Ida Culver House, Broadview, 12505 Greenwood Ave N., Seattle—an Era Living retirement community. Photo courtesy of ICHB.

They came back on 11 July! “They love you!” said Dana, speaking of the residents of Ida Culver House, Broadview (ICHB) in north Seattle who came back to hear my second one-hour trumpet show in two months (please see my blog post of 9 June 2019).

Dana is the kind, helpful assistant who, with another good lady, Monica, set up the room for me where I played another of my five trumpet shows. This one is called “Showtune Favorites: Hit Songs from Musicals and Movies.” It consists of 25 such songs, including “Over the Rainbow,” “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Hello Dolly,” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” They sang along (or hummed) and laughed (or groaned) at my jokes and riddles.

For different sound effects appropriate to each song, I used two trumpets, one cornet, four mouthpieces, one harmon mute, and one straight mute. The trumpets are by Getzen (Severinsen) and Jupiter, the cornet is by Olds, and the mouthpieces are by Yamaha (Vizzutti), Denis Wick, and Bach.

Ida Culver pioneered two of the 8 retirement communities now in the Era Living group. Two are named for her—this one and the one in Ravenna, which she originally created as a home for retired teachers.