My
name is Bonita (Bonnie) Cross and I am an Emeritus member of the San Diego
Chorus. I joined Sweet Adelines in 1955
at the invitation of my cousin, Eethyle Ford, Jan Stauffer's mom. In 1955 I was one of about 12 members of the
San Diego Chorus, but not a charter member.
We sat on picnic benches and met in the art buildings, across from the
big tree by the museum of Natural History in Balboa Park. I think it was or is called Spanish
Village. I can't remember who the
director was, but we had a grand time singing all of the "old" songs;
and I mean "old". I guess some
of them are still sung today, but the arrangements have changed a lot. It was exciting for me since I wasn't even
aware there was such an organization for women.
I started out singing tenor in a quartet called the Gad-a-bouts. The
quartet members were Mac Taylor, Mary Reimer Peterson, Eethyle Ford and me.
Because there were no arrangements for women's voices at that time, we sang the
men's arrangements so I was in the clouds as far as the tenor voice was
concerned. One of the most popular songs we sang was “Silver Dollar”. We went to our first Regional competition in
Phoenix which was judged by men judges because there were no women's judges at
that time. We placed 4th. We were so proud of that accomplishment.
After
the Gad-a-bouts disbanded I made the vocal change to bass and found it was more
to my liking. One of the members, Mac Taylor, the bari in my old quartet, lived
in El Cajon and felt that a chapter would be good for the area so she wanted to
start a chapter there. Eethyle, Mary Reimer Peterson and I packed up and went
to help Mac form the chorus there. It
was named the Singing Hills chorus. Our
chorus director was Gerry Reimer, husband of Mary. He also coached our quartet. Although we continued to
grow as a chapter, we were never very big in size, but we could sing a song
with the best of them. After Mac passed
away, Eethyle and daughter Jan moved on to the San Diego chorus. I stayed on with Singing Hills. Mary also stayed with Singing Hills for a
while and then resigned to be at home with family. I sang in another quartet with Pattie
Glendenning, Ann McGowan and Patsy Swafford. We named ourselves The Savoire Faire and at a
performance we were introduced as the "Savior Fairies" Boy, did we
ever get a kick out of that and it's something we joke about to this day. In another quartet I sang with Pattie, Patsy and
a new tenor named Joan Bruner. Pattie was
the lead and Patsy was the bari (you know, the part that's left over!) We named ourselves The Midas Touch. Unfortunately we didn't see any gold, but we
sure had a good time trying. Sing in a
quartet, it's an experience!
We
had several directors in Singing Hills chorus, each one doing what they did
best. Gerry Reimer, Ann McGowan, Pat
Vozza, who went on to become a queen of harmony. She took us to small chorus contest and we
won the regional small chorus award.
Sally Brumfield was another director and I also sang in a quartet with
her. She sang tenor too! Thank
goodness.... She also took us to small
chorus regionally.
I
can't remember the details but in about 1985 or so, Singing Hills voted to
disband. Several of us decided to go to
the San Diego chorus. It was not too
long after San Diego Chorus director Marvin Yerke’s passing that an upcoming
new director by the name of Kim Bone took over. As many of you know, that
turned out to be a gift that none of us could have imagined. At that time San Diego was working on their
music for International in Kansas City so my first International competition
was with them. What an experience! Later on I had the opportunity to be in the
front row for another International and I loved it. I'm proud of the medals I've won while with
San Diego Chorus. We sang some great
songs, worked really hard and had so much fun.
I retired from the chorus in 1995, shortly after competition. It was the most wonderful time of my life and
I enjoyed every one of those 40+ years. It is a part of my life I will never
forget. Once a Sweet Adeline, always a
Sweet Adeline. Open the refrigerator
door (with the light on) and I'll do 20 minutes....WHAT A LIFE!
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