Serenade of the Seasons

Serenade of the Seasons

So it’s December 17^th …are you sick of Holiday music yet?  How ‘bout if it was cranked out a public address system from a live band on the back of a flatbed truck…in the WEE hours of the morning?  If such a thing slowly drove through your neighborhood at 3 or 4 a.m., would you pull the pillow over your head & grumble, or do what we do & tumble out of bed to go out in the streets in our P.J.’s to dance behind the truck as it goes?  Would you offer the musicians expletives &  ire or as we do, refreshments & greetings?

Such is the Crucian traditional ‘Serenade,’ & I heard it in a ‘neighboring neighborhood’ at around 4:30 this morning. Local favorite band Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Knights earn their name this time of year, with these nocturnal mobile parties trouping from area to area & rousing the sleeping with festive local twists on traditional holiday songs & completely original calypso & quelbe compositions befitting the holidays our land of no snow.  (In a documentary, I heard Quelbe defined as a mixture of Quadrille which is our local version of a called or square type dance & Belbe, which no one ever defined further??).  Whatever it is, I don’t begrudge any lost sleep due to the refrains of ‘I want a piece of Pork for Me Christmas,’ “Santa Lookin’ for a Wife,’  or any of the other clever ‘carols’ we twist with a wink & a nod to their more traditional counterparts. 

The best Serenade experience I ever had was one morning at dawn when I was snorkeling by Dorsch Beach on the West end of the island.  Blissfully face down & focused on my fish friends & sea glass quarry, it took a moment for the approaching strains describing a Crucian’s concern that without a chimney, ‘How Will Santa Get In?’ to register.  Wending through nearby communities, the truck never came into view, but I hummed into my snorkel as the refrains became nearer & clearer.

Here’s hoping your holidays are tuneful & fun, & if you want to start some new traditions don’t forget to look for (lots of local stores have them) CD’s of Stanley, or Bill Bass, Ebenezer Methodist Church or Rising Star Steel Pan carols.  Once again proving Culture is like yeast, if you don’t combine it with other ingredients & make something of it, it disappears.