One of Katie’s Practical Jokes
August 9, 2020
by Ted Moews
Katie loved to sing...there was a home recording from when she was a little girl where she introduces herself and says with her Indiana accent: “ Hi my name is Kay and I lack to sing”...
Back to my story:
She was a newcomer to The Riverside Folk Song Society so not many members knew her, and the group had been invited to have their meeting at Jerry & Bev Praver’s home. So Katie and her new friend Carol Garro got together and decided to sing “De Colores” and “Tres Heridas”. They came up with the idea that Carol would introduce Katie as her cousin from South America and tell everyone that Katie didn’t speak any English. Since she was fairly fluent in Spanish there were some interesting conversations flowing about her before the program began that were often quite amusing.
When They performed their two songs everyone was enthralled with their performance, their voices blended wonderfully and their Spanish accents lent an exotic flavor to their performance. Well at break time a small crowd of admirers gathered around her and in broken Spanish tried to communicate with her, asking where she was from, complimenting their performance etc. She shyly replied to their attempts with the graciousness one would expect from a well educated young woman from South America. When the group settled down for the second half of the evening, Carol and Katie were asked to perform another song... When it came time to introduce the song, Katie proceeded to explain the story behind their choice in flawless English ( with a slight Indiana twang). As members of the group began to catch on,they realized that they’d been had by those two.... snickers and then laughter rolled through the audience. Carol and Katie then performed their lastsong in English to the delight of all....
Back to my story:
She was a newcomer to The Riverside Folk Song Society so not many members knew her, and the group had been invited to have their meeting at Jerry & Bev Praver’s home. So Katie and her new friend Carol Garro got together and decided to sing “De Colores” and “Tres Heridas”. They came up with the idea that Carol would introduce Katie as her cousin from South America and tell everyone that Katie didn’t speak any English. Since she was fairly fluent in Spanish there were some interesting conversations flowing about her before the program began that were often quite amusing.
When They performed their two songs everyone was enthralled with their performance, their voices blended wonderfully and their Spanish accents lent an exotic flavor to their performance. Well at break time a small crowd of admirers gathered around her and in broken Spanish tried to communicate with her, asking where she was from, complimenting their performance etc. She shyly replied to their attempts with the graciousness one would expect from a well educated young woman from South America. When the group settled down for the second half of the evening, Carol and Katie were asked to perform another song... When it came time to introduce the song, Katie proceeded to explain the story behind their choice in flawless English ( with a slight Indiana twang). As members of the group began to catch on,they realized that they’d been had by those two.... snickers and then laughter rolled through the audience. Carol and Katie then performed their lastsong in English to the delight of all....
