When I was a lot younger than I am now, our family did something that was really out of character for us. We went to Lakemont Park. I somehow had the idea in my innocent tender years that Lakemont Park, between Hollidaysburg and Altoona was first cousin to a den of iniquity, for it was deemed wiser to be investing our hours in milking cows, planting corn, yes, even in forking manure.

But Lakemont Park had a redeeming factor. Bible conferences were held there. One time, and only one time, as I recall, we attended one of their meetings. It was probably on a Sunday afternoon. As we were seated, waiting for the activity to begin, quite a crew of men, who to my boyhood eyes looked like old men, yea, even ancient men, came and were seated on the platform. I remember thinking, “What are those old guys doing there? Are they going to sing?” And I was amused at the thought.

In time, the meeting began. Somewhere in the course of the program, those old men were introduced as the Men’s Chorus of the Altoona Rescue Mission and they sang. I don’t remember what they sang. Neither do I recall how well they sang. All I know is that they did sing, and I felt pretty silly for assuming that a bunch of old geezers like that couldn’t possibly sing.

Now I am an old man. Possibly I may even qualify as an old geezer. Perhaps I am older than any of those members of the Altoona Rescue Mission Men’s Chorus were at that time. I sing in an old men’s chorus known as the Singing Men of Messiah Village. There might be about thirty of us. Some are better musicians than I am. I have solid evidence that a few are worse than me. Most of them are senior to me, but if I hang in there long enough I might get to be near the top end of the spectrum.

We have a fall season and a spring season. We begin our practices in September and conclude in early December. Again, from March until early June we are active. Friday mornings at 9:15 we gather and our practice time normally runs for 45 minutes. During those seasons, we often get invitations to perform at other retirement homes, at churches and at other settings. Sometimes we do a full hour program, but briefer performances are also requested. We have traveled as far as a two hour bus trip to do programs.

What kind of music do we do? Mostly we do gospel songs that would have been the common fare of male quartets and choruses from the era when we would have been young adults. It is to be noted that when our audience is also from that period of time, we seem to be most appreciated.

When old men sing, what happens? There just might be some kid in the audience who has the same reaction I had those many years ago at Lakemont Park. But we really do have a ministry and that is important. We also have a lot of fun. The comraderie, especially when we travel a distance on the bus, is wholesome. When we old men sing, we are energized and feel younger than the calendar declares us to be. However, when we have to catch our breath a time or two in a line we could have sung the whole way through with ease those many years ago, we recognize that our lung capacity isn’t what it once was. When we old men sing, even though our voices may crack at times, we are still bringing praise to the Maker of music and everything else, who delights to hear our blended voices.

WELCOME