Handel who?

A tradition in at the Phoenix Symphony, and many other places around the world, is to participate in the Christmas classic Handel's Messiah in a sing a long, because it is so beautiful and is all about our Savior and his birth. It truly is a masterpiece and glorious. I invited my dear daughter, Chloe, to come with me to the sing a long this upcoming Sunday (initially she questioned me on this action until I assured her that it is Sabbath appropriate since it's all about Jesus) and then set out to find the music so she could familiarize herself with the lyrics and melody. This task did not seem difficult because it is the Christmas season, so I felt this would be easily acquired. I started at Target, not there. Next, Best Buy, since they have a larger selection. Blake and I perused the holiday music section, and I saw plenty of "A Cowboy's Christmas", but no Messiah. A seasoned Best Buy associate (fiftyish in age) walked by and asked if I needed any assistance, and I told him I couldn't find Handel's Messiah. "Is it new?" he asked. Dumbfounded pause. "No," I said. "It's been around for a while." Are you kidding me?! He was PLENTY old enough to know it. So, he called for back up, since this was beyond his area of expertise. Along came a twentyish year old associate. The older associate asked him if they carried Handel's Messiah. "Uh, I haven't heard of that one, which isn't a good sign that we have it." I couldn't take it anymore! I did what I know best. I started singing "For unto us a child is born/ Unto us/ A Son is given...." They both lookd at me, clueless. I tried a diferent song. "Ha-lellujah! Ha-lellujah!" "Oh!" says the younger one. "That's from Christmas Vacation when Clark Griswoll plugs in the lights and they finally work!" My faith in all that is good and decent in this world plummetted. He said he would check the computer to see if they had it, which I knew meant "No". Hmph. I left there empty handed. Tried Borders. Nope (but at least this fortyish year old associate knew what it was.). I came home and relayed this story to Kevin and he reminded me that my father in law had experienced the same difficulty a couple of years ago when he was here visiting (feel free to post your experience about this, Paul) and came up against the same ignorance of this masterpiece. So, now I am left wondering, Is this a Phoenix phenomenon, or is it nationwide? If any of you have experiemced this outside of the great state of Arizona, let me know. Fortunately, I know where to allocate said CD. New Zion, aka Mesa, which is where I happen to be going tomorrow anyway, has it for me.