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Sunday, November 23, 2008

In the Mood

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CC is listening to: Nothing right now

Steve and I had a great time at the In the Mood show last night. It's a performing company that began in 1993 and had such an overwhelming response when they first started that they started touring the country. They've been to 46 states, Canada and Europe.


It's a group of singers and dancers with a big band performing music and dances from the 1940s.

They put on a great show. The program had:

ACT I

ACT II
I loved being able to mouth the words to many of the songs that I recognized: Moonlight Serenade, In the Mood, Sentimental Journey--the Paris Medley even had La Vie en Rose.

After looking at the song list, you can probably guess that most of the people in the audience were from the older generation. Lots of parents and grandparents.

The part of the program which moved me the most was "A Military Salute." I thought it was just a song that I didn't recognize. But what had happened was that it was the part of the program where the house lights come up, the singers come to the center of the stage and the lead singer announces:

"To all members of the armed forces, we salute you. To the members of the United States Marine Corps, active and veteran, please. Stand and be recognized."

Then as the Marines in the audience stand, the orchestra and the singers on the stage break into the Marines Hymn: "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli. We fight our country's battles, in the air, on land and sea..."

Then the entire audience joins in the singing, clapping rhythmically.

They do the same for every branch of the military--they call on the active and retired servicemen to stand and be recognized, and they sing their military hymns with the power of the orchestra and the audience backing them up.

Navy: Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh. Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day..."
Air Force: "Off we go into the wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun; here they come zooming to meet our thunder, At 'em boys, give 'er the gun!"
Coast Guard: "From North and South and East and West, the Coast Guard's in the fight. Destroying subs and landing troops, the Axis feels our might..."
and Army: "Over hill, over dale, as we hit the dusty trail, and those caissons go rolling along..."

And the entire time the audience was clapping and singing along. You should have seen it--it was so moving. 95% of the people standing were older people. Most of them were grandparents, probably some of them were GREAT grandparents. Some stood up easily, for others it was harder. One WWII veteran in the audience struggled to stand because he was already using a walker. They weren't as spry as they used to be.

But not only did they stand, they all stood up with pride. You could see it, and you were proud for them too. And you couldn't help but clap your heart out for them.

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