Today is Abolition of Slavery Day in Reunion. When the French National Convention voted to abolish slavery in 1794, it was rejected by Reunion and by Île de France (Mauritius) and a military force sent by France to enforce the abolition was defeated. During the Napoleonic Wars, both islands were captured by the British and Reunion was returned to France after the war. Finally, on December 20, 1848, slavery was finally abolished and the day is celebrated as a national holiday every December 20.
Back to our regularly scheduled program…
Location, location, location
I was testing children in my Glasgow Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting into heaven.
I asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big estate sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?”
“NO!” the children answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the garden and kept everything tidy, would that get me into heaven?”
Again, the answer was ‘No!’By now I was starting to smile.
“Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave sweets to all the children and loved my husband, would that get me into heaven?”
Again, they all answered ‘No!’
I was just bursting with pride for them. I continued, “Then how can I get into heaven?”
A six-year-old boy shouted,”Ye got tae be fookin’ dead”.
Kinda brings a wee tear tae yir eye…
On this day in 1973, Bobby Darin died – age 37. He was a great performer. He had more than 20 hits in the Top 40 including this one which was originally written by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertold Brecht for their 1928 musical, The Threepenny Opera. It was translated into English by Mark Blitzstein for his off-broadway production of the musical. It was recorded by Louis Armstrong and, while he was recording it, Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya, was in the studio. Armstrong spontaneously added her name to the lyrics and it stuck and was used by Darin.
Comments