It was Independence Day, and I was returning to Mercer Island, where I lived for 30 years (1973-2003), to perform my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag,” at Island House MBK Senior Living, a retirement community. Moreover, I was returning to Island House itself, where I had sounded “Taps” six years ago in a ceremony on Memorial Day, 28 May 2018. It was good to be back!
It was a bright, warm day, so the staff, led by Jacqueline Lilly, Director of Wellness Programming, set things up in the courtyard, where I and many of the audience sat under large, dark green umbrellas. I wore my VFW Honor Guard uniform, and as usual, played five horns–Getzen trumpet and field trumpet (bugle), Olds Super Cornet, ACB flugelhorn, and Jupiter pocket trumpet. The show consists of two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls.
For more information about Island House, please see https://www.mbkseniorliving.com/senior-living/wa/mercer-island/island-house/. It is located downtown and offers assisted living and short-term stays in studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. Photos courtesy of Island House, Mercer Island.
If it’s your birthday, where do you go? You go perform a one-hour trumpet show, “In Retrospect,” at Edmonds Landing in Edmonds, WA, because they invited you to do so! And that’s exactly what I did at 2 p.m. on 24 June. It was my third performance for the residents there, courtesy of Lifestyle Director, Sonia Pace.
For this show, I use four horns: Getzen trumpet, Olds Super cornet, ACB flugelhorn, and Jupiter pocket trumpet. I play about two dozen popular songs from the residents’ era. They were composed during the 84-year period from 1892 to 1976. As I play each song, I comment on it and relate it to something that we all experience at some time in our lives, including courtship, marriage, family, death, and national pride and loyalty. It’s a favorite of mine among my six different trumpet shows.
Edmonds Landing offers Independent Living and Assisted Living in 83 apartments on two floors in the “Edmonds Bowl.” It is part of the family of retirement communities operated by Frontier Senior Living (please see https:/www.frontiermgmt.com).
Photos courtesy of Edmonds Landing (except for poster).
Almost every Flag Day (14 June), I get to perform my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag.” This year, I did so at a brand-new community, Cogir of Kirkland, located near Carillon Point. It opened last February, offering assisted living services.
Among the residents who attended was a couple celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary. He used to play trumpet, and she used to play the French horn.
My show consists of about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I use four horns: Getzen trumpet, Olds Super cornet, Getzen field trumpet (bugle), and Jupiter pocket trumpet. Residents sing-a-long with me on certain songs.
Cogir Senior Living operates nearly 70 facilities in 11 states. In Washington, it has 18, ranging from Spokane to Walla Walla to Vancouver to Everett to Bellevue. Collectively, Cogir’s services include independent living, assisted living, connections care, memory care, and respite care, but most facilities offer one or two of these five levels of care. Together, these communities are staffed with more than 3,700 skilled, compassionate team members (please see https//:cogirusa.com).
Not only was this my first performance of my one-hour trumpet show [I have six different shows] at the Sunrise of Mercer Island retirement community, but also it was the first time I’ve ever been asked for my autograph! Ha, who am I?—Mickey Mantle? Joe Montana? Beethoven? Louis Armstrong? Nope. Just an ancient trumpet player, as old as dirt.
After I performed “I Stand for the Flag,” a lady in the front row handed me a pen and one of my handouts, so I happily signed it. Maybe I should have my survivors engrave that on my tombstone: “He signed one autograph.” Success!
Another elderly lady in a wheelchair rolled up to me and said, “I’m 100 years old, and that was the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard!”
Well, anyway, what a kick in the pants it was for me on the 248th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps (10 November) and the day before Veterans Day 2023!
The resident capacity of this retirement community is only 48, and about 15 (~one third) attended my show. Two are Veterans, one Army and one Army Air Corps, WWII. And my goodness, did they all earnestly sing and hum along with me, as I played 24 patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I used four horns, my Getzen trumpet and bugle, Super Olds cornet, and Austin Custom Brass (ACB) flugelhorn. They asked, so I explained the similarities and differences among them. At the end, we stood, said The Pledge of Allegiance, and rendered the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
Afterwards, they told the staff member who assisted me that they wanted me to come back for another show. What more could any old performer want—requests for both an autograph and a return performance? I’ll take that any day. “Play it again, Sam.”
Volunteers lay more than 1,000 wreaths on Veterans’ graves at Evergreen-Washelli’s Veterans Cemetery. Photo by Phil Onishi Photography.
The third Saturday of December was the 18th, and that could mean only one thing to a bugler—it was time for the annual Christmas wreath-laying ceremony, Wreaths Across America (WAA). Never mind that it was raining steadily. At 9 a.m., the President and Executive Director of the Veterans Memorial Wreath Foundation, Lorraine Zimmerman, announced over the loud speaker, “Bugler, sound ‘Assembly!'” And so I did for the 11th time. Then the Color Guard of the Navy ROTC program at the University of Washington presented the colors, and the crowd of about 200 patriots pledged allegiance to the flag. Chaplain Linda Haptonstall gave the invocation.
MKC Noah Vogeli, U.S. Coast Guard
At about 9:15 came the main program segment, the Ceremonial Wreath Dedication. One by one, eight men placed and saluted small flags on eight wreaths in memory of and gratitude for those who have fallen in service to America. After the benediction, the Honor Guard of VFW Post 1040 of Lynnwood fired a three-volley rifle salute, immediately followed by “Echo Taps,” sounded by me and Laurence Stusser. He used his Olds trumpet, and I used my Getzen bugle. The colors were retired, and after the benediction by the Chaplin, this 13th annual ceremony concluded. Similar ceremonies were held at more than 3,100 locations nationwide on this day.
But the local event was not over—there was more to be done. The crowd voluntarily began laying 3,000 wreaths on the gravestones in the Veterans Memorial Park at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in north Seattle. VMWF has the ambitious goal of adorning all 5,000 veterans’ gravestones someday. To do that, more sponsors are needed. A donation of $15 sponsors one wreath; two, $30; five, $75 (most popular); ten, $150.
VMWF was founded not only to conduct this ceremony and lay these wreaths but also to teach coming generations about the cost and value of our freedom. VMWF plans to provide educational scholarships soon to military dependents and ROTC students. For more information, please see http://www.vmwf.org.
Lake Washington view, courtesy of Covenant Living at the Shores, Mercer Island
“I lived on Mercer Island for 34 years before moving to Edmonds.” So said I to the 25 residents of Covenant Living at the Shores (CLS) who came on 20 December to Fellowship Hall to hear my Christmas season trumpet show, “Things Remembered.” It was my third performance at this lovely, waterfront retirement community. I came back at the kind invitation from Roxanne Helleren, Resident Life Director, and Kathryn Middleton, Life Enrichment Coordinator.
This one-hour show features 25 well-known, popular songs. Fourteen of them are Christmas songs which are mixed in with others that come mostly from hit musicals and movies. The songs are carefully chosen to match the typical phases of our lives: single, married, kids, family Christmas celebrations, empty nesting, and retirement. As I narrate, we remember the good things that we all experience, ponder, and are grateful for. The audience sings and hums the tunes, and I tell a few jokes. I used my Getzen trumpet and Super Olds cornet, my Harmon and straight mutes, and my Yamaha Allen Vizzutti mouthpiece.
I’ve written blog articles, with photos, after each of my previous shows here. Please use the Archives column on the left to find them and enjoy reading about those shows and CLS (formerly Covenant Shores):
Fairwinds, Redmond, a Leisure Care Retirement Community
About 30 residents of Fairwinds, Redmond gathered on 16 November to hear my trumpet show, “Showtune Favorites.” For one hour, I played 25 hit songs from musicals and movies of the residents’ era, such as “Over the Rainbow,” “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” “Bali Hai,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Hello Dolly,” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” And along the way, I told a few jokes.
I brought three horns—my Getzen trumpet, Super Olds cornet, and Jupiter pocket trumpet—along with a Denis Wick 4 mouthpiece to make the cornet sound like a flugelhorn. And I used either a Harmon and straight mute for certain tunes. Fun!
Randee Young is the Guest Services Manager at Fairwinds, Redmond. When I return here someday, I’ll perform a different show—I have six.
Fairwinds, Redmonds
This facility is among the family of 53 Leisure Care retirement communities located in 18 states (https://www.leisurecare.com/our-communities). There are 9 in Washington state. Fairwinds, Redmond offers independent and assisted living accommodations and amenities in the Education Hill neighborhood. There are 22 floor plans and two dining venues, along with a private dining room, fitness room, pool, theater, salon, game room, activity room, patio, and garden. The size of the apartments range from 468 s.f. for a studio to 1,504 s.f. for a two-bedroom with den. Please see https://www.leisurecare.com/our-communities/fairwinds-redmond.
Two photos of the entrance (below) were taken by me. All others in this article are courtesy of Fairwinds, Redmond. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Four trumpets, all completely disassembled and ready to clean. Upper left: Getzen Eterna trumpet, Super Olds cornet, and Jupiter pocket trumpet. Upper right: Getzen field trumpet (bugle). Lower left: all the slides from the three horns above. Lower right: Nine valves and 11 mouthpieces (including one trombone).
I’m switching from petroleum-based valve oil to synthetic, so I want to take no chances on possible incompatibility. If the two brands don’t mix, they can cause the valves to stick badly—almost freeze. So I wanted to rid my horns of all traces of the petroleum oil before I applied the synthetic.
On 25 August, I took over the kitchen for a few hours. And as long as I was going to clean my three horns with valves, why not clean the bugle, too? These are the four:
Getzen Eterna Trumpet, Doc Severinsen Model (c.1977)
Super Olds Cornet (1954)
Jupiter Pocket Trumpet (2000)
Getzen Field Trumpet [bugle] (2015)
It’s fall. Had to get my horns ready. In September, UW football games began, and I’m in the Husky Alumni Band. We play at home games. Also, the orchestra at Alderwood Community Church in Lynnwood resumes performances at certain Sunday services and begins preparations for the annual Christmas musical in December. I’ve played in this orchestra since 2010. Sometime in September, I’d like to busk at Veterans Plaza in Edmonds one more time before this year’s nearby Saturday Market shuts down until next May. I do it to fundraise for the VFW. In October, I begin my 9th year teaching beginning brass at Skyview Middle School in Bothell. And meanwhile, I’m booked to play one-hour trumpet shows at some retirement homes this fall. It’s all very fun.
My horns are now ready. I’m ready. Needless to say, I admire and love my horns. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Three sets of partially disassembled valves and 11 mouthpieces: six trumpet, four cornet, and one trombone.
Valves were added to trumpets and cornets in the 1830s.
All are B-flat instruments, so each is a 4.5 feet long tube.
Glenn's Trumpet Notes 