In the early morning the gardens and woods around the village are the meeting places of those who, with tender memories and devoted hands, gather the flowers for the Day's Memorial. During the forenoon as the people join each other on the Green there is felt, at times, a fervency and intensity--a shadow perhaps of the fanatical harshness--reflecting old Abolitionist days. It is a day as Thoreau suggests, when there is a pervading consciousness of "Nature's kinship with the lower order-man."
After the Town Hall is filled with the Spring's harvest of lilacs, daisies, and peonies, the parade is slowly formed on Main Street. First come the three Marshals on plough horses (going sideways), then the Warden and Burgesses in carriages, the Village Cornet Band, the G.A.R., two by two, the Militia (Company G), while the volunteer Fire Brigade, drawing a decorated hose-cart, with its jangling bells, brings up the rear-the inevitable swarm of small boys following. The march to Wooster Cemetery is a thing a boy never forgets. The roll of the muffled drums and "Adestes Fideles" answer for the dirge. A little girl on a fencepost waves to her father and wonders if he looked like that at Gettysburg.
After the last grave is decorated, Taps sounds out through the pines and hickories, while a last hymn is sung. The ranks are formed again, and "we all march to town" to a Yankee stimulant-Reeves inspiring Second Regiment Quickstep-though, to many a soldier, the sombre thoughts of the day underlie the tunes of the band. The march stops-and in the silence of the shadow of the early morning flower-song rises over the Town, and the sunset behind the West Mountain breathes its benediction upon the Day
Well, at least "30% Off" refers to the price and not the amount of content in Slack Tide, a la businesses that reduce portion sizes but not prices to keep profits up and consumers (supposedly) less pissed off about price tags. I could probably fall into Matt Promotion Mode here and say that even with a third less content for the price, Slack Tide would be a heck of a buy. But I'll skip past that in the interest of truth in advertising... or in a** kissing or whatever might apply to such a statement.
But speaking of content, I've found even the retreads here are usually worth the price of admission, as a blast from the past is often a relief from the BS blasting all around us nonstop here in the present. And props to guys like Tom Day and Chris Stickler and the rest, squared away and doing the right thing for no other reason that it's the right thing to do and that they can do it. A novel concept in an age when the respect for something like the playing of Taps by a bugler at a military funeral plays second fiddle to the noise of political carnival barkers with bullhorns spewing BS.
In the times we're living through, too many people have learned to care far too little for basic concepts of decent human behavior like honor and respect for those who are due them. Those are, according to one guy who's in a position to know and who, in Stickler's words, doesn't give a rat's patoot about the military - beyond for whatever personal ends he may be able to employ *his* generals... those are for suckers and losers.
If I had my way about it, that guy and all the folks who swallowed his words without a peep of protest would have a few more of Chip's words tattooed onto their retinas: If it wasn't for the military, you wouldn't have the freedom not to care.
Eff them. Eff them all.
And thank God for Tom Day and Chris and all the rest. And for all those suckers and losers lying silently beneath the ground which their lives allowed all the rest of us to still tread.
Very nice story Matt, and well done to Tom Day and all his volunteer buglers. Reading this story has made me think again about the recent news of the discovery of the remains of USS Harder SS-257 found recently in the south China Sea. Sad news for us old submariners.
Thank you for sharing this post Matt. I have served my country, attended far to many Military funerals like so many others surely have. I am grateful to Mr Day for what he does, what a wonderful legacy. It truly saddens me to see how we have reduced the ways we honor our fallen.
I attended New Mexico Military Institute, a military HS/JC of which there used to be more than 30 and now number in the single digits. Every year at Homecoming on Thursday night, a ceremony is held where the names of alumni are read and three buglers play taps, each echoing the other. It is called Silver Taps, and it is absolutely, beautifully haunting, and likely the most-attended event of the weekend. Reading this gave me chills.
A video of the ceremony is here. Taps starts at about 23:00.
Excellent, Matt. My father was a WW II combat vet and he had a military funeral. I always cry when I hear Taps and I did then as well, but I am so grateful to the bugler and honor guard for being there for us.
It's all fun and games, until they shut you down with no explanation, while refusing to sell to willing buyers. So let us heap scorn upon eccentric billionaires! I've never been happier not to work for one.
Yes, as a TWS subscriber from the beginning, I followed the story of its sad demise. As for eccentric billionaires, I’m sure there are some former Twitter employees who resent them as much as you do.
Well, they have cause. Elon is pretty worth hating. But they'd have to be pretty far gone to hate their eccentric billionaire as much as I loathed ours.
Matt - thanks as always for your amusing and entertaining takes, along with a fine story that was able to stir some patriotism out of this old (your age), stoic and emotionally distant curmudgeon (my wife's words, not mine). Really enjoyed the bugler taps story. Got me thinking of my grandfather and his brother (my great uncle) who both were in Normandy on D-Day. My grandfather made it home and raised a family that eventually produced me, while his brother died over there in a subsequent late war plane crash. I'm planning on visiting his gravesite for the first time when I'm over in France later this year. I'm going to play a silent version of taps in my head and think of Mr. Day and what he's done to honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice. Thanks again
My grandfather was at Normandy, too! Though he was Navy, so he was dropping off all the guys who got shot. (Though he dodged a bullet himself on the boat.) Sounds like a wonderful trip you'll be taking. And if you don't just play Taps in your head, you should bring your phone along and play that bagpipes version Robert Abney linked to above.
"the Defense Department then introduced what it calls 'ceremonial bugles.' In the venerable Pentagon procurement tradition of the $435 hammer or the $600 toilet seat, the digital bugles cost $530 a throw,"
Now apparently increased to $580, though that's according a website that admits its prices were last updated in 2021, and whose layout feels even older:
"Yes it is, remove the insert it can be played like any standard bugle."
Its bell looks much fatter than a modern bugle bell, to accommodate the insert – but not obviously fatter than Civil-War era bugles, so maybe the FAQ isn't lying?
Are you fact-checking me, Midge?!!! You're hired! I guess they've had time to get their talking points down on ceremonial bugles. And technically, maybe it is a real bugle. Though imagine having a "real" guitar where all the music it plays comes not from strumming its strings, but from a playback insert tucked into its sound hole. Kind of takes all the fun out of it.
A friend of mine had a family piano that could be played like an ordinary piano, but also had these other pedals you could pump to turn it into a player-piano. We found it fun, but as a historical curiosity, not government protocol.
I'm glad there are buglers who go through the trouble of playing the bugle as a bugle, not a disguise for a recording, at military funerals.
Another musical commemoration, Charles Ives’s “Decoration Day.”
https://youtu.be/vMTwrMTRZPE?feature=shared
Of it, the composer wrote:
In the early morning the gardens and woods around the village are the meeting places of those who, with tender memories and devoted hands, gather the flowers for the Day's Memorial. During the forenoon as the people join each other on the Green there is felt, at times, a fervency and intensity--a shadow perhaps of the fanatical harshness--reflecting old Abolitionist days. It is a day as Thoreau suggests, when there is a pervading consciousness of "Nature's kinship with the lower order-man."
After the Town Hall is filled with the Spring's harvest of lilacs, daisies, and peonies, the parade is slowly formed on Main Street. First come the three Marshals on plough horses (going sideways), then the Warden and Burgesses in carriages, the Village Cornet Band, the G.A.R., two by two, the Militia (Company G), while the volunteer Fire Brigade, drawing a decorated hose-cart, with its jangling bells, brings up the rear-the inevitable swarm of small boys following. The march to Wooster Cemetery is a thing a boy never forgets. The roll of the muffled drums and "Adestes Fideles" answer for the dirge. A little girl on a fencepost waves to her father and wonders if he looked like that at Gettysburg.
After the last grave is decorated, Taps sounds out through the pines and hickories, while a last hymn is sung. The ranks are formed again, and "we all march to town" to a Yankee stimulant-Reeves inspiring Second Regiment Quickstep-though, to many a soldier, the sombre thoughts of the day underlie the tunes of the band. The march stops-and in the silence of the shadow of the early morning flower-song rises over the Town, and the sunset behind the West Mountain breathes its benediction upon the Day
Untapped heroes honoring unsung heroes. Thank you buglers all, and fallen freedom defenders all, and Matt’s “feeling” story. God bless America.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Well, at least "30% Off" refers to the price and not the amount of content in Slack Tide, a la businesses that reduce portion sizes but not prices to keep profits up and consumers (supposedly) less pissed off about price tags. I could probably fall into Matt Promotion Mode here and say that even with a third less content for the price, Slack Tide would be a heck of a buy. But I'll skip past that in the interest of truth in advertising... or in a** kissing or whatever might apply to such a statement.
But speaking of content, I've found even the retreads here are usually worth the price of admission, as a blast from the past is often a relief from the BS blasting all around us nonstop here in the present. And props to guys like Tom Day and Chris Stickler and the rest, squared away and doing the right thing for no other reason that it's the right thing to do and that they can do it. A novel concept in an age when the respect for something like the playing of Taps by a bugler at a military funeral plays second fiddle to the noise of political carnival barkers with bullhorns spewing BS.
In the times we're living through, too many people have learned to care far too little for basic concepts of decent human behavior like honor and respect for those who are due them. Those are, according to one guy who's in a position to know and who, in Stickler's words, doesn't give a rat's patoot about the military - beyond for whatever personal ends he may be able to employ *his* generals... those are for suckers and losers.
If I had my way about it, that guy and all the folks who swallowed his words without a peep of protest would have a few more of Chip's words tattooed onto their retinas: If it wasn't for the military, you wouldn't have the freedom not to care.
Eff them. Eff them all.
And thank God for Tom Day and Chris and all the rest. And for all those suckers and losers lying silently beneath the ground which their lives allowed all the rest of us to still tread.
Michael, you complete me.
I'm not completely sure how to take this, but since no sticky sweet terms of endearment are involved, I guess it's ok. :-)
No worries. Purely platonic.
Tom Day made a difference. Thank you for the replay, Matt…and the music selection.
Well. Thank you for recycling your piece about the Gunny. Just lovely. My husband walked in as I was weeping and walked right back out again.
Very nice story Matt, and well done to Tom Day and all his volunteer buglers. Reading this story has made me think again about the recent news of the discovery of the remains of USS Harder SS-257 found recently in the south China Sea. Sad news for us old submariners.
Thank you for sharing this post Matt. I have served my country, attended far to many Military funerals like so many others surely have. I am grateful to Mr Day for what he does, what a wonderful legacy. It truly saddens me to see how we have reduced the ways we honor our fallen.
I attended New Mexico Military Institute, a military HS/JC of which there used to be more than 30 and now number in the single digits. Every year at Homecoming on Thursday night, a ceremony is held where the names of alumni are read and three buglers play taps, each echoing the other. It is called Silver Taps, and it is absolutely, beautifully haunting, and likely the most-attended event of the weekend. Reading this gave me chills.
A video of the ceremony is here. Taps starts at about 23:00.
https://youtu.be/MgUUnYwVJm0?si=Hl0EoLA5jjc8Irsw
Mighty powerful, Robert. Taps on bagpipes, oof. Gets me every time.
Thanks for sharing that link. That was painfully beautiful.
Excellent, Matt. My father was a WW II combat vet and he had a military funeral. I always cry when I hear Taps and I did then as well, but I am so grateful to the bugler and honor guard for being there for us.
With apologies to James Agee and the apocrypha, let us now praise eccentric billionaires.
It's all fun and games, until they shut you down with no explanation, while refusing to sell to willing buyers. So let us heap scorn upon eccentric billionaires! I've never been happier not to work for one.
Yes, as a TWS subscriber from the beginning, I followed the story of its sad demise. As for eccentric billionaires, I’m sure there are some former Twitter employees who resent them as much as you do.
Well, they have cause. Elon is pretty worth hating. But they'd have to be pretty far gone to hate their eccentric billionaire as much as I loathed ours.
Which ever news outlet was lucky enough to get the story, was fortunate indeed.
Matt - thanks as always for your amusing and entertaining takes, along with a fine story that was able to stir some patriotism out of this old (your age), stoic and emotionally distant curmudgeon (my wife's words, not mine). Really enjoyed the bugler taps story. Got me thinking of my grandfather and his brother (my great uncle) who both were in Normandy on D-Day. My grandfather made it home and raised a family that eventually produced me, while his brother died over there in a subsequent late war plane crash. I'm planning on visiting his gravesite for the first time when I'm over in France later this year. I'm going to play a silent version of taps in my head and think of Mr. Day and what he's done to honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice. Thanks again
My grandfather was at Normandy, too! Though he was Navy, so he was dropping off all the guys who got shot. (Though he dodged a bullet himself on the boat.) Sounds like a wonderful trip you'll be taking. And if you don't just play Taps in your head, you should bring your phone along and play that bagpipes version Robert Abney linked to above.
"the Defense Department then introduced what it calls 'ceremonial bugles.' In the venerable Pentagon procurement tradition of the $435 hammer or the $600 toilet seat, the digital bugles cost $530 a throw,"
Now apparently increased to $580, though that's according a website that admits its prices were last updated in 2021, and whose layout feels even older:
https://www.ceremonialbugle.com/
Interestingly enough, its FAQ includes,
"Is the Ceremonial Bugle a real bugle[?]"
"Yes it is, remove the insert it can be played like any standard bugle."
Its bell looks much fatter than a modern bugle bell, to accommodate the insert – but not obviously fatter than Civil-War era bugles, so maybe the FAQ isn't lying?
Are you fact-checking me, Midge?!!! You're hired! I guess they've had time to get their talking points down on ceremonial bugles. And technically, maybe it is a real bugle. Though imagine having a "real" guitar where all the music it plays comes not from strumming its strings, but from a playback insert tucked into its sound hole. Kind of takes all the fun out of it.
Hired at twice my previous salary? Cool!
A friend of mine had a family piano that could be played like an ordinary piano, but also had these other pedals you could pump to turn it into a player-piano. We found it fun, but as a historical curiosity, not government protocol.
I'm glad there are buglers who go through the trouble of playing the bugle as a bugle, not a disguise for a recording, at military funerals.
Awesome story. Thanks.
Excellent piece, Matt, thank you very much and I must say your words elicited more than one tear from this old man's eyes....