Substitute Accompanist

Today I had another first at church: first time accompanying the adult choir.  Michael, the senior choir's director, teaches at the high school with Susan and asked her a couple days ago whether she thought I'd be willing to do that (their usual accompanist was going to be unavailable today).  So she brought home the music, I practiced it a few times, and I met the choir about 45 minutes before church this morning to run through it with them.  I watched his conducting very carefully; and at one point, he chastised the choir for not slowing down at a particular measure marked ritardando: "The conductor and the accompanist are ritard-ing, but the choir is not."  So I must have been doing something right!  It seemed to go well when they sang it during the church service, too.  It reminded me of my teen days as a church organist and an accompanist for high school choir.  Ah, memories.