A Silver Anniversary

I’m writing this in the car…please excuse the typos!

The Big Band celebrated its silver anniversary last night. 25 years is quite a milestone for the longevity of anything, especially a band. Mr. C was a founding member, and since we’ve moved away he has managed to attend a few rehearsals on trips back, and has played in four gigs! He’ll play a fifth gig with them next week when the band plays its annual lunchtime concert in LePage Park. I think that means he’s still a member of the band, lol!

Anyway, in honour of 25 years, the band hosted a dance and invited all the past members to sit in. People were there that I hadn’t seen in years, it was amazing! A few folks even flew into town for the reunion. How great is that. 

It was an emotional evening for me. I found myself, part way through the evening suddenly awash in tears. I couldn’t stop,them. They just flowed out of my eyes like one of those fountains where the water just flows down a rock wall, a trickle that dampens the and ferns and mosses. Except my face was far from being rock. 
My tears were of tears of the joy I feel when I’m playing that music that I love so much, tears of playing the bari, following the lead player in the sax line, tears of love of the instrument with its big metal Berg Larson mouthpiece, doing what it’s supposed to do, which is snorting around on the bottom end of the sax line with George on bass in my right ear and the bass bone in my left; tears having a new role in the band (guest); tears of pride to be an alumnus; tears of revisiting what used to be a very big part of my life, looking down the line and there’s Kelly where he always used to sit, Leith beside him on tenor, Rebecca on vocals, up for the anniversary from Maple Ridge, BC, Mark on drums like the old days, Fawn on keys where she always used to be…and I realized that it doesn’t get any better than this. Happy and sad, pensive and elated. Emotion isn’t just joy or sadness, it’s much, much more than that. And it’s all coursing through me right now. I think a few cups of tea with old friends and a few more tears are in store for me yet today.