Bells on a Truck

It was a curious-looking thing that sat in the church parking lot and caught my eye.

I was driving along a main artery in my hometown, on my way to the YMCA, when I passed something in the parking lot of the First Presbyterian Church of Mountain View, California that made me decide to turn around and investigate.

A closer look simply increased my curiosity.

It was a semi-truck that appeared to be packed with church bells. How many times in your life have you seen a bunch of big old church bells on a semi?

The bells are visible through the heavy glass truck windows, which also reflect the surrounding sky, giving the whole thing a very heavenly aspect.

I swung into the church parking lot and pulled out my ever-present digital camera and took a few pictures. It appeared to be a sort of a carillon-on-a-truck, with Dutch words on some places, a Web Site advertised on the side and back of the truck, and a ladder placed beside the glass enclosure so the carillon player--presumably--could mount his curious perch.(I later learned that a carillon player is known as a carillonneur.)

The stairs alongside the vehicle.

I went on with my journey and my workout and didn't get the chance to look up the bells-on-a-truck information until later in the day.

It is a carillon on wheels, sponsored by a bell making/bell selling company in Ohio called Chime Masters. The company uses a forge in the Netherlands (Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry, Asten, The Netherlands--hence the Dutch writing on the truck) to produce many of its bells. The portable carillon weighs 5.5 tons from tenor bell to treble, making it the heaviest portable bell rig in North America. (Are there any others to compare this with???)



As I further investigated I learned that the First Presbyterian Church would be holding three carillon concerts using the Chime Masters carillon on wheels and that the public is invited. I resolved to come and hear the music of the bells.

I love carillon music and wish each church had a set of bells the way all churches once did. In Florida, I lived near Rollins College and the college chapel had a wonderful set of bells. The bells played hymns on Sunday morning and many other days of the week at midday. I found myself humming the hymns I heard throughout the day.

There are many ways to spread the Word of God and the joy of music is one of the most under-utilized of those ways in the modern world. So, I say hooray for Chime Masters, hooray for the First Presbyterian Church, and hooray for the creative minds that came up with this fascinating way to spread the music of church bells around the ribbon of highways in America.



I thought it would be fun to take my father, who was raised in the Presbyterian Church, and whose mind needs focus to remember what church is all about. Then I remembered that he can't hear anything at all anymore: his deafness is such that even church bells cannot penetrate.

I'll go for him to the concert. And hope the carillonneur wears good ear protection when he plays, so he does not end up as deaf as my father.



Chime Masters Web Site

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First Presbyterian Church Web Site