My Veterans Day

[jon_norstog]

The band marched in the Ross Chapel-Hollywood Veterans Day parade. It rained some, but not too hard, This was the music:

Parade Music:

National Anthem March
Veterans Salute (NEW VERSION with Semper Paratus)
I'm Shipping Up to Boston
Tribute to America

Additional Post-Parade Music:

America the Beautiful
Washington Post March
The Stars and Stripes Forever
(and we did Tribute to America again)

One of the baritone players brought an old "sax-horn" that was made during the Civil War and from the look of it was probably in a regimental band during that conflict. The Civil War was a feast for the musical instrument industry in the US. Especially brass.

It wasn't that long a march, maybe a mile, and we went through the parade music 4X. At the end of the paraDE was a long wait while people made speeches, a color guard did their thing, the flag went up, a couple prayers. The rain let up a bit.

I saw my wife and son in the crowd. They made it! We played the stand-up and dispersed. I could tell things were going well cause the director looked so happy, especially on the two Sousa marches.

later Salisa told me we were the best-sounding band in the parade. She is someone who will gladly tell you if you suck, so I'm inclined to believe her.




jn, USCG 1966-70. Still serving in my own way

[RED]

Outfreakingstanding! I am glad you had a nice day. My day was a lot simpler. I couldn't figure out whether to have lunch at Hooters or Chili's. The food is usually better at Chili's... So, I went to a Chili's with my (veteran) son in KC. We ran into a friend of his, a disabled vet that lost a leg and an eye from an IED in Iran. He was one of those saved by a "corpse man" and was on the stage when that hero received the CMOH, delivered by Dubya.

I remember and cherish my days in the USN. We went through some pretty tough situations as well. I remember one time in particular aboard the USS Saratoga when we went almost 2 whole days without any ice cream.

TFIC

[jon_norstog]

Thanks Red. I feel your pain about two days with no ice cream.

FWIW as a snipe on a white one, one of my jobs was to take engineering readings all over the ship. Including the reefers.
Man, look at that rack of pies! They'll never miss one - or two.

jn

[Mark in Ottawa]

Up here in Canada, we call it Remembrance Day and since I am recovering from knee surgery, I watched it on TV instead of going to the ceremony. One of the interesting things for me was watching our new Governor General. In Canada, the Governor General (who is the Queen's representative in Canada) is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and is entitled to wear a uniform. I was curious to see what she would wear and perhaps not surprisingly she wore an air force uniform with several medals and wings. The really interesting thing is that she is entitled to them. She was an astronaut, has over 600 hours flying jets and holds the Order of Canada as well as a NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Her wings are actually astronauts wings. Most importantly from my point of view is that she is an engineer. Her tenure should be interesting. See photo at https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/11/11/gov-gen-julie-payette-attends-remembrance-day-service-in-ottawa.html

For once, it didn't rain in Ottawa. Clear skies but very cold. Apparently the temperature was a record low for Nov 11

[dryheat]

She sounds like quite a woman.

[jon_norstog]

She sounds like quite a woman.

She is, goddammit!

jn

[p246]

Glad you all had a good day, you earned it. My pops had two cataracts removed the day before so he was running into stuff all day. He will be up and running full speed by the weeks end.

[JimW in Ore]

I saw you, I was standing at the start of the parade and you all sounded absolutely great. And the chicks rocked. Jim

[Ken The Kanuck]

I was up at the cabin hunting with our son. I drove into a small town called Ashcroft. They had a very nice ceremony, Paschendäle was mentioned. One of the speaker's was an Indian fellow whose grandfather fought in the CEF and he was very proud. He banged on a drum and spoke in his peoples language and translated it for the rest of us.

My wife, däughters, daughter in-law, son in-laws and the granddaughter all went to the local cenotaph together.

A good day for all.

Thank you veterans.:icon_salut:

KTK

[jon_norstog]

I saw you, I was standing at the start of the parade and you all sounded absolutely great. And the chicks rocked. Jim

Thanks Jim! Yeah, the twirlers, dancers and tambourine ladies really make for a show! The oldest twirler is 84.

This site http://thebeatgoesonmb.org/eventinfo.htm will show where the band is playing next. It's always free.

Thanks for coming to the show!

jn