Sunnyside Elementary Christmas Memories

Inland Empire Girl is trying to revive our sibling assignments this month.  For sibling assignment #137, she wants Raymond Pert and I to think of a Christmas memory tied to a school experience and why it has stayed with us.

I remember the Christmas tradition at Sunnyside Elementary.  Each year, the sixth graders would put on the Christmas program at school.


When I was in fifth grade, I remember Teresa Vergobbi, one of the sixth graders,  wearing a black dress and reciting the following poem during the Christmas program:

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

If I remember correctly, the fifth grade band also performed at this program, and I got to direct the band while they played a few songs.


The following year, it was my sixth grade classes turn.  My memory of this program was playing the flute backstage during the reading of the story about "Greensleeves".  I remember Terry LeClaire played the role of Greensleeves, which, for this production, was a story about a shepherd, if I'm not mistaken.


I also remember helping out during the SIlver King Elementary Christmas program that same year.  My mom was a teacher at Silver King, and they put on a Christmas program every year.  This year, I got to sit with our music teacher, Mrs. Williams, and help turn her music.  It was a very important job, and one I took quite seriously.


I love school Christmas programs.  I am so glad my daughters are in choir and band, so I can attend their concerts during the Christmas season.  I love listening to Christmas music and watching the students perform.  Watching these performances always gets me in the Christmas spirit.


I think I remember these particular programs because I was a part of them, and had a part in each of the performances, whether it was directing the band as a fifth grader, playing the flute as a sixth grader, or turning the pages of music, I was a part of the performance, and I enjoyed that very much.