Music is always something that brings back memories of times past. It's not only the love of music's sounds and rhythms that touch our minds to bring forth memories, it’s the association of those sounds and rhythms with the people, places and events that we associate with a particular piece of music that brings back a memory from the past. So you see it's especially poignant to a member of a band that was learning how to play music on an instrument that can bring back a whole host of memories. Being a part of such a magical moment in time is one of the greatest gifts a person could have received. I was proud to be a member of our band, it may not have been as good as some people thought we should have been, but it was pure heaven to me.

How many times do you hear a couple say that's our song they're playing on the radio? The moment you hear the rhythm of the melody and the sound of a great song it tends to burn a memory into our soul so that we may keep that special time in our lives. I was born too late to have taken a date to a big band concert and danced our cares away, but I know the feeling that a special song can give you of that special someone in your life. Some of those songs are shared by many who need to remember that special moment when you shared a kiss for the first time with that very special person. You may not even remember the song until you hear it played again years later and the ghost of that pretty young lady or handsome young man floats into your memories.

People that make movies understand the power that music has on our emotions. That's why background music for any particular scene is carefully chosen to enhance one's memory or emotion for a particular scene. Someone once said that motion pictures are a window into our past. If that is so music is the sound of the love of our life because it brings back so much more than anyone can realize. I once saw at a senior’s home we used to visit with our church, a group of seniors brought to tears when a small band started to play music from an era past. They were not tears of sadness, they were tears of joy at the memories that came flooding back from the sounds that that band was playing.

I wish that I could tell those that mentored me in the appreciation and the understanding of music and also how to play music how grateful I really am for their support and encouragement. It must've been horrific for a music teacher to hear a beginning student slaughter a piece of music so badly. I wonder if that teacher remembers how bad that student was when they give their first recital and sounded so much better than the teacher ever thought they could have sounded from that first day. It's not just being grateful; it's carrying something inside you that means so very much that they were able to inspire you to have.

Every generation’s music is special to them even if their parents can't understand it or don't like it as mine did toward my music. It seems that there is a certain time frame in a person's life that music empowers, provokes and encourages us to strive and pushes us forward as we grow into adults. The sounds of yesteryear are more than music, they are the memories of our lives.

I have said so many times in my writing that I am part of the Ed Sullivan generation. The reason that I say that is he was the king of the variety shows and those shows gave us so much variety of music, he would have artists on from every genre of music, from a classical pianist to the most psychedelic rock band you could ever think of and even soul music in an era when it wasn't totally accepted for a TV show to have black musicians performing live.

Yes, there were other variety shows and they also had a range of music genres on them as well but the Ed Sullivan show pushed the boundaries of musical entertainment. He not only had artists from classical music, he had the absolute best artists of classical music. He would show the most up-to-date and hip rock artist at the time on his shows and they were not beyond controversy, such as Elvis’s gyrating dance while singing or the screaming hordes of girls for the Beatles or the Rolling Stones singing “Let's spend the night together”, and what the censors must've thought when they were told that Jim Morrison and the Birds were going to perform on live TV show.

He gave us the appreciation of the musicians and the love of those who sing a song. He was the carnival barker that made you want to pay the dime to go behind the curtain and to hear the most exotic music in the world. He did so much for entertainment and music that he too should be in the rock 'n roll Hall of Fame, because without him bringing these artists into our living rooms I wonder how long our music would've lasted without him saying about Elvis “this is a really fine boy” and having the rock 'n roll artists on his show so that our music was more acceptable to our parents’ generation.

I love every form of music because its sparks in me all kinds of memories from my past and it builds new ones every day.

I don't want to say that I'm a fan of every genre of music but every type of music I hear sparks that wonderful feeling of the first time I picked up my saxophone and tried to play a song and how horrible I was and it also brings the feeling of the last time I held the saxophone in my hand and played something that sounded so great and it came from me.

So when I say thank you to all the music teachers that are no longer with us and to all those music teachers that had taught their students the love of music , to the teachers that are still struggling to get past that first day their students pick up a page of music, to the day that they are bursting with pride with the sounds of real music that are coming from the students they taught, and to those that have not yet started to teach their students about music and are still trying to find their place.

Being a music teacher is being someone's hero and giving them one of the greatest gifts that they will cherish for the rest of their lives. Thank you to the band director’s, thank you to the choir director’s, thank you to those that teach music appreciation. We really did appreciate y’all.