[Dixielandjazz] Hospital gig

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/10/05 9:11:53 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jazzdude at bellsouth.net writes:

> 
> They wouldn't let us leave and I suppose we were there probably two hours. 
> We were asked for autographs, we signed bandages and talked to these brave 
> kids.......there was not a dry eye among us.   I'll never forget that day, and I 
> often wonder how many actually survived their horrible burns.
> 
> Dave Hanson
> Trombone
> Atlanta

Good post Dave, and a rewarding experience we should all have if at all 
possible, another great place to get into is the Shriners Hospitals, St. Judes,  
Children's Hospital and no doubt many others, these places are often begging for 
entertainment that is or can be made suitable for their patients.

I once was asked to go play at a hospital in a small town in Holland and it 
was full of Downs syndrome people of all ages, and some patients that I do not 
know what was their ailment but they had never been off the bed, were very 
contorted and could not talk or do anything but lie there and be massaged 
routinely and fed and changed by their care takers.

Seems like they were the ones with the biggest smiles as I recall.

Many of them were as entertaining to us as we were to them, and we all had a 
wonderful time once we NORMAL folks got over the shock and like your kids in 
the burn ward, the will to live was so strong in that room that we were ashamed 
of ourselves for months afterward when we complained of even a headache.

The experience was more rewarding than I could ever put into words and here 
it is fifteen years or so later and I can still see some of those faces and 
feel the hand shakes and freely given hugs as I write this post.  Amazing simply 
amazing.

Sure makes any of life's difficulties most of us have had or will have seem 
quite trivial in comparison.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins
Let the good times Roll for all any way that we can