My Dad, 87 and Still Drumming

My father, Joe Mirsky (now age 87 and pictured above in a jam session last year playing a 1986 Cooperman Fife & Drum Co. 6-ply rosewood 18"x18" snare drum), 1939 NYS VFW Junior Snare Drum Champion (see photo below). Joe is quoted in Ken Mazur's terrific article titled "The Perfectionists, The History of Rudimental Snare Drumming from Military Code to Field Competition", from the April, 2005 edition of Percussive Notes, p. 10, et seq., published by the Percussive Arts Society.

Joe Mirsky in the uniform of Bronx Post 95, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Sons of Veterans Fife, Drum & Bugle Corps, 1939

Dad (Sgt. Jacob Joseph Mirsky, USMC), 1943

Mom (Sgt. Lucille Albert Mirsky, USMC), 1944

Sgt. Joe Mirsky, Marine Corps Air Station ("MCAS"), Miramar, California, 1945

Dad did a short stint as a volunteer in the Israel Defense Force, 1988 at age 66

Mom and Dad, active in the Marine Corps League