Vineyard Park at North Creek (VPNC) in Bothell just opened last January, and it’s now the 36th retirement community where I have performed one of my six one-hour trumpet shows. It was my first appearance there (on 8 November), and the show was “Where were you, Back Then?” This new place is lovely. As I played before the fireplace in the large dining room, the crowd grew, as it often does when people begin to hear tunes they remember well and like.

In this show, we recall songs from selected years from 1947-2008. I invite the residents to sing along (or hum), and they do! Here’s the format: I name a year and cite a few significant events that happened that year; then I ask them to remember where they were and what they were doing; I might tell them something about my own life at that time; and finally, I play a hit song from that year. I use four horns: trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, and pocket trumpet, four mouthpieces, and three mutes.

For example, in 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of three American men became the first humans to orbit the moon (10 times), the first humans to see the dark side of the moon, and the first to see the whole earth. And for that year, I played “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” written during the Great Depression in 1931 but made popular for the residents’ generation in 1968 when the Mamas and the Papas recorded it with Cass Elliot the lead singer. Did you ever sing that song about your lover? “Say nightie-night and kiss me….” Bet you can hear it as you read this!

VPNC is a CarePartners community; for more information, please see https://www.carepartnersliving.com/vineyard-park-at-north-creek/

Photos are courtesy of VPNC. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.