Veterans Day

This morning the members of the community band that were able to do so assembled and played for the town's Veterans Day ceremony, held indoors at the American Legion Hall due to a steady rain. We played two marches, the Coast Guard's song Semper Paratus, and the National Anthem. School children sang, speeches were made, the colors presented and benedictions made.

Having grown up here, I knew a lot of the folks present, and some came up and thanked us for playing for them. You could sense that for these veterans and their families, the music meant a great deal. These Veterans Day performances and the ones for Memorial Day mean far more to me than the concerts we give. It's music therapy on the community level. The regular concerts are entertaining, but only that. At today's event there was a deeper transaction.