What a great weekend! Even the bad-weather times became highlights that we'll all remember. . .dodging the raindrops on Thursday night, enjoying great food and drink while playing some great stuff at Lori and Mike's. . .finding refuge in a beer tent when the heavens opened up on Friday night (go figure!). . .singing and playing and entertaining the 50 or so people in the tent (those young guys couldn't get enough of us!). . .getting everything loaded onto the float amid a drizzle that threatened to ruin the parade. . .having the weather break at parade time, only to have our float break down. . .and then after a quick recovery, getting to play in that huge parade in front of thousands of happy, dancing onlookers. . .basking in the praise of lots of parade goers, who said that we were the most entertaining float in the parade. . .watching Mother Nature flood our Plan A for Saturday afternoon. . .finding that Plan B worked extremely well, enjoying each other's company and music, once again amid Lori and Mike's hospitality at Countryside Lane. . .enduring the long wait Sunday morning while we worked through the logistical challenges of getting all of us and our equipment to Heritage Park (thank heavens for patience, contacts and cell phones!). . .looking out over hundreds of people who sang and danced to our music at Heritage Park (did ya notice how everyone stood and sang God Bless America at the end?). . .heaving a big sigh of relief when my friend Dan O'Neal showed up at the end with a flatbed to ease our departure.
When I try to thank everyone for all that they did to contribute to the success of the band's first appearance at Fair Saint Louis, the list is endless.
Here's the first draft: The event simply would not have happened without the vision of Mike Thaman, who worked for over two years to get the parade and fair committees to let us participate. Mike also put in countless hours over the last eight months, planning every detail of the weekend. The generous hospitality of Lori and Mike, welcoming us into their home and treating us like family throughout the weekend, will never be forgotten. Larry, Jim and Rich spent countless hours contirbuting to the planning process through e-mails and phone calls. Jim, Steve and Chris spent long hours on the highways, just to get here and share their awesome talents. Many of you spent big bucks on gas, food and lodging. Richie, our primo vocalist and musical co-leader, also proved his adeptness as a roadie, schlepping tons of equipment to and from our venues, through rain and shine (hope someone has a picture of him in his "drowned rat mode" on Friday night!!). If Larry ever quits this band, I'm out. . .he is at once our craziest and sanest and most creative member. . .I simply can't imagine us having much of a Dixieland sound without him. Steve's parents are our #1 fans, and have been for over 30 years. Rusty and his pal lent their professional banjo talents to our sound on Thursday and Sunday. Nora gave a splendid ragtime performance on Sunday, and contributed musically throughout the weekend. Mark was in there every minute of every day, the only guy who beefs up our brass section on one song and our string section on the next. Tom and Bill completed our outstanding brass sound.
The fair committee not only wants us to return, but has indicated that they want to get us an even better location. Keep in mind that this event was an afterthought this year, based on feedback from several of you that you wanted to be able to play for more than just the dinner and parade. And the fair made it possible for us, even though their budget for this year had been cast in stone months before. Considering that, I feel that the times we did get to play were rewarding for us and for the crowds we drew, in spite of no publicity that we were even there.