DEEPHAVEN, Minn. — Four notes played a total of 24 times.
That’s it.
Yet, for many Americans, Taps has a symphony’s worth of meaning.
“It's almost sacred. It's almost like a prayer, where the bugler is praying through the horn,” Rob Severson, who played Taps on Memorial Day in front of his Deephaven home, said.
Bob Gould and his 17-year-old son Isaac did the same near Grand Rapids, Michigan.
While in California, Christina Ball and Natasha Sadoski Souliere made their voices their instruments of honor.
With traditional parades and cemetery honors suspended, Americans took matters into their own yards – and driveways, and porches, and front steps.
“I just put something out on Nextdoor, ‘Say, hey, who wants to join me?’” Jenny Parton-Olson said.
Which is how Parton-Olson ended up being joined by Mary Yerks and Carla Herling, hitting their high notes atop the highest point in Crystal's Forest Park.
In Buffalo, ninth grader Hannah Rocker played Taps on her clarinet as she looked down from the deck of her family’s home.
In Arkansas – John Two-Hawks played Taps for Staff Sgt. Rick Keiffer, his friend, killed in Iraq.
While in Maryland, school music lessons were cancelled before Drew Swain had mastered Taps on his trumpet. Undeterred, he played assisted - by Bluetooth and his saluting little brother.
2020 wasn’t the traditional Memorial Day. Yet, it will be remembered as the year we honored our heroes, at home.
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