Over the past few weekends I've been in a few local town parades.. in our Barbershop chapter newsletter, the following was printed:
My story begins on the parade route at the Waite Park Spass Tag Celebration. We were heading down the main drags of the parade route when I heard a voice from behind me say, "Ryan, why aren't you singing for us?" I turned around and saw Becky, one of the tellers I had worked with from the Wells Fargo Sartell office. It appeared that she had her whole family sitting there waiting attentively to hear some music. I chuckled and said, "You really want to hear us?" She said, "Yeah, let's hear something!" I looked around and yelled for a few of the guys to come over and sing. Jeff, Tom, Bob, Dan and Leo scurried over and we began to bicker over what to sing. Finally deciding on Down Our Way, we sang for the anticipating audience. It wasn't the best you ever heard by far, but we did a decent representation of the song. The crowd of people cheered, and on our way we went.
A couple of days later I ran into Becky again. She said, "Ryan, I have to tell you something. What you guys did for my family was not just sing a song. You had my family in tears!" I couldn't imagine we were that bad, so I asked, "Why?" Becky said, "My grandfather has been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for many years, and has been relatively unresponsive." She went on to say, "When you guys finished singing, my grandfather had a smile from ear to ear and was clapping for you guys." He has never been as responsive as he was when you guys sang for him!" Becky wanted to thank everyone who was involved with this moment. She had even said that Leo had saluted her grandfather and that her grandfather saluted back to him.
. After reading this I was really choked up. I had noticed that there was a flag on the man's wheelchair, and he looked like he was retired Army, so I saluted him. I have noticed also, that whenever we sing in nursing homes, the people are very appreciative. I do believe that music does have the power to touch people in ways no other force can. It is great to be a
barbershopper!:)
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