It's been more than 20 years since I last played flute in an ensemble. Last Tuesday, I performed with the Britton Community and Alumni band. No, I'm not a Britton grad and I'm barely part of the community. My kids go to school there. Britton is one of my newspaper beats. I feel like I'm much more acquainted with Britton than the town I reside in. I guess that makes me community enough to participate in the band.

I have kept my nice flute all these years, because I thought that I'd one day--when I had enough time--that I'd want to join a community band. Most that I know of what a once a week rehearsal commitment. I really just can't commit to that right now. All I had with the Britton band was a few rehearsals, some good laughs as we all tried to get our chops back and just plain fun.

What made the performance extra special was that my son's band concert was postponed from its original date to the same night as mine. He plays the flute, too. He also had the opportunity to see another male flautist play in the community band. It was all around a perfect bonding experience for my son. My daughter also enjoyed it. Both of them were at every rehearsal, and my daughter told me time and again how much she loved the Ashton Overture.

My dear life partner videotaped the whole performance. I had intended to put it up among the other Tecumseh Herald videos, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. In time I guess.

I have to apologize to my fellow band mates. I didn't explain to my dear partner that I wanted the video as a community thing and he has a lot of close ups of me. He's also not got much of a steady hand. One might get dizzy watching the video. The guy dices and slices vegetables for a living. It's a wonder he doesn't cut himself every single day.

What I learned from the whole experience is that I don't want to put my flute away for another 20 years.

Cristina