The Observation Deck

Well winter is here, and the snow is falling.

Try to keep your walks clear of snow, but be careful! I just realized how hard snow shoveling can be doing three lots and mine!

Cold weather constricts veins and arteries, meanwhile you are bundled up, and hot, and using muscles that haven't been used in a year.

Snow always brings on heart attacks, and we do not want to lose anyone, so be careful, go slow, and if all you can do is one shovel wide, do it!

If you can help a neighbor, do it. If you can hire a neighbor's kid to do it, do it!

Work with neighbors, and make sure you are out there not alone, just in case.

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Howdy All,

A couple of years ago, my dear late father (retired Lakewood Schools band director Robert Rice) and I finished up writing our last song together (on the very day he died) about a special neighbor lady who shoveled a path one shovel wide for the kids, all the way up our street. Inspired by her heroic effort, Dad and I wrote the song "One Shovel Wide", and our friends, Rick and Cindy Benjamin helped me to record it on the Lakewood Observer banjo.

We recorded the song just a couple of days after Dad had passed away.

Here 'tis, my friends, a Lakewood original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cwwxvkzasY

Dad and I collaborated on writing many songs. Dad wanted the schools in Lakewood to each have a band march, and together we wrote a band march for America's veterans. We received Congressional recognition for our efforts, but the main reason that we wrote those songs is to give people a smile and the warm knowledge that we are all joined together in wonderful ways.

Back to the banjo.