by Michelle Vickers

Wow! I can’t believe how 40 years have come and gone so quickly! This article is a tribute to my first chorus – Prairie Gold - and a reflection of my years in Regina with this amazing SAI chorus.

How fortunate I was to be introduced to this wonderfully fulfilling and rewarding hobby at the young age of 21! Jane Beach, whom I sang with in our local church folk group, brought me out to Prairie Gold’s first big membership drive in Jan 1983. Rose Peddle was their lovely (first) Director. That magical night, I voice placed as a tenor and heard ringing barbershop chords for the first time! The then perspective chorus was singing some old-time favourites: Chattanooga Choo Choo, Dem Dry Bones, San Francisco Bay Blues and Gospel Boogie. I was hooked on the hair-raising harmonies, and the rest, as they say, is history!

So many memorable moments flood my mind and warm my heart, as I reflect on my time with P.G. THANK-YOU! to all those remarkable women who started this impressive chorus and launched my life long passion with singing barbershop harmony! Many thanks for all the fun and fabulous memories of a lifetime, with such a marvellous group of friends, from parties with Clem Deck (and later, Nancy St. Michel) as the ‘most hilarious Entertainer’ and instigator, to the many kooky quartets I was invited to sing in, to my first competing quartet – A Change of Pace – who competed in 1988 and won the Novice Quartet Award and then sang at my wedding in 1989!

So many highlights: from our first contest in April 1983 (our uptune was - Ice Cream Sodas and Lollipops and Red-Hot Spinning Tops! LOL!) where we placed 2nd overall, (to everyone’s surprise), to all the shows, performances and our many successful contest experiences over the years, to the bus ride to and returning home from the first “festival” competition for small choruses in 1996 in St. Louis, when we didn’t want our time together to end, to singing “Anthem” on the balconies in the St. Louis hotel – this was the emotional highlight of my time with you!

Thank-you for entrusting me to the front row, the Management team for a short time and the Music Team as Tenor Section Leader for many of my years with you. It is because of your trust and confidence in me, that I began to spread my wings, grow and blossom!

It was the music that brought us together, but it’s the fabulous friendships that kept me hooked all these years! Thank-you to all the notable singers and fantastic Directors I was honoured to sing with and for during my time with Prairie Gold: Rose Peddle, Marg Ohm, Chris Evans, Marlene Greenough, and Denise Lindenbach.

You are an extraordinary group of women who will have a warm and fuzzy place in my heart forever! Congratulations on 40 years of making beautiful barbershop music together! I am very saddened and heart broken your time as a chorus is ending, but am forever grateful for the sixteen years I spent with you. XX

Yours in harmony,

Michelle Vickers

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