As the 1980’s began, Roessleville Elementary school hired a longterm substitute music teacher. She was young and pretty, and she wrote out the words to pop songs that we would learn to sing in class. I sat in the second row, on the right, so my good ear was towards the rest of the class. She would smile at me when I sang loudly.

That is why my wife is staring at me as we drive down the road, her mouth agape: After forty years, I have just accompanied Bette Midler, line for line, through every verse and note of “The Rose.”