THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290412
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 54 lines
Word of my success in bellowing hymns to banish drowsiness at the wheel while I drove through the night stirred a response from G. Warren Driskill of Norfolk.
Even before Driskill chimed in, others said it didn't surprise them my singing kept me awake. Nobody, they said, could sleep in that din.
One said it reminded him of the Musicians of Bremen, the fairy tale in which a donkey, dog and rooster, standing outside the window of the robbers' forest lair, cut loose braying, barking and crowing and drive them away.
Driskill was more positive. As a youth, he said, he sang hymns while plowing on the family farm behind Robin, a mule, and Dolly, a horse.
Did the singing disturb them? ``They kept on pulling the plow,'' he said.
What it did for Driskill was lighten the day, furrow after furrow on the farm in Naruna, nine miles north of Brookneal.
The family got up at daybreak and worked until sundown, and, on Friday, late into the night as they shelled butter beans to sell next day in Lynchburg.
While his father peddled vegetables around town in the family's Model-T Ford, his mother tended the stall at the curb market.
What did he sing as he plowed?
Uplifting songs: ``When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder,'' ``Standing on the Promises of God,'' ``I Love to Tell the Story'' and ``Onward Christian Soldiers.''
In the First Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, he said, they don't sing the old ones often these days. ``I grew up with 'em and I stick with 'em,'' he declared.
Driskill, the church historian, noted that next year it will celebrate its 175th anniversary.
``Maybe,'' I said, ``they'll sing a hymn that flourished in 1822.''
While my mind was ruminating on hymns, darned if the topic didn't surface Sunday at a sermon broadcast from the Norview Baptist Church in Norfolk.
Tuning in on the car radio, I identified the visiting preacher's cordial voice as that of former U.S. Rep. G. William Whitehurst.
In the course of what was a fine sermon, Whitehurst mentioned he had been allowed to select three of his favorite hymns for the service: ``Blessed Assurance,'' ``Praise Him, Praise Him'' and ``Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.''
On Tuesday he told me, ``The first thing I do at Ghent Methodist Church on Sunday is turn to see what hymns we're going to sing.''
If there's an old hymn on the program, he makes a point of expressing his delight to those responsible. His wife, Janie, is chairman of the board. That ought to help.
Except that she tends to prefer the strong, stately, Episcopal hymns.
Which very few of us can sing. by CNB