photo: rus vanwestervelt; guitarist: sean liverman

I alluded to this weekend’s bookends of great memories and music in my post a few days ago, and so I thought I’d go into a little more detail about why Saturday was so special to me.

My son and I were fortunate enough to squeeze into the sold-out auditorium at Centennial High School on Saturday for the matinee performance of The Sound of Music. Over 400 Girl Scouts were in the audience as well, so it was a special performance for many girls who might now see themselves on the stage in the coming years. (After the show, some of the cast members met with a group of Scouts and talked about the show, acting, and being a part of a large ensemble.)

The show was magnificent, and it brought back a rush of emotions and memories that, quite honestly, I was not prepared for. The Sound of Music was one of my mother’s favorite movies. When I was kid, this movie appeared on television one Sunday evening each year (it was always shown a few months after The Wizard of Oz, my other favorite). Mom loved the songs–all of them, but I seem to remember that “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” and “So Long, Farewell” were a little more special than the others.

It should have been no surprise, then, that when I heard these songs, it was hard not to tear up a little at the memories of watching the musical with the rest of the family. My students were fantastic, and there was a sudden blend of pride in what they had accomplished with those emotions and memories from my childhood.

Of course, my own love for the stage only made things worse. I thought my days in theater were over, but maybe I was wrong. I felt the pull once more. . . .

Later that night, I joined some of my old friends from high school for an acoustic performance by a fellow Loch Raven alum. What made the evening even more special was that we were at Chops Restaurant in Jacksonville, MD, co-owned by yet another Loch Raven alum.

So here we all were, surrounded by alums, listening to great music played by an alum, and drinking and eating at a place owned by an alum. It just doesn’t get any better: sound-of-music bookends that did a pretty nice job of summing up my favorite things….

These folks have no idea how much they mean to me, and how much I treasure time with them, even if it is just a few hours every 6 months or so. I’m looking forward to seeing them all again in June, listening to Chuck and Sean play a little Garcia, and just enjoying the sounds of music and the friendships that are both timeless in their own right.