Chapter Fifty Eight

We are back from our trip to see the family and very glad to be home.  We had to spend an extra night on the road because of flooding, however, we feel very fortunate that the weather problems were not as severe as other parts of the country.  On our first day of the trip we made a stop at Flintstone, Md.  Esther had met a lady who collects Hittys whose house we could see from the highway so we got to have a twenty minute visit!   What a treat to meet all her Hittys!

Later in the week we went along on a shopping trip to gather things for the coming holidays. One of the stops was to have some refreshments at a little coffee shop.  The whole building had little interesting shops with unique merchandise and Esther was successful at getting the items she wanted.

Upon our return home we went back to getting ready for the Hitty Club in which we planned to have our choral group perform.  Hitty Carol has been learning to play the piano and when she practiced HittyBelle would always be singing so that gave us an idea.  Having  the Hittys that come to visit with the ladies of the Hitty Club, we knew it wouldn't be a problem getting enough Hittys to join us.  We ask Esther to make us robes so we would look like a real choral group.

After several practice sessions we were ready for our first performance. When Hitty Club day arrived we all put on our robes.  HittyBelle, of course, was late.  She is always so curious and always finds something interesting  to detain her.  The Hittys that were dressed first helped the others.  All of them were so excited and pleased with the robes.  I thought they looked wonderful.

Hitty Carol and I looked at all the music we had practiced and decided which songs to sing.  The Hittys were familiar with all the songs and said they would not need to use the song sheets. 

Before all the Hittys got in position on the risers, Hitty Carol started playing the piano and HittyBelle, Hitty Wilhelmina, and Hitty Beth harmonized for a couple of songs.  They sounded very nice and they just wanted to keep on singing.

When the whole group was finally in position we started singing.  Our favorite song was "God Bless America."  Esther told us about it being written by Irving Berlin in 1918 at Camp Upton on Long Island.  It was not used until 20 years later when in 1938 Kate Smith sang it on her Armistice Day radio program.  It became an unofficial national anthem and is still used in that context today.

All the Hittys were reluctant to quit singing but the club ladies explained they really did have projects that needed work so we took off our robes and got involved.  One of the ladies had brought each person a dress and another had brought capes, both for Halloween costumes.  The project was to make witches hats!   Hitty Clarissa, the club's travel doll arrived in a unique costume of candy corn so some of the Hittys and she posed for a picture. 

A wonderful day was had by all.  We always look forward to Hitty Club!