Locked between the pages of our minds

Hi neighbors. This week I'm starting something new, being a facilitator at a discussion group for people who are caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer's.

I don't claim to be an expert on Alzheimer's or the myriad problems involved in caring for a person with that disease. However, I do know that gathering information is a primary tool in any endeavor and discussions with other people experiencing the same situation can be helpful. That is what the group will offer, information about resources, and practical ideas and emotional support from other caregivers.

This first meeting will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, in the community room of the Moore-Few Care Center, located at 901 S. Adams. The community room entrance is on the south side of the building facing the parking lot.

The group is hosted by the Barone Alzheimer's Care Center and is affiliated with the Southwestern Chapter of the National Alzheimer's Association, a nonprofit organization. The meetings are free and open to the public. If you are a caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer's, I hope to see you there.

Have you attended the CCPA's latest production featuring the Community Choir "Celebrations of the '70s & '80s" in the Fox Playhouse at 110 S. Main just off the Nevada Square? It certainly brought back a lot of memories! The concept of joining events to the music they inspired is a wonderful way of making history enjoyable for all.

If you've missed it so far, there will be two more performances; one Saturday (tonight) at 8 p.m. and one tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Most of us have songs that we relate to some event in our own past. Seeing the show reminded me of how interlocked our music and our history really are.

However far back you go in history, there was someone singing songs about what was going on at the time. As a matter of fact, the roaming minstrels were the earliest scandal sheets and storytellers. "News" was often embellished to make a better story or tweaked to create a rhyme. We still have those types of papers on the grocery store shelves -- now they don't come with a guy in tights playing a mandolin and singing the headlines aloud.

We are fortunate to have thousands of songs available to us now. Music is a unique form of communication. With or without lyrics, music can evoke emotion, stimulate memory and compel the body to movement.

With the addition of lyrics, song can do all of the above plus deliver a message. As any of we older folks can testify, messages presented by music and lyrics, are more easily remembered than those presented in almost any other format.

A few years ago I did an article on a man who, I feel, was ahead of his time. His name was Mr. Taylor and he was an educator. He proposed that all classroom lessons should intertwine with common lesson themes. For instance, when students would be reading about the Civil War in history class, they would be learning Civil War songs in music, making time related artwork in art class, doing math problems that would be relevant, reading stories about people and lifestyles in English class, etc.

This saturation approach to teaching has always been incorporated to some extent in schools, but not to the extent he proposed.

Remember how you learned your ABC's? How many "Little Indians" refrains did it take until you could count up to and down from 10 as a toddler? Children's games that incorporate song, particularly games with rhythm like jumping rope or hand-clapping, reflect events of the past or even current events in their world.

When her trial was all the news, children learned a jingle about Lizzie Borden giving "40 whacks" with an ax.

On a happier note, how many times has Cinderella gone upstairs to "kiss her feller" with the school playground jumprope gang?

How much embarrassment did you suffer when smitten with puppy love for the first time and finding the news being broadcast by the jumprope gang or the hand-clapping singers with "Name and Name, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G?" On a national scale, we all remember the events that lead to linking three famous names in one song "Abraham, Martin and John" don't we? Until the next time friends remember, hearing the songs of our ancestors, our parents and ourselves brings back lots of memories of history on a world, national and personal level.

If you want to know how the world will remember today, listen to some of the current song lyrics.