I just happened across the Ticket to Ride concert in Old Lyme last year, to my surprise and delight. This year, however, we arrived on time and on purpose!

The annual Beatles concert was presented by Koffee Works of Old Lyme and took place outside their shop under a beautiful sunset. Ticket to Ride has had a good year so far. They appeared on the local Fox affiliate and they are rumored to have spent quite a bit of time in the studio of late (fingers crossed that their laying down tracks for an album). It seems like that work in the studio is paying dividends. These boys from Liverpool have really tightened up their harmonies and polished up their chords! They sounded fantastic and they once again had this crowd twisting and shouting over and between the painted lines of the bank parking lot late into the evening.

Ticket to Ride - 2012
See the entire album!

May 28, 2012 -- An Old Lyme tradition resumed again today under sunny skies, a welcome contrast to the drenching rains that caused the cancellation of the 2011 event. Parade participants marched in front of cheering crowds from the firehouse on Lyme Street to the parade terminus at Duck Creek Cemetery. The closing ceremonies incuded, among other things, performances by the Lyme Old Lyme High School Marching Band, essay readings, a flag ceremony, and a 21 gun salute followed by Taps.

I posted photos of this event right after Memorial Day and LymeLine.com ran some of them when they were fresh and new!

This annual event is one of my family's favorite aspects of living in small-town Connecticut. There is a real sense of community as we see people we know from school, gymnastics, and little league scattered up and down Lyme Street.

The whole town seems to be involved in the parade. Everyone first meets at the parade staging area as many families have kids marching with a band, baseball team, scout troop, etc. Then the parade rolls by, kids throwing candy, other kids scrambling to pick up candy, parents and spectators waving and snapping pictures. Then, the whole town gets up and follows the parade down to the cemetery for the Memorial Day ceremony. Afterwards, the parade sort of reverses course and we all follow the marching bands back to the firehouse where the whole event started! After enjoying free hot dogs and soda on the apparatus floor of the firehouse, residents are welcome to wander down to the Lyme Academy for the antique car show and an impressive array of sparkling automobiles.

Old Lyme Memorial Day Parade - 2012 - The Big Album
See the entire album!

LOLMS Marching Band - Anchors Away, played 100 times!
(Mrs. Wind, the band director, will not listen to this song again for a few years, except in her nightmares!)