On Sunday I went to a big black church near me with the two Spanish academics I've met through the library. We were the only non-black people in the 3500-person congregation, except for an eccentric old white lady who was tucked away in the choir. Everyone greeted each other by saying "Praise the Lord," so people kept saying hi to us and being like, "Praise the Lord!, how are you folks doing today?", or saying hi to their friends and being like, "Praise the Lord!, why, I haven't seen you in forever!"
During the service, the one Spanish academic kept taking notes, and I thought it was about things he wanted to ask questions about later, but at one point he turned to me and showed me his list --
- Heal the World
- We are the World
(Michael Jackson?)
- My Heart Will Go On
He said he was trying to remember the cadences of the gospel songs for later. Both he and his wife were astounded at the altar call and how as everyone was processing out the people who had come up front were baptized by full-body immersion in this tub inset in the wall high above the dais where the minister and the choir, while dressed in white robes and the people who were dunking them wore white too.
Afterwards, we adjourned to the church cafeteria to get lunch, fried chicken with mashed potatos and creamed spinach; the Spaniards got fruit cups for dessert, but I chose the cheesecake. A lady in her mid- to late-60s from the choir who was in line and was talking to us bought us all our meals and we ended up sitting with her.
Right when the woman who treated us sat down, this one black lady ("Tonetta") came up to her and was like, "Hey there girl, you gonna roll tonight?" As it turns out, they go to this one weekly adults-only roller skating session at this rink about twenty streets south and a little west of the church. I asked why adults only, and the woman who treated us was like, "Oh, so you don't have to listen to all that hip-hop the kids listen to."
"Oh," I was like, "So you listen to disco?"
"No," she was like, "Contemporary R&B."
Also, after we had finished up the meal and the lady who had treated us to the meal was giving us a tour of the church offices, it came out in the course of conversation that she had just lost her job.
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3 comments:
Another great post. But why is the Spanish academic keeping track of cadences? And why are those types of songs the ones he knows?
I think he meant the general sound and key-structure of the song. The songs were pretty poppy and the one did indeed sound like "My Heart Will Go On".
I also love the image of Tonetta and the mid-60s choir member who bought us lunch rollerskating around a rink to Contemporary R&B. They must skate really smooth, I envision.
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