Memorial Day

Mount Pleasant High School Band Director Matt Taton, center, stands in front of Robert and the clarinet section to direct the band at the corner of Main and Broadway for the city's annual Memorial Day observance.

As it does every year, Mt. Pleasant marked Memorial Day with a parade and ceremony downtown.
This was the second year Robert took part as a member of the high school marching band, and the difference in confidence on his part was immense. It's amazing what a year of almost daily practice, intense competition and a trip to the state finals will do for your confidence.

This most recent incarnation of the band -- which includes both seniors and seventh-graders -- sounded good. Perhaps it's just me, but I heard confidence and maturity I don't remember being there last Memorial Day.
The 2007 band will include 11 eighth-graders. Last year, Robert's class, only three, then eventually four eighth-graders were called up to the high school band.

As the old people waved their flags, the veterans marched and remembered their fallen comrades-in-arms. Children for whom places like Iwo Jima and Korea and Vietnam and Afghanistan are only vague mentions in history books ran up and down the sidewalks.
The ceremony concluded with a release of balloons, carrying messages. The message, actually, was very clear.