Autumn Years Fall 2024

To the Wildcats Singing Group, Tuesday afternoons are sacred. On Tuesday afternoons, they rehearse. Religiously. However, their rehearsals are about much more than perfecting harmonies. They are coveted “family” reunions. The joy that floods their rehearsal room is infectious; it is palpable.

T he Wildcats describe themselves as a group of dynamic, active, senior sing ers with a love of music from the 1950s and 1960s, especially Doo-wop. They hail from all corners of the area—Oakland, North Hale don, Leonia, Hackensack, Fort Lee, Glen Rock, Lincoln Park, Pompton Plains, Wayne and Fair Lawn—and the group’s ten current members and their director range in age from 75 to 85. They are an eclectic group that includes a for mer Chief of Police, a nurse and lots of retired educators from principals to board of education members to elementary classroom and music teachers to a high school math teacher. They are bonded by deep friendships, emotional sup port, mutual respect, genuine admiration and, above all, an uninhibited love for singing and for each other. The group was formed about ten years ago. Most of its original members met through the Bergen Community College Institute for Learn ing in Retirement where they were members of the Senior Choir. One day after a chorus rehearsal on campus as they made their way down a stairwell blessed with great acoustics, several Senior Choir mem bers spontaneously started harmonizing “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.” By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, they realized they

sounded pretty good and that singing Doo wop was a whole lot of fun. A plan was devised. After their next rehearsal, they approached choir director Barbara Heitmann about the possibility of staying after chorus practices to sing Doo-wop. Barbara was immediately on board and subsequently invited any other in terested chorus members to join them. In ad dition to directing the Senior Choir, Barbara taught Sing, Sing, Sing, a Learning in Retire ment course at the college. Barbara also al lowed the Doo-wop enthusiasts in her class to pass around a sign-up sheet to recruit more participants for their sessions. In short order, the Doo-wop group expand ed, and they were sounding better and better. After one especially impressive session Barbara said, “Let’s do this for people!” She added two Doo-wop songs to the once-a-semester Senior Choir concerts she directed, “In the Still of the

FALL 2024 I AUTUMN YEARS 47