Choir

I once mentioned my scatttered participation in the Jaunimo Centro Lithuanian teenagers' choir. When performance dates arrived, I usually positioned myself in the back row of the alto section so that the choir master would not notice that I was unfamiliar with the songs.

Here, I somehow landed right in front of the choir master—my face is just to the left of his. It was probably not long after this performance that a parent of one of my rehersal-dodging partners got a telephone call from the choir master himself.

Marquette Park, Chicago, Spring 1975. My friends and I almost always attended the first half of the choir's Wednesday-night rehersals. We usually ditched out during the "pertrauka," or recess. Our key reason for bolting during recess was because we felt so shunned by the "Marquette Parker" cliques that made up most of the choir.