Funny Cat Dashing Through the Snow

JACKIE ROONEY/SpecialJingle Bells parody writer Mary Kirk (from left), Bobbie Saitta, Marjorie McElroy, Cynthia Akre and Dottie Neinstedt were among the members and guests who attended the FOCUS Cummer Champagne brunch.

"Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh. O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way ..."It's the jingle-bell season, and surprisingly, the song about snow and one-horse sleighs has ties to Georgia and Florida, which rarely see the wet, white stuff. Savannah, Ga., and Medford, Mass., both claim to be the birthplace of Jingle Bells.The Medford story says James Lord Pierpont composed the song to be performed for Thanksgiving by the Medford Unitarian Church choir, where his father was pastor. It's speculated that he was inspired by the "cutter [one-horse open sleigh] races" young men took part in during snowy Boston winters. There's not a word about Christmas in Jingle Bells, but it was such a hit, the congregation requested an encore at Christmas. Medford's claim has added credence, because Oliver Ditson Company of Boston published One Horse Open Sleigh in 1857, and reissued it as Jingle Bells in 1859.Nevertheless, folks in Savannah assert that Pierpont wrote the song when he was living there, working as an organist at the Unitarian church, where his brother was pastor. Was Pierpont musically reminiscing about the Northeast, or was Jingle Bells written before he got to Savannah? No one knows for certain. The Florida connection came in later years, when Pierpont moved to live with his son in Winter Haven. He died and was buried there in 1893, but his body was later moved to Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery. In 1985, the Savannah Unitarian Universalist Church erected a plaque in his honor, and calls itself the "Jingle Bells" church.Christmas at the Beaches inspired Ponte Vedran Mary Kirk to borrow Pierpont's melody for a parody she calls Jingle Bells Florida Style. It goes like this: "Dashing through the surf, in a one-piece bathing suit; or playing rounds of golf, it really is a hoot. Up north they're shoveling snow and trying to stay warm. What fun it is to watch TV and see those big snowstorms. Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle ho-ho-ho! Oh what fun it is to live in a place where there's no snow."- Beaches songwriter John Miller is an attorney by day, but he plays music night or day, when his BayStreet band has a gig. On Dec. 9, the gig was at Casa Marina Restaurant for the 11th annual Pier Dance benefiting Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry. The guests, mostly Atlantic Beach Elementary School fourth-grade students of Laurie Stucki, their relatives and friends, brought new toys and nonperishable food for BEAM to distribute to needy Beaches families. Among its many services, BEAM provides short-term emergency housing assistance."Thank you so much for supporting BEAM," said Executive Director Vivian Southwell. "The great thing about the Beaches is we really do support our own."In 1998, "I got it in my brain to do a dance for charity on the pier," Miller said. "BEAM has been the charity since day one. The first two dances were held on the pier, then a hurricane destroyed it and we moved to a new location."Miller met Stucki, who was teaching and working part-time as a waitress at the time. She invited him to talk to her students about his career and music. The children surprised him by learning a song he wrote, Peace. The refrain is: "I wish you peace, I wish you well, Peace for ourselves, Peace for the world, I wish you love, I wish you friends. Fare thee well, until we meet again." For this year's Pier Dance, they performed Peace and Gleam, also written by Miller, along with Run, Run Rudolph.- Jingle Bells is one of the first Christmas songs children learn to sing, and Foundation Academy third- and fourth-graders sang it with enthusiasm as guests arrived at Casa Marina on Dec. 10 to help maitre d' Sterling Joyce turn 59 in style. The Johnston Duo entertained and James Hardeman was master of ceremonies. A highlight of the evening was when Joyce, Hardeman and former Jaguars wide receiver Jimmy Smith danced and sang backup, while vocalist Harvey Williams belted out Get Ready ['Cause Here I Come.]Joyce likes to celebrate his natal day in the name of charity. This year BEAM was the beneficiary. Once again, folks brought toys and food as the price of admission. "The party was packed, and we collected four truckloads of gifts and food," Joyce said. Black Tie Formal presented a fashion show of the latest in formal wear, and guests chowed down on plates of ribs with all the fixings in a rib cook-off contest between Casa Marina chef Aaron Webb and Joyce, who teamed at the grill with Tom "Too Tall" Harris. Votes were tallied, and the Joyce/Harris team won for the second year in a row. Also there was Catering To You personal chef Kitty Boswell-Herda; she caters for VIPs such as Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton. Herda cooks with a "global twist." She made Thai peanut chicken, Mongolian beef and Figi Island prawns at Sterling's bash.- Another BEAM supporter is Coastal Quilters. Members bring nonperishable food items for BEAM to their weekly sewing bees. At the guild's annual Christmas party at the Neptune Beach Senior Activity Center on Dec. 4, the women also brought new toys, so they were able to deliver a "carload of food and toys to BEAM," said guild President Pat Sena.Coastal Quilters has been around for about 20 years. Its 65 members meet weekly at the Senior Activity Center to "sit, sew and have a social jolly time," Sena said. The industrious women make quilts and lap quilts for people hospitalized at Baptist Medical Center-Beaches and for patients at Hospice of Northeast Florida. Every year they make and raffle an "opportunity quilt" to raise money for guild education - professional quilting instructors come to meetings - and half the proceeds go to charities. At the quilters' holiday party, $1,000 from the raffle of a floral appliqued quilt was presented to activity center Director Leslie Lyne for the center, and St. Andrew's Lighthouse representative Sandy Asher received a gift of $300 for the nonprofit hospital hospitality house in Jacksonville Beach. Lighthouse provides lodging for patients and families receiving medical care away from their homes.- Beth El Synagogue was "a happening" place on Dec. 7, with a holiday bazaar featuring 35 exhibitors and vendors, some of whom came from as far away as New York. "It was thrilling to see people engaging in shopping, networking and mingling with old and new friends," said Chairwoman Donne Berger. The bazaar, run by the Sisterhood committee, was about fun, food, family and shopping, and it raised funds for the Beth El religious school and other synagogue needs.- The Beaches Area Historical Society had a party to honor longtime board members Bill Hillegass and society founder Jean Haden McCormick on Dec. 10. Hillegass has served on the board for 23 years, and McCormick, a board member for 30 years, was the original society president. Lillie Sullivan, secretary of the Rhoda Martin Cultural Heritage Center, presented a bouquet of roses to McCormick in appreciation of all she has done for the center. The society's new executive director, Deborah Guglielmo, was there for the festivities, as well as outgoing Director Sam Van Leer and Caroline Dow, who is the great-great-granddaughter-in-law of Ellen and William Scull, the first settlers of Jacksonville Beach.- Palm Valley resident Phil Kelly was honored at this year's Intracoastal Waterway lighted dock and boat parade. It was a bittersweet event. Phil, the parade's organizer for the past four years, recently died while vacationing with his family in the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. He was referred to as "a pied piper of people," and about 500 friends and relatives attended his memorial service at Christ Episcopal Church. Afterward, many went to a reception at LuLu's Waterfront Cafe.On Dec. 13, the celebration of Phil's life continued on the dock of his Intracoastal Waterway home, the site of many a boat-parade party. Refreshments were provided by Stellar, the engineering firm where he was a vice president. Willie Hepner stepped in to help Phil's co-chairwoman, Shari Duval, with arrangements for the parade, which was renamed the Phil Kelly Lighted Parade Palm Valley. The Team Duprez boat captained by Grand Marshall Louie Williams led the 33 boats; the number matched the 2007 record number of vessels participating. Phil's boat, decked with blue and white lights and a big-screen TV that projected slides of his life, followed in second place. His father, Larry Kelly, was among the passengers, and on the dock were his stepmother Linda Kelly, brother Christopher Kelly and sister-in-law Patti Kelly.Other boats in the festive procession bore tributes to the man many knew as "Catfish" Kelly. One had a lighted sign that said "Powered by Phil Godspeed." Passengers waved a handwritten sign, "God Bless Phil Kelly," on another boat, and the Sons of Norway returned after a year's absence to raise their lighted Viking ship oars in salute to Phil. When a sailboat without lights pulled up across from the Kelly dock, Duval used a bullhorn to inquire if the boat was having trouble. Suddenly lights came on and the plaintive sounds of a trumpet - Phil's instrument of choice - sounded over the waterway. Chris Kelly said, "Phil is mentally on all our shoulders, telling us to have a good time."- At another party near the end of the parade route, guests of Pete and Pat Rutski feasted at a buffet while waiting for the boats to sail their way, and they joined Pete in singing "Happy Birthday" to Pat. Their wait was rewarded by an array of creative vessels lavishly decorated in themes, such as a Neverland boat, a Nativity scene with the sign "Reason for the Season," Seussville with Horton the Elephant and One Fish Two Fish in lights, and, of course, the Cat in a Hat was a passenger. A large quacking "rubber duckie" brought smiles as it motored past, along with a North Pole Elf School.- Jingle Bells parody writer Mary Kirk brought her friend Bobbie Saitta to a membership champagne brunch for FOCUS Cummer at Plantation Country Club on Dec. 14. The organization, which supports the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, has 800 members, but all FOCUS members were asked to bring a non-member guest to build membership. "At the Beaches, we concentrate on improving and expanding art education and appreciation," FOCUS President Frank Barker said. He recognized board members at the do and introduced museum Executive Director Maarten van de Guchte, who gave a slide presentation about the museum."In a world where so much is changing, art is constant; art is for the ages," van de Guchte said, and he listed the museum's "three world-class components. We celebrate art; we celebrate gardens unique in the state, and we have an outstanding education program through which 40,000 children come on organized tours." In February, an exhibition of paintings by iconic American painter Georgia O'Keefe and her contemporaries will open, he said. The afternoon ended on a musical note as Plantation wait-staff member Quincy Grant sang and pianist Gene Nordan played The Christmas Song (with its familiar lyric, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire"). To learn more about FOCUS, go to www.focuscummer.org.- Jingle Bells became the first song broadcast from space on Dec. 16, 1965, when Gemini VI astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford played a prank on Mission Control. They said, "We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit. ... I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit. ... " Then with a harmonica and sleigh bells they'd smuggled on board, they performed Jingle Bells.Jingle Bells is among the 25 most recorded songs in history. The first recording was by the Edison Male Quartette in 1898. Wayne Newton, Duke Ellington, Glen Miller and Frank Sinatra are among the many who have recorded the song. Jingle Bells also could be the most-parodied tune. The French and Germans borrowed the melody for songs about winter. Bobby Helms turned it into Jingle Bell Rock , released in 1957, 100 years after the original version was published.But Kirk's version gets my vote for the best parody, which ends like this: "White Christmases are fine, in movies, myth and song; the thing we can't abide, is that they last too long. We like the kind of snow that we have in this place. We get it in a little bag that we can buy from Ace . Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle hear, hear, hear! We wish you Merry Christmas, and a wonderful new year!"Ditto from the Rooney Bin.Jackie Rooney is a freelance writer who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach. To contact her, please e-mail rooneybin@comcast.net. Or call 249-4947. Or fax 280-1899.