Since Mike O was first told to open his mouth but not sing by the nuns, little friends had been using the excuse of not having a quality singing voice to get out of choir practice. This ploy had worked out pretty good for most of the boys through the years, but in eighth grade their teacher, Sister Beth, was actively looking for talented young singers for her choir and was suspicious of all the “poor singers” she had inherited in this eighth grade class of hers. The boys knew she wanted more choir singers so they actively avoided Sister Beth outside of class. They also actively avoided even humming in her presence as they did not want to get interpreted as someone with the slightest musical talent.

There were, however, some places of sanctuary for these boy singers. One of their favorite places was the boy’s bathroom. Here they could sing a song in a room that had some privacy and excellent acoustics. It was also far enough away from the classrooms that the nuns could not hear the singing.

The idea that most of the boys in Sister Beth’s class could not sing was both ridiculous and untrue. The truth of the matter was that several boys had excellent singing voices, but simply did not want to sing in any choir. Two of the best voices were Danny P and Jim M. Danny sang a lot in seventh grade, mostly changing words to songs to make them funny and more appropriate with the environment he was in. His rendition of “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” was legendary, but unfortunately unfit for reprint in this publication. Jim M was also a very good singer and could sing solo or harmonize with the best of the class of ’75 singers.

One day while washing up in the boy’s room Danny and Jim began singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, a favorite Four Seasons’ song of theirs. Danny had an excellent falsetto voice and could knock out the high notes while Jim worked the lower octaves of the song. While they were singing, Danny … who was closest to the door while washing his hands … heard someone coming down the hallway. He stopped singing and took a peek and saw it was Sister Beth. To his horror it actually looked like she was heading toward the bathroom. Danny went back in and continued washing his hands but remained silent while Jim carried on singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, even knocking out a couple of the high falsetto lines of the song since Danny had stopped singing. Danny did not tell Jim of the approaching danger from the hallway, assuming that the danger would pass. He did remain mute just in case.

It was then the unthinkable happened. Sister Beth entered the boys’ bathroom!

Danny was stunned. This would stun any teen boy to be in a bathroom with a nun, but Sister Beth had no interest in Danny. She walked toward the area of the washroom where Jim was still washing his hands and singing up a storm. When Jim finished washing his hands he looked up to the mirror and to his horror he saw Sister Beth behind his reflection. He immediately groaned and stopped singing.

“Mr. Jim” said Sister Beth, “you have a marvelous singing voice and I am going to put you in the Christmas choir immediately.”

Jim immediately frowned and his dismay only got worse as he saw his singing partner exiting the boy’s room and fleeing for the safety of the hallway. Jim had been ‘left to the nuns’ by his singing partner and was now in the process of being exiled from the sanctuary of the bathroom and marched into the dreaded choir.