When the Orchestra Played in the Park

Our city orchestra gives one free concert a year, in the big park by the river, on the last Saturday of August. This year, my husband and I went for the first time.

Thousands of people spread out on blankets on the grass. Families with picnic baskets. Teenagers on dates. Old couples in lawn chairs they've clearly been bringing for decades. A man near us had brought a whole roast chicken and a candelabra.

When the orchestra started playing, the whole park went quiet. I didn't know you could hear ten thousand people being silent. They played Dvořák and Gershwin and, at the end, the "1812 Overture" with real cannons fired over the river. Every kid in the park screamed with joy.

We walked home in the dark with crowds of strangers humming the same tunes. My husband held my hand the whole way. I've lived here twenty years. I can't believe I waited this long.