Play One on TV

Had a surreal moment this evening. I watched my son play trombone in the fall concert for the Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School winter concert. He did me proud. He has spent most of the semester bouncing between first and second chairs, so he’s pretty good for a first-year player. The rest of the band turned in a very nice performance, too, although the evil parent in me observed that most of them weren’t good enough to bounce between first and second chairs all semester (evil laugh).

During the concert, it suddenly occurred to me that this was the first time in many, many moons that I attended a school band concert. In fact, the very last time was during my high school years, when I was the one on the stage and my parents were appreciatively sitting in the audience. I reminded myself to thank my Dad for sitting through those concerts — I never realized how squeeking clarinets can aggravate one’s molars.

Wow, high school. That was…hmm, let me see… back in 1983? Wow.

The chill of 22 long years shivered up and down my spine for the rest of the concert. I won’t say that I hate getting older, but it sure does give my sense of melancholy a real workout.