After sounding bugle calls in the morning at the Memorial Day ceremony, 26 May 2025, at Veterans Park in Lynnwood, I drove to (formerly) Edmonds Landing Retirement Community in Edmonds in the afternoon to perform my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag.” It consists of about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. The residents sing along with me.
I have six one-hour trumpet shows. During this one, I use all five of my horns: Getzen trumpet and bugle, Jupiter pocket trumpet, ACB (Austin Custom Brass) flugelhorn, and Olds Super cornet (71 years old, given to me by my parents when I became a freshman in high school).
Photos courtesy of Edmonds Landing by Cogir. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
On Saturday, 24 May 2025, I traveled to Renton to perform my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag,” for the first time at Solstice Senior Living (please see https://solsticeseniorlivingrenton.com/). It is a Provincial Senior Living Community, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. They operate about 70 retirement communities across the country. Others in Washington state include Bellingham, Normandy Park, Point Defiance (Tacoma), and Kennewick. At Renton, Independent Living is offered, with the support of health care professionals, when needed.
I entertained the residents with about a dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. They sang along with me and laughed at my jokes. I used all five of my horns: trumpet, pocket trumpet, cornet, bugle, and flugelhorn.
For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to perform one of my six trumpet shows at Mirabella, Seattle. My chance came this spring, thanks to Diana Rawls, Activities Director. On 11 April, I performed “Showtune Favorites”–about two dozen songs from popular musicals and movies familiar to the residents.
Why did I especially want to play there? Because it’s operated by a non-profit organization, occupies a whole city block in downtown Seattle, and is still quite new, opening for business only 15 years ago. I’m impressed!
I used four of my five horns–Getzen trumpet, Super Olds cornet, ACB flugelhorn, and Jupiter pocket trumpet (but not my Getzen bugle). I’ve owned the flugelhorn for only two and a half years, but the cornet for 71 years—Holy Cow! My parents gave it to me when I was a freshman in high school, and it took me to the Texas All-State Band when I was a senior. Love that horn! (Thanks again, Mother and Daddy, may they rest in peace.)
Besides At-Home Care, Mirabella, Seattle offers Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, and Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation. Residents from all levels came to my performance. One couple among the audience has lived there since it originally opened!
Photos are courtesy of Mirabella, Seattle. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
I’ve performed at 32 different retirement communities in the Greater Seattle area, and Quail Park is unique in a good way. Of course, every community is unique, but I’m thinking of Quail Park’s private, hilltop location and its eight different floor plans:
2 bedroom/2 bath cottage with garage (1,616 s.f.)
2 bedroom/2 bath apartment (787-1,072 s.f.)
1 bedroom/1 bath apartment (592-794 s.f.)
Studio bed/1 bath apartment (411-603 s.f.)
Private Studio Suite – Studio bed/1 bath (377-399 s.f.)
Tribute Studio Suite – Studio bed/1 bath (374-469 s.f.)
Tribute Adjoining Studios – Studio bed /1bath (374 s.f.)
Adjoining Studios-Lynnwood – Studio bed/1 bath (352-420 s.f.)
For diagrams of the different layouts and to match each floor plan with the four lifestyles (assisted living, enhanced assisted living, independent living, and memory care), please see the website, http://www.livingcarelifestyles.com/quail-park-lynnwood.
So, it was a privilege to perform for the residents in their beautiful auditorium on 12 November, one day after Veterans Day. In my VFW uniform, I performed my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag.” As usual, I used my five horns to play about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I love to match each instrument—trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, bugle, and pocket trumpet—to the character and mood of each different piece.
This is my second performance at Quail Park. The first was on 22 December 2019, before the Covid pandemic. I presented my Christmas show, entitled “Things Remembered.” In addition to these two, I have four other different shows. I look forward to returning in 2025, God willing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Veterans Day, 11 November 2024, found me in Bellevue for my third performance at The Gardens at Town Square retirement community. That afternoon, I presented my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag” to a large, generous audience.
Actually, I have two versions of this show. In 2021, after the Covid Pandemic peaked, I performed the “talk version.” In this show, I not only play patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls, but also, I talk about veterans’ current well-being, concerns, and activities. But this year, I performed the “standard version”–about two dozen pieces of music with a bit of talk to introduce each piece. The audience sings along as I play my five horns: Getzen Eterna Severinsen trumpet, Super Olds cornet, Austin Custom Brass (ACB) flugelhorn, Getzen bugle, and Jupiter pocket trumpet.
We had such a great time that I look forward to returning sometime in 2025, God willing. I have six different trumpet shows, so there’s plenty to choose from. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Lobby, courtesy of Fairwinds, Brighton Court, Lynnwood
Veterans Day generated three gigs for me, and the first one was at Fairwinds, Brighton Court in Lynnwood on Saturday, 9 November 2024—two days before the actual Veterans Day (11 November). The other two performances will be covered in forthcoming blog posts.
I’ve now performed at 32 retirement communities, including many repeat appearances, throughout the Greater Seattle area. Fairwinds, Brighton Court is now the leader with six performances. My first trumpet show there was in 2018.
On this occasion, I appeared in my VFW uniform and presented my one-hour show, “I Stand for the Flag.” The audience was large and quite responsive. I used five horns: trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, bugle, and pocket trumpet. The show consists of about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. The audience sings along.
I look forward to returning for a seventh time in 2025, God willing. I offer six different shows, so next time could be entirely a different experience for the residents. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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 second 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).
Outdoors at 9 a.m. on Saturday, 11 November, at VFW Eagleson Post 3063’s hall in Ballard, I sounded my first bugle call of the day, “Assembly.” It called to order their Flag Ceremony to dedicate the Post’s new flagpole. Two speeches followed, one by the Post Commander, Alyson Teeter, and the other by Harold Rodenberger, the Post’s legendary veteran. A plaque honoring Rodenberger was unveiled.
As the old, worn flag was lowered, I sounded “Retreat.” Then, as the new, crisp flag was raised, I sounded “To the Color.” Afterwards, the Post hosted an open house (please see https://vfwseattle.org/). Those were the first three of seven bugle calls that I sounded during the day, using my Getzen Field Trumpet (i.e., bugle).
Joseph Fitzgerald invited me to do this. He’s a good friend and a former student of mine (see my blog post of 17 November 2017 in the Archives in the left column). He is Captain of the Post’s Color Guard and a former Commander of Post 3063. By the way, the Post “willingly accepts for proper disposal all United States Flags that are no longer wanted or are worn and no longer fit for display.” The Post’s name honors Lt. James Mills Eagleson, Army, WWI, who died in 1919 (please see https://www.facebook.com/uwlibscimed/posts/696495093858841).
Veterans Park, Lynnwood
Pvt. Walter A. Deebach, WWI
At 11 a.m., I again sounded “Assembly,” calling to order the annual Veterans Day ceremony, hosted by VFW Post 1040 in the City’s Veterans Park in downtown Lynnwood. As the Post’s Bugler, I’ve been doing this since 2011. Performing several songs on his bagpipe was Kyle Gaul, Piper. To end the ceremony, Laurence Stusser and I sounded “Echo Taps.”
This post honors Walter A. Deebach, Sr. in its name. He was a WWI Army private who fought in France and Germany and suffered lung damage from mustard gas used by the Germans. He was the leader in founding Post 1040. Please see an article by his daughter at https://myedmondsnews.com/2014/11/looking-back-father-walter-deebach-wwi/. She writes that in 1943, he was appointed “Director of the VFW’s Rehabilitation and Service Department for the State of Washington, with his office in Seattle. For the next 25 years, until his retirement in 1968 at the age of 70, assisting veterans and/or their survivors was his work.”
Fairwinds, Brighton Court, Lynnwood
At 2 p.m., I opened my trumpet show with a march, “British Grenadiers,” that is more than 300 years old. This was my fifth performance at this retirement community. I have six one-hour trumpet shows, and when retirement communities celebrate the military, as on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day, Armed Forces Day, and others, someone always invites me to perform “I Stand for the Flag.” It consists of 24 patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I wear my VFW Post 1040 uniform.
The two bugle calls in this show are my favorites [besides “Taps”]–“Sunset” (British) and “Tattoo” (American). When I started the show, there were about 20 people in attendance. By the time it ended, the audience had doubled. I felt like “The Pied Piper.”
I got home about 4 p.m. It was a very satisfying Veterans Day. We owe so much to those who have served, do we not? As the saying goes, “If you eat your meals in peace, thank a Veteran. Freedom is not free.”
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.”
