Charles Glenn feels it in his joints as he walks through the concrete concourses of Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The staircases make his hips ache in ways they hadn't until a few years ago. But when he steps out in front of upward of 18,000 fans at St. Louis Blues home games, those agonies fade to the shadows, displaced by the task at hand.
"You're the person who sets the energy. You're setting the mood and the atmosphere for what's about to happen," said Glenn, 64, who has been singing the national anthems at Blues games for 19 years.