The chapter family picnic was held in June at the Parish Hill Dance Hall in Pittsburgh's North Park and was organized by picnic chairman George Mayer.

The 1977 JAD District convention was held in October in Pittsburgh at the Hilton Hotel and was hosted by the East Suburban chapter. Jack Owens was the chairman. Twenty quartets and fifteen choruses competed with The Coalition winning for the quartets and Southern Gateway taking chorus honors. The Pittsburgh Good Tyme Music Co. finished in eleventh place with a bit of controversy due to the opening curtain knocking over a microphone which distracted the chorus and gave them a bad start, but the judges would not permit a re-start.

The international convention in 1977 was held over at the other end of the state in Philadelphia July 4 through 9.

I'm sure many other things happened in the chapter in 1977, but those are some of the highlights. Where were you in 1977? Your editor was living in Idaho, thanks to Westinghouse and the Navy, and had not yet even thought about barbershopping.

We Perform - by Tom Koch

In November, the Three Rivers Chorus only did one performance, but are scheduled for four performances in the month of December. Incidentally, I was going to mention in my "year 1977" article that back then we referred to our performances as "sing-outs" but the Society now frowns on such terminology. I know some of you still say "sing-out" so cease and desist!

On November 16 we ventured out to Moon Township and performed for the 55+ Club at St. Margaret Mary church. Chapter members Bob Cavanaugh, John Kirwan and Jim Shields are enrolled at St Margaret Mary church, so we told male members of the 55+ Club that if they join our barbershop chapter, one of these three would provide them transportation to Forrest Hills [not sure they agreed, but it was worth a try]. Near the end of this performance, all the lights went out due to an unexplained power failure. The lights went on and off several times so director Ron Brooks directed the chorus holding a flash light in his hand while candles were being set on all the tables. Anything to make life interesting!

December 8, the chorus traveled to Peter's Place in Bridgeville to sing at a Christmas Party for a room full of seniors. The audience consisted of primarily women, and a few men, from the Chartiers (Carnegie) Senior Center, the Hillsdale (Dormont) Senior Center and one table of "Red Hat" ladies. Peter's Place really packed the large crowd in and left very little room for the chorus. We were squeezed between the seated audience (circular tables) and a wall, which resulted in us almost hanging over some of the ladies. Director Ron Brooks had to position himself between tables in the audience. Further distractions were provided by a wandering Santa Claus and noise through a thin partition between us and the adjacent room where a band was performing at another party. Santa decided to put candy canes in Ron's pocket and then join the tenor section. The surrounding noise made it hard for chorus members to hear the pitch pipe.

I have expounded on the "distractions" in the preceding performances to make a point. I noted that when we warmed up in a secluded room prior to our performance at Peter's Place, we sounded pretty good (in my opinion). During the performance, again in my opinion, I thought we were off pitch on several songs and the general quality of our singing suffered. This exemplifies how we never know what will occur at a scheduled performance and we must be prepared to concentrate extra hard on taking the pitch, following the director and trying to block out what ever "distractions"may occur.

As of this writing, the chorus is scheduled for three more performances in December. I'll report on them next issue and we'll see how we made out singing at a shopping mall food court area.

The Random Choice quartet did four performances during this reporting period.

October 14, "RC" sang at Royal Place on Rt. 88 at a golf league banquet Following the "random" tradition, singers on this date were Bill Amos, Vaughn Eggert, Ken Ernst and Jim McCarthy.

November 4 "RC" members Amos, Hamilton Koch and McCarthy sang at a Sons Of The American Revolution convention at the Wyndham Airport Hotel. Then on November 16, these same four sang at the Mt. Washington Senior Center.

On November 5, "RC"did a "walk about" performance at the 55th Annual Banquet of the New Kensington Fire Department at the Clarion Hotel in New Kensington. This banquet honored 25 and 50 year members of the fire department. PA State Senator Sean Logan was a guest speaker. For this performance, "RC" consisted of Bill Amos, Bill Hamilton, Tom Koch and Mark Pascarella.

Sunday, December 4, Random Choice went to Oakmont, PA and provided four musical selections as part of an Elks Memorial Service. This service honored deceased members of Elks Etna Lodge #932 and Elks Oakmont Lodge #1668. "RC"singers at this performance were; Bill Amos, Bill Hamilton, Tom Koch and Jim McCarthy.

It sure would be great to be able to report on more quartet action from our chapter. Come on guys, get in a quartet - you can do it!

Make that a resolution for the New Year.