When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true

Ready to sing!

How lucky I was last night: Basil called as the GHS chorus began its medleys of Disney tunes for the park visitors last night and held the phone up so I could hear, too.

Even through the crappy phone connection, they sounded terrific threading their way through the first, a 20-minute series of classics — Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Someday My Prince Will Come, Bibbity Bobbity Boo,  Whistle While You Work, Heigh Ho, I’m Late.Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Chim Chim Cheree, the theme from Davey Crockett and on and on.

The kids are coming home late tonight with two awards — a bronze for the select choir and a superior rating for the overall group Catherine sings in — but this moment sounded like the trip’s apex.

Basil said a huge crowd of park visitors had assembled to hear them, pressing up against the fence for a better look. I could hear the riotous applause through the phone.

As the kids sailed through the final crescendo of When You Wish Upon a Star and headed in to the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah reprise, my heart soared with their voices. I hadn’t cried when Basil and Catherine left, or over the weekend, but I welled up then.

I couldn’t help but remember my own musical performances, my final high school band competition in particular: In that stadium in Canada in 1984, the last few notes of Danny Boy seemed to reach the very moon and stars, sending the crowd to its feet. It was a rare and delicious feeling I’ve never quite been able to duplicate.

It sounded as though Catherine and her fellow choristers managed to do so, however.