America's Orchestra: The Boston Pops

When I was a young girl, Sunday afternoon meant listening to Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. My Pops, who also traveled for a living, had an album called "The Pops Goes Country" (which featured Chet Atkins) and he would listen to it while doing his "homework" and smoking his pipe (before he quit smoking). That old piece of vinyl was scratched and threadbare to the point it became almost unplayable.

Years later, I was very proud of myself when I found a pristine copy of the album (and its successor - neither of which were commercial or critical successes compared to other Pops albums) in an old record bin in a small town in western North Carolina. I had the tracks transferred to CD and gave them to Dad a couple of Christmases before he died. I have both the vinyls and the CD's now.

I still try to catch the Pops concert on TV every July 4th.

There was a nice bit tonight on UNC-TV . . . just finished up . . . on the history of the Boston Pops.

And it was just a nice way to end a long day.