[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 59-03, July - September, 2005 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

Sometimes you make the right decision

By Waldo Redekop, Editor/Publisher The Trillium

Donna and I were not going to attend the Salt Lake City convention this year even though when we were there in 1996 we had said that if the convention was again held there we didn’t want to miss it. We had a GREAT time in 1996.

When an Ontario Barbershopper couldn’t attend and wanted to sell his registrations, we changed our mind and bought them. Immediately called the housing bureau and were able to get the last available room in the Little America Hotel (where we had stayed in 1996). Booked our air flight and this time were determined to stay until Monday so that we could attend the Sunday morning Sacred Gold Concert.

When we arrived, we were asked if we would change our room as they really needed the room we had booked. They upgraded us at no additional cost, making our stay there even more enjoyable.

The weather was excellent. The free transportation to the convention site excellent. The Latter-day Saints Conference Center was phenomenal. About 21,000 seats without a pillar blocking your view, all looking forward at the stage. I tried to take a tour so that I could see the roof garden, but the tour guide spent all the time on the first floor, and they wouldn’t let me up there without taking the tour. I heard the view was great.

We first heard the massive organ on the parade that took place on Wednesday before the competition. What an amazing sound! Of course, it was a shame that the Ontario District only had a half-dozen members parade across the stage, whereas most of the other districts were proud of their competitors and had them following their flag across.

The LDS staff was always smiling. By the end of the week, most Barbershoppers, even if they had not placed where they expected to, were smiling. A smile is contagious. You just couldn’t help feeling good and smiling when every LDS staff member you met smiled at you.

The competition was excellent, but the highlight of the week was the Sunday following competition.

Sunday morning the tram doesn’t start running until around nine, so Donna and I took a taxi at 8:30 to the LDS Conference Center to stand in line for the broadcast of "The Spoken Word" program that is sent around the world and broadcast live from 9:30 to 10. Hearing the Gold Medal Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the massive organ was awe-inspiring.

After a brief intermission, this was followed with the Sacred Gold Concert that lasted over an hour. Not only were the same groups performing as in the previous program, there also were bagpipes, a great drum group, and quartets like Acoustix, Power Play, and Four Voices.

We returned to our hotel for lunch and then went and sat on our 17^th floor balcony to read the paper. Suddenly we heard music and I recalled that the International Jazz Festival (similar to Montreal convention) was in the city and one of the locations was the courthouse which was a block away.

We went and spent about four hours, sitting in the park, people watching, eating food from various vendors and listening to top-quality jazz groups alternately playing from two stages.

Returning to our room at dusk to pack for our flight the next morning, we decided that staying the extra day was the perfect ending of a fabulous week in a fabulous city listening to fabulous music. Sometimes you do make the right decision.  k