Well, I am still a Barth wannabe, but I think I this week will move me to official status. Tho I don't post, I love visiting this site daily and have learned more than the law ought to allow about my Barth choice. The previous picture and thread on our debt to Vets really hit me years ago. My Dad was on the ship when Japan surrendered, but my attempts to join and serve never worked out. (My beloved and I married young and had a child, so when Nam wound down, even the reserves wanted single people rather than me.) So I took my guitar and voice and started singing to Vets and that generation in nursing homes about 10 years ago. My state of GA has 2 War Vet's hospitals, and I was playing for a ward while they were being fed one time. I took out my archtop and began "It Had To Be You"; a woman feeding her husband turned around and asked, "how did you know our song?" She put down his food and started dancing with him in his wheelchair. That is when I realized he was a double amputee, and she was dancing with his heart. He started crying, she started crying, I was a mess, and the staff started dancing with the others in the wheelchairs. I have known some great gigs in my many years of semi-pro music; I will never, never beat that one. God Bless. Jerry in Atlanta

Hey Jerry, I am from just down the road from you. Ever been to Newnan? I haven't lived there in over thirty years but it will always be home. Keep singing to these young guys that are comming home now, you can only guess at how much it means to them.
And who knows you may be the next Alan Jackson.

When I pick up my Barth in July I'll be heading for Atlanta, maybe we can get together and compare notes.

I was one of the many volunteers for the WWII Memorial dedication in Washington, DC, last May. I was assigned to the handicapped seating area as an usher/escort. The handicapped areas had portable plastic flooring so wheelchairs could maneuver on them. Our original instructions were to only allow one attendant per wheelchair. The rest of the group or family had to sit in the area behind the handicapped seating area. Didn't seem fair to me, but eventually new instructions said to let the whole group with the wheelchair person sit together.

Well, seats got rearranged. Large spaces of the floor were cleared, and our handicapped area became a dance floor! They were broadcasting 1940's era music before the dedication, with dancing by performers in WWII era uniforms. Veterans and their families were turning our "solemn occasion" into a party. Glenn Miller and the US Army Band stirred quite a few to get up and dance again.

Even though most I saw were in wheelchairs, they were sitting ramrod straight, uniforms impeccible, and medals polished. I'd volunteer again for that gig in a heartbeat.

Thank you Bev and Jerry, what great and uplifting reminiscences. Are we Americans blessed or what?

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