The Chief Of Staff & I have been counting our blessings together for a long time – over 61 years of marriage, retirement from the world of outside work, the marriages of our 2 sons, the births and lives of our 2 granddaughters and 1 grandson. Not everything has been happy and good. We lost our younger son (Bruce, father of our granddaughters) 4 years ago to throat cancer. We’ve both gone through an assortment of medical adventures ourselves, some ongoing. Mostly though we are grateful for the good things in our lives, and for the ability to carry on through everything else.
A big part of our social life centers on community music – the
City Of Fairfax Band (a community concert band) and the
Cathedral Brass (a church-based large brass ensemble). Both groups are made up of fellow musicians, but also friends who enjoy one another’s company even outside of rehearsals and performances.
Fairfax Band’s parent association has sponsored the formation of other community musical groups, including the Northern Virginia Youth Winds, made up of intermediate school and high school musicians interested in musical opportunities beyond their own school bands. The Youth Winds had a tough time of it during the covid pandemic, actually going on hiatus for a couple of seasons. When the youth band got going again, some of the older kids had graduated or otherwise moved on, others had dropped out, and some who might have joined school bands never even started. As a result, there were gaps in some of the youth band’s instrumental sections that were filled, temporarily, by adult members of Fairfax Band who volunteered to mentor the kids and lead by example. As it happened, I signed up to augment the youth band’s French horns, and our son Brian (a Fairfax Band member himself) filled in with the saxophones. Rehearsals of Northern Virginia Youth Winds were held in the band room of McLean High School, right at the same place where it was back in our own high school days (although seriously enlarged and remodeled since then – the whole school, not just the band room). There was special satisfaction in playing horn again in the same room where I attended my first-ever concert band rehearsal in 1955. Brian and I filled in with Northern Virginia Youth Winds for 2 seasons. Their concerts were not at McLean, but at a different school out in Fairfax VA.
Most performances by Fairfax Band’s adult ensembles are likewise played in Fairfax VA, but not all. In 2017, the City Of Fairfax Band traveled (at individual members’ expense) to France to perform in patriotic commemorative ceremonies at the Normandy American cemetery. The band’s French tour included some sight-seeing, including a side-trip to Paris, where Fairfax Band played an outdoor concert at a suburban park.
The Chief Of Staff and our son and I traveled together to France and back.
As an outgrowth of playing French horn in community musical groups, I have more frequently taken on the role of Master Of Ceremonies at concerts by Fairfax Band and Cathedral Brass. At most Fairfax Band indoor concerts, our M.C. is a paid professional whose day job is classical radio announcer at WETA-FM. When he caught covid the day before a concert, I got the nod to fill in for him. (Fortunately he had already written a script.) I announce the tunes more frequently at Cathedral Brass performances and at Fairfax Band outdoor concerts.
I am not the oldest member of the City Of Fairfax Band, although I am right up there with the band’s handful of its oldest oldsters. The issue of how much longer to keep on playing horn has so far been more a philosophical question than a practical matter, although I still hold to the idea that it’s better to quit a year to soon than a day too late. As the manager and president of the Cathedral Brass sees it, it’s OK to keep playing as long as it’s still fun, so that’s what I intend to do.
Other than my strong involvement in Cathedral Brass and Fairfax Band, I get enjoyment out of going to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with
The Chief Of Staff. We have a comfortable but compact non-traveling travel trailer at a campground on the back side of Rehoboth Bay that serves as a modest vacation home in miniature. We get there several times each season, not actually splashing around in the ocean surf nearby, but enjoying the change of scene and the tax-free shopping. (No retail sales tax in Delaware.)
About our only other travels are to Orlando, Florida, where we now customarily take 2 or 3 weeks in late January each year. We are not much interested in all the walking and standing in line involved going to Disney World and the other spectacular Orlando theme parks. Rather, we enjoy taking it easy at some of the really nice timeshare resort condos that are so abundant in Orlando and Kissimmee. At that time of year we’ve been able to take advantage of last-minute bargain rates at resorts only an hour or so from the Cape Canaveral area, where our granddaughters and their mom live. Typically each granddaughter brings a friend with her for 2 or 3 weekend overnighters with Grandma Carol and Papa Alan at one of the girls’ favorite resorts. Everybody has a good time. The kids are growing up fast. (That is, it seems fast to us.) Lorraine (age 16) is a band geek like her grandfather. She plays saxophone in school band and was named drum major for marching season this year. Janis (age 13) is a dancer, like her mother, and took part in a modern dance event held at Disney World this summer.
Until recently, we were taking occasional trips to Elon, North Carolina, where our grandson Graham (age 23) was enrolled in the acting and drama department of Elon University. He graduated recently (B.F.A. in acting) and moved to Chicago to look and work for his big break in the world of stage acting and comedy improv.
Life is good.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. That’s a lot of miles. I’m still working and hope to retire in the next 2-3 years. I work from home and we live near a canal path, so I try to get out at lunchtime for rides and after work weekends when possible. I also golf 2-3 times a week. Last year I got in Just over 700 miles and I’m currently just under that with the weather starting to get cooler and windier. I’m hoping to get a few more rides in before 11/1 when I leave for a two week trip. My average ride this year has been 20 miles, which I’m pretty happy with.
I didn't ride much the first several years. I was spending time with the grandkids. But then they grew up, and more of my coworkers retired, so we started riding together. I did 2,700 miles in 2020 because there wasn't much else to do. Now I'm older and slower, so the mileage keeps going down. It's still fun though. I use RideWithGPS for tracking the miles. I often take pictures and RideWithGPS lets you paste them into the ride and shows where they were taken. This was my ride Saturday.
you get the idea). I said what recently goes thru my mind when that happens: "Oh, to be 30 again." and I added "Or even 45". The guy I was riding with said "Hey. I'm 45." I'm not sure if he was kidding. He sounded serious. I always figured him for 55 or so.
