Thrills and chills.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: Parting Thoughts - American monuments - Statistical Data Included

IN A JADED AND BLASE WORLD, where one so often hears "been there; done that" and where a sense of deja vu pervades bored Americans, there still are available thrills and chills galore, if one but looks to the simpler life. As the song has it, "You'll find your happiness lies right under your eyes, right in your own backyard." Let the younger set get their kicks and short adrenaline highs on the roller coasters of amusement parks, skydiving, bungee jumping, and other extreme sports, but for seniors, who have different values, permit me to suggest some experiences that many of us take for granted, but which nevertheless provide thrills and chills to match anything else. See if you don't agree and even will add some yourself.

I still love watching a parade and a marching band, like those that high schools proudly provide for different celebrations such as the Rose Bowl Parade around New Year's Day or in the festive Macy's Thanksgiving Day celebration. My favorite, though, is the traditional Fourth of July--I prefer the designation of Independence Day--American Legion drum and bugle corps marching down Main Street of a small town, where patriotism is not regarded as chauvinistic, but a virtue to be treasured. I guess this is a carryover from my army days at Camp Roberts, Calif. There, our young men marched on the parade ground to drumbeats giving cadence to 4,000 boots pounding the earth in unison. Flags were flying as the band played John Philip Sousa's "Thunderer's March" or "The Stars and Stripes Forever," and the troops performed their maneuver of "eyes right!" before the grandstand of VIPs.

In visiting our nation's capital, one cannot help but sense a feeling of pride and thrill at being an American. The dignified obelisk known as `the Washington Monument is an apt tribute to the "Father of our Country," a man who was "first in peace and first in war." The classical beauty of the Jefferson Memorial is unequaled, especially when the Japanese cherry trees, a gift from that nation, are in full bloom with their delicate pink blossoms. Then there is the Lincoln Memorial, with the "Great Emancipator" sitting so sad and pensive, reflecting on the dead and wounded the Civil War produced in order to have a unified country again. One's spine tingles when one recalls the Gettysburg Address, which most of us memorized in our high school years. Delivered on Nov. 19, 1863, the dramatic first line stated, "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers...