by former American, David Willson, the Sharon Temple exemplified the pioneering spirit, ethics, faith, and ingenuity of the people who settled Upper Canada (now known as Ontario).

Sharon Temple National Historic Site & Museum, Sharon, Ontario, Canada

Part 1 - Before

Since it was hard to show everything about the Sharon Temple in one post, I used my day (Aug 5th), on the Heroes, Heroines and History blog to cover Part 1 in this series, Hope in Upper Canada, The Sharon Temple which includes a glass lantern slide, a stereoview, and historic drawings, etc to show how David Willson handed plans for his vision of the temple to master carpenter Ebenezer Doan, another loyalist who had fled to Upper Canada at the beginning of the 19th century.

Part 2 - After

Today's Inkwell post will show how the temple and buildings look today after restoration. But before I present a series of photographs, I'll let you see this brief video of the temple interior as I walked through the east-facing door shown above. https://youtu.be/Btgk8zE3wTk




So based on the video it looks like a high-ceiling room with pillars, right? But it's so much more, since David Willson designed it based on both the Old and New Testaments, as fully explained in part 1.

For instance, the staircase that's right in the front of the video camera is called the Jacob's Ladder and it's main purpose was to provide a method of getting the musicians and choir members up to the loft, called the Musicians Gallery. But instead of just any staircase, David Willson designed a narrow curving ladder based on his interpretation of Genesis 28:12 where it is written of Jacob: "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

Jacob's Ladder leading to the Musicians Gallery

And lest you think the musicians and singers came down backwards, I have to say that I've heard it was quite the event to see them march in the door, around the room, and up the stairs, and then march back down facing the door when the service was over. Honestly, I would have had trouble going up those steps never mind coming down - facing any direction.

Along the left side of the temple in the video is the oldest barrel organ in Canada, built in 1820 by Richard Coates as the first of 3 commissioned by the Children of Peace. This 2-barrel organ will be discussed further along with the other temple organs in Part 3 of this series.

Two-Barrel Organ built by Richard Coates in 1820 for the Children of Peace
and now Canada's oldest barrel organ of this size.

Beside the organ is a wooden carrier that I assumed was to carry the Ark - the temple's altar which was fashioned after the biblical Ark. I later found out that the carrier is actually the method of carrying coffins in and out during funeral processions.

Wooden carrier used to transport coffins during funerals

The Ark sits in the centre of the temple, surrounded by pillars. Each of the 12 outer pillars has a plaque with an apostle's name, and each of the inner pillars has a plaque with either Hope, Love, Peace, or Charity written on it.

The Sharon Temple Ark surrounded by the 12 posts of the Apostles,
and 4  posts of  Faith, Hope, Love, and Charity, 

Looking up immediately above the ark, you can see up past the railing of the musicians' gallery, and higher to the uppermost ceiling.

From the Ark, looking up at the top of the 3 storied Sharon Temple 

The day I explored the Sharon Temple, it was set up for a wedding, hence the white hydrangeas lining the aisle from the west door to the altar. Don't you think there's something serene about the bride and groom signing their marriage certificate while sitting at the lace-covered table in front of the almost 200-year old ark?

The Sharon Temple interior in readiness for a wedding, June 2015

Like the temple itself, the altar is square signifying the Children of Peace's need of "dealing square with all people". Four doors open into the altar, corresponding to the 4 doors of the temple. Inside, the Bible always lies open to the Ten Commandments.

One note of interest concerning the ark is that sometime during the restoration process, the workers discovered a false floor under which was hidden thousands of David Willson's papers including his music and writings, a priceless treasure which is now preserved in the Archives of Ontario.

The Sharon Temple Ark with the Bible open to the Ten Commandments

As can be seen in the above photos, the chairs are reproductions of the original hand-hewn ones as shown in the image with the barrel organ. Unfortunately, many ended up in the hands of antique dealers after being sold to Winn’s Theatre of Aurora in 1915 before the museum society bought the temple and began restoration. A program is now in place to locate the original temple and meeting house chairs and return them to the temple. If you're interested in a description of what they look like, check out the Sharon Temple Museum Society website which includes a downloadable Temple Chair Form.

A Sharon Temple reproduction chair

Join me for Part 3 on the Heroes, Heroines and History blog on Sept 5th for a historic look at David Willson's music, the temple organs, the renowned temple band, and a view of the gallery where the musicians sent out their music to reverberate in the wonderful acoustics of the Sharon Temple.

While I was on the Sharon Temple Museum site, I noticed one of their ways of raising money was the 'Adopt an Artifact' page. I haven't seen this anywhere else and thought it quite interesting. There is a list of artifacts and the cost to adopt them for one year. Of course, the bigger and more important the artifact, the higher the cost to adopt it.

Have you ever heard of this way to raise funds? If you have, care to share who else does it?

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Anita Mae Draper is retired from the Canadian Armed Forces and lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan, Canada with her hubby of 30 plus years and the youngest of their four kids. Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, published in A Cup of Christmas Cheer, Volume 4, Heartwarming Tales of Christmas Present, Guideposts Books, October 2014, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Anita is represented by Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary Management. You can find Anita Mae at www.anitamaedraper.com

Ode to My Hymnal

by C.J. Chase

When I was a girl…no, wait, not even that long ago, congregational singing at church involved a piano, an organ, and a hymnal. The music leader would announce the next song and the hymn number, then we in the congregation would reach forward to grab the volume of songs from the rack on the pew in front of us. If you were daydreaming and missed the announcement, it was generally okay because most churches also posted the numbers on a board at the front of the church.

The hymns themselves were almost always in four-part harmony. Four verses and a chorus was a common pattern, although there were variations (like three verses and a chorus, or four verses and no chorus). At some churches, we sang all the verses all the time; at others, the minister would instruct the congregation to only sing selected verses—usually because he ran overtime on the sermon. (Later, as an organist, I discovered I had to pay special attention during this time. And yes, I am guilty of both the started-an-extra-verse after the congregation finished and the didn’t-start-the-last-verse while the congregation gamely tried to sing without me mistakes because I’d miscounted verses.)

I knew the era of hymn singing was coming to a close when I recently attended my mother’s very small, very traditional church in a yet-rural part of the country. The words are now on a screen and a bass guitar accompanies the piano and organ. While the congregation hasn’t yet exchanged the old hymns for modern praise music or added drums to the ensemble, I figure it’s only a matter of time. How much longer before hymnals disappear from sanctuaries altogether? I expect it to be within my lifetime.

And I find that rather sad. I always enjoyed checking out the hymnal when I attended to a different church. You could tell so much about a congregation just by peaking through those pages of songs, recitations, catechisms, responsive readings, and service forms. Do the stately hymns and precisely-worded forms suggest I will get a formal, liturgical service? Will the congregation recite creeds? Or are those pages filled with handclapping, power-in-the-blood, old-time-religion songs? And since I can read music, the printed notes and rhythms let me participate even if I encountered a new-to-me tune.

Typical hymnbooks were arranged by subject—all the Christmas songs together, for instance. In addition to the music itself, most listed the names of the composers and lyricists, sometimes with their birth/death dates. Oh, the names I saw over and over: Fanny J. Crosby, Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Philip Brooks. Some books included a tune name (if the music was composed at a different time from the words), a suggested introduction for the accompanists, and the meter. Meter is the number of syllables per line—for example, “Amazing Grace” and “O God Our Help in Ages Past” both have a meter of 8 6 8 6. You could sing either lyrics to either tune and come out with the correct number of notes. (Go ahead, try it. It really works. In fact, the 8 6 8 6 meter is so frequently used, it’s also known as “common meter.”)

Hymn singing is on the decline, particularly among evangelical Protestants (I did a Google search on “hymn singing decline” and got almost half a million links), which is rather ironic given that the hymns themselves were designed to be sing-able. They had simple melodies and straightforward rhythms so ordinary people wouldn’t find the range beyond their ability or the rhythm too complicated for a group of people with widely varying skill levels. The music is relatively easy for a keyboardist of intermediate ability to play (a necessary quality from the time when many churches were small and lacked professional musicians), and yet, the songs are complex enough they can be arranged for virtuoso musicians with amazing results.

While I enjoy contemporary Christian music (in fact, I enjoy most music, except perhaps bluegrass, rap, and jazz), I feel like something valuable is rapidly disappearing from our culture. Protestants have been praising God through hymns for nearly 500 years, since Martin Luther penned “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” shortly after he nailed those 95 theses to the door. It was revolutionary at a time of Latin-only services—common people praising God in their native languages. During our Sunday singing only old hymns (from the screen, remember), I noticed that my younger two sons were a bit lost. I’m sure they’ve heard the songs since our church incorporates a mixture of music into services—but they just weren’t familiar with them like I was at their age.

I have somewhere around a half dozen different hymnals in my house. Sometimes I open them up to random pages and play favorites I haven’t heard in years. Here are two versions of a favorite (one of too many to list) I love to pull out and play. The first version, performed by a small a cappella group, shows the simplicity of the song. The second, an arrangement for virtuoso organ solo, demonstrates what a proficient musician can do with such a seemingly simple piece.

Please share some of your favorite hymns. I'll be happily humming them over the weekend.

Holy Week Video Special

I came across this while I was searching for materials to use with my special needs Sunday School class. When dealing with people who have special learning needs, we use a lot of repetition and try to keep the focus "big picture." This means we don't follow the church calendar exactly because we need to be sensitive to things they might not fully understand and might find upsetting.

This video worked wonderfully to explain that even though bad things happened to Jesus, God had a plan to save sinners. I even got a "Wow!" from one music-loving member of the class. So, even though this is several days early, I hope you enjoy.

A Triumphant Tribute

by C. J. Chase

I had intended another post. I had supplies, camera, etc. all ready. All I needed was a bit of time. Alas, an annoying convergence of (1) Mom (yours truly) being sick when (2) weather closed school for a week while (3) Dad (spouse of yours truly) is working 3,000 miles from home rendered my best plans inoperable.

But you know, a quick glance at the news makes my problems wither to insignificance. If you paid any attention this week, you probably heard the horrifying account of 21 Christians beheaded for the “crime” of being Christians, whose last words were “Lord Jesus Christ.” I’m not going to post the infamous picture of them as they await their deaths. Instead, I’d rather you ponder a few words from Revelation 20:4.

…and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast…

Evil is powerful and real, but even though it seems to be carrying the day, it isn’t forever.  Just one chapter prior, in Revelation 19, the Apostle John recorded Lord Jesus Christ’s triumphant victory over the beast--and that is forever. Handel set the words to some of the most famous music ever composed.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20).

We Gather Together

by C.J. Chase

Three years ago, I wrote a post discussing the background of the Thanksgiving hymn “Now Thank We All Our God.” If you don’t know that convicting story about giving God thanks in the good, the bad, and the very bad, you should take a moment to check out the link. With Canadian Thanksgiving just recently passed and American Thanksgiving less than a week away, I thought it might be interesting to take this time of year to look at the origins of another hymn frequently associated with the season, “We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing.”

The melody of “We Gather Together” predates the words, having originally been a 16^th century Dutch folk song, “Ey, Wilder dan Wilt,” (“Hey, wilder than wild” in English), a ballad of 24 verses about a condemned man whose lover betrayed him—a most unlikely beginning for a popular hymn celebrating God's faithfulness. Fortunately, more enduring lyrics allowed this wonderful tune to survive to our time.

The lyrics of “We Gather Together” are a few decades older than “Now Thank We All Our God,” but they harken back to the same era of Europe’s religious conflicts. As the Reformation gathered steam, the northern and western provinces of what is now the Netherlands embraced the Protestant movement. However, there was a problem: the Dutch were ruled by King Philip II of Spain, a devout man who believed Protestants were heretics and should be made to return to Catholicism or die. Protestants risked their lives whenever they “gathered together” for worship. By the late 16^th century, the Dutch were engaged in a war for their independence, in large part so they could worship freely.

Adriaen Valerius usually gets the credit for penning the Dutch lyrics of "We Gather Together." Valerius (c. 1575-1625) was a government official with a hobby of writing music and poetry. Some of his work was first published as part of a collection of Dutch poetry in 1623, but his magnum opus, a collection of folk tunes and poems  he gathered/wrote over a 30-year period during the Dutch War of Independence, wasn’t published until 1626, a year after his death. We will probably never know how many pieces in Nederlandtsche gedenck-clanck were original works and how many Valerius collected from other sources, but there is no doubt as to their historical significance. "Het Wilhelmus," the Dutch national anthem, appears for the first time in this work, as does “Wilt Heden Nu Treden,” written in 1597 to celebrate the Dutch victory over the Spanish at Turnhout. 

Here is a video of “Wilt Heden Nu Treden” as performed by a Dutch choir and orchestra. If you know the English hymn "We Gather Together" well, you might notice subtle differences in the rhythm. 

The song traveled a rather circuitous route to popularity as an English-language hymn in America.  Though well loved in the Netherlands for centuries, the song was all but unknown in America except among a few Dutch settlers and their descendants. Then in the late 19^th century, Viennese choirmaster Eduard Kremser (1838-1914) composed an arrangement on the tune. United with Josef Weyl’s German translation of the lyrics, the song "Wir treten zum Bites for Gott" became a hit in Germany, especially with Keizer Wilhelm II. (Side note: if I’m reading the Dutch sources correctly, the Nazis later adopted the hymn. Because of that association, the song has fallen out of favor in modern Germany.)

American organist Theodore Baker (1851-1934) was studying music in Germany at the time.  Shortly after his return to America (and his new position as editor for music publisher G. Schirmer), he translated the German words into the English “We Gather Together” in 1894. Even two degrees removed from the original language, the words still tell the story of a people worshipping in spite of persecution:

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;

he chastens and hastens his will to make known;

the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.

Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,

ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;

so from the beginning the fight we were winning;

thou, Lord, wast at our side; all glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,

and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.

Let thy congregation escape tribulation;

thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

It took a lot of searching on Youtube for me to find the perfect version to play here. Okay, I never did find exactly what I wanted (choir and organ -- just the way I remember it from my youth), but this slow, a cappella version is lovely. And the Pilgrims, who lived in the Netherlands 11 years before emigrating for America in 1620, may well have been familiar with the Dutch version of the song. 

More and more, Thanksgiving is becoming overshadowed by Christmas, which is a pity because we need time for praise and reflection and gratitude. So tell me, what are some of your favorite songs and traditions of thanksgiving?



After leaving the corporate world to stay home with her children, C.J. Chase quickly learned she did not possess the housekeeping gene. She decided writing might provide the perfect excuse for letting the dust bunnies accumulate under the furniture. Her procrastination, er, hard work paid off in 2010 when she won the Golden Heart for Best Inspirational Manuscript and sold the novel to Love Inspired Historicals. You can visit C.J.'s cyber-home (where the floors are always clean) at www.cjchasebooks.com