So, who is Herm, anyway? |
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They were poor - very, very poor. But they didn't know it, or if they did, they didn't care. They loved each other enough to have eight children before I came along (and two more after me).
Hey! No smart aleck comments unless you've tried to stay warm in an uninsulated cabin when it's 40 below zero outside with a 50 mile per hour wind. No television, no radio, no electricity, no running water, and only a two-holer outside for a bathroom. How else would Mom and Dad spend their time?
Anyway, that's where I was born, with only an older sister and an aunt to help Mom. I'm told there was quite a celebration when I made my entrance. After five girls in a row, the appearance of my tiny spout was greeted with great relief, especially by Dad who was beginning to think he'd lost the knack.
I've been told I was spoiled (although I don't believe it). Mom was really busy, and my older sisters helped care for me. In truth, I had several mothers, and some of my fondest memories are the long winter evenings after I started school when my sisters took turns grilling me with spelling, reading and math. They made it their personal responsibility to ensure I got an education.
I was lucky in a lot of ways. I had a family that loved one another and weren't afraid to express it. I had a talented father with a wide range of interests who instilled in me the love of working with wood and with music. My mother showed me what it was like to be open-minded and that taking the high road was always the best tactic. She passed away in 1999, at 89 years, but she was more understanding and flexible and saw the world more clearly than anyone else I know. Most of all, I'm grateful that they taught me that working hard makes holding your head up a lot easier, and that quitting was unacceptable.
I sang my first solo at 3 years of age, and never really quit singing since then. At the age of 18 I joined a group called "God's Volunteers" and sang with them for 10 months traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada. When I went to college at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a year later, I had the idea that I was going into the ministry. But, with the opportunity to take voice lessons for the first time in my life, music soon took over, and I dropped out of pre-seminary studies.
My voice was a gift from my father, who still sang in the choir the week before he died. It served me so well that I could pay my way through college with it. I was able to sing professionally during the summer at the Starlight Theatre in Indianapolis, doing shows such as Oklahoma, Music Man, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Kiss Me Kate, The King and I, 110 in the Shade, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Carnival. I rubbed shoulders with and sang with the stars of the day - Gordon MacRae, Forrest Tucker, Warren Berlinger, Jack Benny, Wayne Newton, Carroll Baker, Van Johnson, David Hartman, etc.
At the age of 23 I went to the national auditions for the Metropolitan Opera, doing the tenor aria "Che Gelida Manina" from Puccini's opera, "La Boheme".
There's a funny story about this. My voice professor felt very strongly that I should sing a Mozart piece "Dalla Sua Pace (Don Geovanni)" for this audition, since I was pretty young to sing the Puccini. However, I insisted on doing "Che Gelida Manina (La Boheme)" (it had a high "C" in it and I wanted to show off). He finally relented.
Well, I did the number, and then, tremulously, went down to speak to the sole judge for the audition. He was a dour, crusty old character and his demeanor scared me to death.
He fixed a baleful eye on me and demanded, "How old are you?"
"T-T-Twenty-three", I stammered.
"Why you sing Puccini?", he demanded. "At your age you should be singing Mozart!"
Ah well .... too soon old .... too late smart!
Even so, this was an experience very few will ever enjoy, and I count myself extremely fortunate to have been there.
I had a lot of opportunities to pursue a professional singing career, but I knew that to be successful in the profession requires a single-mindedness and focus that was beyond me. I think you can tell from this Web page that my interests are somewhat divided. I haven't even mentioned photography, golf or wine-making.
After college, my new wife and I traveled to western South Dakota and then to Iowa as teachers. Then I got involved with the credit union system, and have worked in various capacities with credit unions for the past twenty-six years. Until I retired, I was a senior manager with the Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation of Manitoba.
Over the years I have been fortunate to be associated with some wonderful music organizations. I was the conductor of the senior choir at First Baptist Church in Marshalltown, Iowa for several years, a position I look back upon with great fondness, as well as numerous other choirs in the places I've lived. During those years I gave numerous concerts, sang at hundreds of weddings, funerals, celebrations of all sorts, and met terrific people wherever I went. These days, I sometimes sing with the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir, and am a past-President of that organization. In 1997 this wonderful choir sang a Canada Day concert at Carnegie Hall, which was certainly a highlight. For several years I was also the tenor soloist at Knox United Church, and counted it an honor to be able to sing in that splendid old church. However, I had some vocal problems, caused by pneumonia, acid reflux and bronchitis that did not clear up, and I basically had to stop singing. That really hurt, because singing was such an important part of my life.
I still sing at home, though, and if you visit the "Lifetime of Singing" link you will actually hear some of my singing throughout my life.
I re-married in 1986, to Karen, a spectacular and wonderful woman. Our life together revolves around our home, her garden and flowers, our Pomeranians, Friskie and Rusty, now deceased, and Jasmine (Jazzy), our current little delight. We also share a love of cooking and entertaining plus other hobbies we both enjoy.
At the end of March, 2005, I finaly retired at the age of 62. It was perfect timing. People had asked me as I approached 60, "Well, when are you retiring?"
I had done all the homework, made out lists with plus and minus columns, checked income levels again and again and was driving myself crazy. So, I finaly did what I have based my major decisions on throughout my life. Having done my homework I turned it over to my subconscious mind and basically forgot about it. As I told my friends, "When the switch goes off in my mind I know it will be time to quit."
Mid-November, 2004, sitting at my desk at 10:30 a.m., I heard a distinct "click" like someone had snapped on a light switch. There was no hesitation or doubt in my mind. I wrote out my resignation and five minutes later I had given my notice.
Let me tell those of you that are wrestling with a retirement decision - spring time, when all the world is re-awakening, when life is springing up all around you, THAT is the time to retire. Your life, like everything around you, is new, changing, different and exciting. I have not regretted my choice for an instant, and making that decision was not a struggle.
Anyway, that short story takes me to the present, August of 2007. I have enjoyed my retirement and the ability to engage in my hobbies at my liesure. I still sing a bit, take tons of pictures, golf once in awhile, but mostly spend my time in my shop doing woodturning and making furniture. I teach a lot of classes in woodturning at Lee Valley Tools, and last year started a woodturning club in Winnipeg. Generally, life is busy but enjoyable. However, I do miss vacations.
I hope you will take a moment to look at my work and maybe listen to some of the music. Please take the time to drop me a note with your comments and suggestions. Old friends who log in, please let me know you were here.
All of your comments are welcomed.
Born Hermann de Vries (yep, with 2 n's, but I only use one), June 8, 1943. I was born in a log cabin in the swamp (here I can hear y'all saying, "yeah, right!"). Well, it's the truth. About 200 miles north of the U.S. border, in the middle of Manitoba, Canada, you'll find Lake Dauphin. On the south side of Lake Dauphin is a swamp, with a small strip of higher land separating it from the lake itself. That's where my Mom and Dad settled in the 1930's.