Spirit of America

On Friday, being the cool homeschoolers we are we took a field trip downtown to Blue Cross Arena to watch the US Army's Spirit of America presentation. It was really cool! The US Army Orchestra and Concert Band performed. There was a walk through history through the eyes of soldiers by the 3rd US Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard." It was neat that all the "actors" were actually soldiers and neat to see from a soldiers' viewpoint why they do what they do.

Here is what the kids thought:

Caleb: "My favorite part was the war. " There were scenes portraying battles from various wars: Revolutionary, Civil, WWII, etc.
Hannah: "I liked the music." Her favorite was the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.
Lydia: "I liked the woman with the baby but it wasn't real." There were a few scenes of soldiers writing to people at home and wives reading the letters from two separate parts of the stage area.
Abigail: "I liked the cow and then he's dead." I am not sure if it was a cow but when Abraham Lincoln was giving the Gettysburg Address she thought that there was a cow up by the fence and she was upset that it never came back out. She also liked the horses that came out and rode around during Paul Revere's Ride and at a couple of other times in the performance. She wasn't very impressed with the loud gun and cannon shots though.


I think that my favorite part was the US Army Drill Team. It was amazing to watch them perform with their bayoneted ten pound rifles. I didn't get a good shot of them but here are some pictures from the performance. I think that my favorite picture is the one where George Washington is talking to the soldiers with George Washington on the background.

Glenn says his favorite was probably the bugle and fife group too but all the groups at the end where they were in groups of 3 wearing the uniforms from different periods was very cool also.

It made both Glenn and I proud to be Americans. It was good to see how soldiers think and how proud and determined they are. If you ever get a chance to see the Spirit of America it is well worth it!! It is only being performed in Rochester this past weekend and in Worcester, MA next weekend this year. If you want to find out more about it check out the Spirit of America website. I just checked out the website again and saw that there was a 3 minute mini version of the 2+ hour show to give you a taste of what we experienced here.

This last shot is of Caleb with two of the buglers from the Fife and Drum Corps.