The first time I heard the song "A Beautiful Life" was when I was about six years old and attending  a church and family reunion at a  little one-room building that had served as school as well as church. (It continued as a church for more than 50  years.  My cousin Terral was the pastor in his early years as a Methodist minister.)

I have very rarely heard this song but the refrain has never completely left my mind "Life's evening sun is sinking low; a few more days and I  must go."  A short man with stubby fingers was playing piano in the most enthusiastic manner I've ever seen or heard. I was about six years old at the time

When Dad was a child going to the school, it was taught by his cousin, who boarded with his family.  He admitted being a problem student.  One boring afternoon he left his seat, gathered  up everyone's hat and threw them one by one out the window. He then went outside and threw the hats back in one by one. He showed us where he had carved his initials on the back of a pew.

Of course the school  had no bathroom, not even  an outdoor facility; boys used one side of the woods, the girls the other side.  I overheard Dad and a friend laughing saying, "We killed that tree, didn't we?"  They had selected one tree as their urinal to see if they could kill it.  They were saying they were successful.

 ( By the way, the song is being sung a capella by a Mennonite youth group at a Methodist church in Tennessee.