These terns were on the north beach on Tybee Island in April. Dean and I took a walk along that beach to find painted buntings and couldn’t figure out how to go inland. We eventually did*, but not before seeing flocks of terns and other shore birds. These guys, though were my favorite. They all seemed cartoonish. Perhaps I’ve seen one too many Disney movie.
* figure out how to go inland that is – we didn’t see any painted buntings, much to my dismay
My husband called me this morning to tell me that Todd’s wife, Roberta, died last week. I’d only met Roberta once – at their wedding and had not seen Todd since that wedding about 15 years ago. My husband saw him occasionally – usually at work meetings or for lunch. We talked about inviting Todd and his wife for dinner sometime, but never did. They always sent us a Christmas card – we don’t send Christmas cards anymore. All-in-all – we were crummy friends.
We knew Todd in Pittsburgh where he and my husband were grad students at Carnegie Mellon University. We spent a fair amount of time with Todd during those years, then when we both ended up in the DC area, we hung out a bit the first couple of years as we grew accustomed to being grow-ups. Todd was always a good listener, and I think I was a good listener for him. I think we also got along well because we were destined to meet. He and his family used to visit my hometown of Elgin sometimes – they were either related or very good friends of a classmate of mine. Todd also used to spend summers playing in a band in the town where my family has vacationed for years.
He was born with a condition that affected his bones – they didn’t grow correctly. In Pittsburgh he was shorter than me – and he was good natured about it. A few years after moving to DC he had surgery on his hips and the doctor said he could give Todd a few more inches and Todd said, why not? After that Todd teased me that he was finally taller than me. (which is not very hard to be)
Todd’s hobby is music. He was the friend who wanted me to see Mary Chapin Carpenter. He’s also a musician. He’s played the trombone for several big band orchestras in the area, most recently Radio King Orchestra.
If you go to the CD Baby page for RKO, click on the triangle before Night Train (track 10) and you’ll hear him playing his horn.
I didn’t know what big band music was until I met Todd. I had seen the Glenn Miller story, but didn’t realize it was Big Band until I heard Todd’s band playing String of Pearls at a gig once.
My son got a letter from his high school welcoming him to band. The trouble is – he didn’t sign up for band next year. He’s tired of it, finally, after five years of playing an instrument bigger than himself.
In 4th grade when the elementary school students met with the band teacher we expected he’d want to play an instrument. We hoped he would not want to play the drums – too loud, but would have put up with the noise. I secretly wished he’d want to learn the saxophone, because I like the sax. We were surprised. No we were shocked, when he told us he wanted to play the baritone.
He told us he chose it because he’d get in band for sure in middle school because there were few people who played the baritone. We asked him to reconsider. Did he know how heavy the instrument would be? He had to walk the few blocks to school carrying not only the baritone, but also his backpack. He assured us that the baritone was his instrument of choice, his destiny.
The first year he played the baritone we rented it from a shop in Wheaton. It was not cheap to rent a baritone, our son seemed genuinely interested in learning to play. We encouraged him to practice in the family room – a basement level room with lots of carpeting and a door that closed.
After the first month he grew tired of lugging the heavy instrument the three blocks to school and back – so I often drove him the days he had band practice.
The second year we rented the instrument from a more reasonable rental company, except we didn’t get the deposit back at the end of the year since it looked as if Andrew had used the instrument for batting practice.
When he went to middle school the band instructor convinced Andrew to play the tuba. I was not pleased. The tuba, as I pointed out to the teacher was about the size of a small car. He assured me Andrew would not have to lug the tuba back and forth – the school had one they could use.
So, now moving on to high school, considering his track record, I assume they would expect him to play the sousaphone. Luckily he talked to his counselor today. He’s taking electronic music instead.
In 5th grade (I think it was 5th grade) he composed a song to play at one of the concerts. The band teacher was very sweet and let anyone play a solo – even their own compositions. Andrew worked for months on this tune, I remember him humming it, then playing it, asking if it sounded good. However he neglected to really practice it just before the concert.
Watch Andrew play his own composition on his baritone in 5th grade.
Clutch Cargo Lips 