THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412210158
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 3B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURIE ZIEGLER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
What do foreign-language students at Virginia Wesleyan College, one-month-old Chad Fierros and a 30-year-old pony named Suzy Q have in common? Hint - Hum a few bars of ``Oh Come All Ye Faithful.''
All went Christmas caroling recently, Virginia Beach style.
Think of carolers and you may imagine Dickens-era dolls in hats, long skirts and cloaks. The modern-day yuletide singer, however, is likely to have swapped his cloak for a backpack - or in the case of Rich Fierros, baby Chad's father - a Peter Rabbit diaper bag.
Caroling is a tradition at VWC, in memory of a former student. Slator C. Blackiston, a Navy SEAL team member, died in a parachuting accident in 1984. The students who gathered around a 20-foot spruce tree planted years ago in his memory didn't know him, but they tried a mouthful of something that Blackiston had excelled at: foreign languages.
About 35 students and faculty, each clutching a songsheet of German, French, Spanish, Latin and even Japanese carols, gamely tackled the likes of ``Rudolfo,'' ``Il Est Ne'' and ``O Tannenbaum.'' It wasn't easy. If the high notes didn't get them, text like ``Pfefferkuchen'' did. The German version of ``Jingle Bells'' nearly skidded to a halt at the word ``weihnachtsmann.'' But when they got to ``Hoh!'' they were off again at a gallop.
Though the moon was rising as they sang, the evening was warm enough for several students to wear shorts and T-shirts. Some wore book backpacks. Many were there as part of a language course, but they didn't seem to mind. ``I love Christmas caroling,'' freshman John Haynes said. Haynes was also celebrating. ``This is my last day of classes,'' he said. ``I'll sing!''
Another Virginia Beach group went caroling in a different atmosphere. Ten young adults, four toddlers and tiny Chad Fierros from Star of the Sea Catholic Church strummed and sang in the dining hall of the Hillhaven Rehabilitation and Nursing Center of Virginia Beach and then took the show on the road, strolling down the hallways of Camelot Hall Nursing Home.
It was a family affair. While the adults stood and sang in front of a group at Hillhaven, the children crept behind their parents' legs and played. Elise Lambert, 3, handed out Christmas cards or dangled happily from the arms of her father, Marc Lambert. When the group caroled through the halls at Camelot she led the way, like a small, bold Christmas angel.
Chad slept through the whole thing, apparently undisturbed by all this singing about the birth of a baby. The only visible part of him was his white-stockinged feet poking out of the bottom of the baby carrier strapped across his dad's chest. His mother, Angela Fierros, played the guitar.
If they were small in number, they made up for it with energy, striding in with a peppy ``Jingle Bells,'' and keeping the tempo up, for all but the dreamiest numbers as they strode down the linoleum hallways of Camelot Hall, glancing into residents' rooms and waving.
``We've been coming caroling here for 10 years,'' said Kevin Bowser, who coordinates the trip
for young adults and also plays the guitar. ``We like to just walk the halls and sing.'' Group members were modest when asked why they come back each year. ``It's not because we're good singers,'' Nancy Lambert said, smiling.
It's ``just a way to enjoy the music, and I guess, bring a little cheer,'' said Dawne Galdi. ``This is probably the only time of year when we come to a place like this,'' Lambert said.
The carolers from Star of the Sea sounded beautiful, but nobody could top a group of 4-H'ers at Brandon Middle School in the jingling bells department. About 35 children, 10 parents and seven horses spent an hour caroling in the streets of the Brandon neighborhood. The horses may not have understood the meaning of it all, but with red caps on their heads, bells around their necks and glitter on their hooves, these friendly beasts did their part to ring in the holiday.
The children had about an hour to deck the horses before the entourage headed for the streets of suburbia. The children are members of the school's horse lovers 4-H club and their sister 4-H club, Red Baron Riders.
``It's a unique way of caroling,'' said 14-year-old Jennie Heath of Kings Grant, riding Jasmine, a 7-year-old appaloosa mare. This would be the second caroling expedition for Hilweh, a 15-year-old Arabian mare owned by Beth Argus, also 15. ``She keeps wanting to eat the decorations,'' Beth's mother, Libby, said, pointing to the garland of greenery around the horse's neck.
Hilweh was ``a little spooky'' when she went caroling last year, Beth Argus said, but she was confident the horse would be more relaxed today. ``She's got her best friend (another horse) with her this time,'' she said.
If the mini parade had a Christmas queen, it would have been 30-year-old Suzy Q, a Connemara-Welsh pony owned by Brandon 4-H leader and physical education teacher Kerri Land. Several children who don't have horses of their own took turns riding Suzy, who clopped and jangled down the road with a string of bells around each hoof. Other horseless carolers rode in the back of one of two pickup trucks, which piped recorded carols.
All seven horses had been in parades before, and they took such potential horse goblins as mailboxes and curbs in stride. A horse that isn't streetwise can be afraid of something as innocuous as the lines painted on the street, said Jenny Louder, who rode her palomino, Foxy Lady, alongside her 12-year-old daughter, Amanda, and her horse, Little Girl. Husband and father Scott Louder was a side walker, whose job was to step in and hold a horse if it did get frightened.
The sight and sound of the horses and Brandon physical education teacher Tony Young as Santa delighted several neighborhood children, such as 3-year-old Bray Gingras.
``This is wonderful,'' said Bray's mother, Debbie Gingras. ``She wants to ride the horses.''
Spirits of the neighborhood residents wouldn't have been so bright, however, if not for several unsung heroes, who took up the rear of the procession. They pushed a wheelbarrow with red bows on the handles and toted a red manure fork decked with a gold bell. ILLUSTRATION: Photo courtesy of Virginia Wesleyan College
About 35 students and faculty members of Virginia Wesleyan College
tackle foreign language versions of favorite Christmas carols.
by CNB