Christmas carols have a lot of verses

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My second last post was about the old man who was sick of hearing Christmas carols. I’m not fussed about Christmas carols either. In a previous life Vince and I played in brass bands and at Christmas time there would be a number of engagements which would involve playing carols. At one time we were living in Esperance on the south coast of Western Australia and a long way from any other big towns. That year we played at carol services in four nearby tiny towns and once in a shearing shed. It was always difficult to find players and especially someone to conduct the band. I was conducting at the time for better or worse but when we played carols I always had trouble trying to remember how many verses we had played. For instance, Good King Wenceslas has five. I couldn’t hear the singing and try as I might I’d lose count of the number of verses. But I soon learnt not to worry. The players knew exactly how many verses we’d played and when they’d played the requisite number they stopped and if I was quick enough I’d stop waving my arms around and stop with them. It was a fail-proof system.