Sitting Down Marching Bangers

One of my favorite things about the community I live in is the summer concert in the park series. Each week on Wednesday evening, the community concert band plays for about an hour in the park. Each Wednesday I load up the two seat stroller and we hike across the walking bridge, over the highway to the north side of town. We unfold our lawn chair. Mr. Slobber jiggles and giggles in the stroller. Ms. Crazy Preschooler crawls up onto my lap in the lawn chair, and we listen to over fifty instrumentalists age eleven through ninety something play Sousa Marches, tangoes, overtures and even the theme from Sesame Street.

The park is filled with spectators of all ages lounging on benches and their own portable, comfy folding lawn chairs. Children bounce around on the grass to the strong beats of marches. Middle aged people read Time and Newsweek as they listen to the music. Last week one lady was reading the latest Harry Potter installment. My husband totes along pediatric medical textbooks for a several heavy pounds of reading when he isn't on Wednesday night call.

My kids love listening to the band. Before we moved, Ms. Crazy Preschooler's highlight of the day was when we would follow the high school marching band around in our stroller while they practiced in the street. Because the concert band sits, she started calling them the "sitting down marching bangers." Mr. Slobber kicks his legs to the beat and drools contentedly during the slow sections of the overtures.

The sun sets. The air grows more crisp. The band is not always perfectly in tune. In fact, they don't always sound remotely in tune at all. But they have a great time. The audience has an even better time. There is just something special, old fashioned, about real music in the outdoors, under huge green trees in the park. This summer is the 110th season of the community band, and it's still going strong.