Author: Sharon

My sister told me about this yesterday. Angus is part of our MacFeeley/Lowe extended family growing up in Magnolia.

Gloucester Daily Times:

To the editor:

The GHS Docksiders “dockside” performance at the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor on Sunday was fantastic.

For me and many visitors who were there that morning, it was like travelling in time as WWII era tunes echoed from the USS Arizona Memorial, along Battleship Row where WWII began, to the decks of the USS Missouri, where the Japanese surrender was signed.

It was impressive, in a place where everything is normally done on “Hawaiian time,” to see these young performers shake off jet lag, set up, and perform so professionally.

Pearl Harbor historical sites bring to visitors a unique sense of time and what was experienced during the attack on Pearl Harbor and through the war in the Pacific.

The Docksiders’ performance, on a quiet Sunday morning much like the very early Dec. 7, 1941, brought a rare and even greater sense of that time to those of us who were there. For me, it gave pause to remember my father who worked at Pearl Harbor Shipyard during the war and returned to Gloucester to start BOMCO during the 1950s.

It was more than a performance of 1940s Big Band music by an exquisite band. Through their director, Dave Adams, these young musicians expressed their respect and honored those who experienced World War II by bringing their music back to life. They connected themselves to a place and time that will, for many future generations, be remembered for the cost of freedom and the price paid by America’s ‘greatest generation’.

I have a fresh sense of hope for the future as I saw, in these young musicians, high caliber ability, hard work, and excellence.

Their generation is pretty darn good, too.

Congratulations, Gloucester! Mahalo Nui Loa!

Angus MacFeeley

Wahiawa, Hawaii

(Gloucester High School Class of 1970)