My Most Embarrassing Moment

Everyone has an embarrassing moment. A time when you feel like a fool. A time when you wish you could just crawl under the table. My moment came in 1971 in Mauldin SC. I was a member of the Youth Handbell Choir at my church. Our director was also the director of the Music Department for the SC Baptist Convention. I had known him for many years, since my father was the director of the Sunday School Department for the SC Baptist Convention. We were old friends, and his kids were my friends too. Mr. Westmoreland had organized a handbell festival of choirs from around the state. He was so proud of our choir. He had invited a man who wrote handbell music to come to the festival. The choirs practiced a piece to perform for the festival, which the man had written. The festival was at the First Baptist Church of Mauldin SC. We were staying at a motel not far from the church, and as high school kids will do, we stayed up all night and goofed around. The next day, we had a rehearsal of all the choirs. I played the low bells. As we were rehearsing, the composer said he wanted a rest put into the music. It was right before my note. I didn't have a pencil, but I knew I would remember the rest. I guess I should have had a pencil or gotten more sleep, because when it came time for the performance, I forgot about the rest and let loose this bong that was heard over the entire auditorium. Upon realizing my error, I immediately stopped the ringing, but it was too late. The composer gave me a dirty look. Mr. Westmoreland would have killed me at that point, but there were too many witnesses. I was quite embarrassed. He didn't speak to me for a long time afterwards. The moral of the story--be prepared.