I wouldn’t say I am one to display my patriotism often, which is why I was surprised to be asked by the Superintendent of the Thompson School District, Dr. Stan Scheer, if I would help him put up the flag at our high school as part of plan to honor a community member. Although my days of elementary school had taught me how to properly hang and fold a flag, I nonetheless felt out of place in front of the school with the giant flag in my hands, careful to not let it touch the ground. I was worried I would not be doing justice to the ceremony.

The interesting part of all of it was the conversation I got to have with the Dr. Scheer after I told him I was a jazz saxophonist. As coincidence would have it, he actually got to fix Benny Goodman’s clarinet one time when…