Glenn Miller Festival

Ah, Saturday morning and looks to be rain building outside.
Has been a whirlwind of activity since Wednesday.  Though we went to High School at 4:30 pm to meet the bus from Kansas City that was bringing in the Bill Baker Band from the Netherlands, it was late and we returned around 7 pm.  Then turned out to be only 2 of the 4 men we were to keep at our place.  The other two had missed one of the planes en-route and were to be in later.  Since they had been up nearly 24 hours since leaving their homes they were both tired and hungry.  Phyllis had fixed roast beef and that kept warm well.  They went ahead and ate and around 9 pm got call that the other two were at the High School.  They had ridden with the lady singer and her boyfriend in a rented car from Kansas City (The rented car was already planned as those two were going to stay an extra week in the area before going back to the Netherlands).  By the time the last two men ate and all four of us had some pineapple pie, it was really late - nearly 6 am their home-time and they had been up over 25 hours.  The 4 sorted out places to sleep, one on a day-bed in the basement, one in a double bed in the basement, one in a double bed upstairs and one on the sofa upstairs.

Peter tried out the piano while waiting for the last two

Peter, Maarten, and Phyllis

Fred and Gerrard

Thursday morning we went to the High School to help usher at the Competition for Scholarships -- Instrumentals in the morning and Vocals in the afternoon.  I took our borrowed minivan back home to pick up the guys around 10 am so they could get to a practice session at the school at 10:15 am.

At 5 pm was the "Picnic" in the commons area of the High School.

In the evening at 7:30 pm was the free concert on the town square by Nebraska Brass Band.

Color-guard at left coming up with flags for National Anthem

Here is our schedule we are working
with for ushering.

Friday morning the guys had breakfast on our patio, then I took
them to the high school for more practice

The all-girl Tamana Japan High School Band performed at
1 pm.  All 16, 17, 18 year olds -- playing very professionally

One of their pieces had many of the girls on the floor singing.

The Bill Baker Band (that our guys are in) preformed at 3:15 pm

These two saxophonists are staying at our place

Maarten, at the center, is with us, playing guitar.

Bill Baker, standing at left, puts on quite a show.

Ticket to Bill Baker's Big Band (This shows our equivalent pay by
volunteering to usher during the vent.

Of course, the big draw is the Glenn Miller Orchestra

Had nearly a full house for the Glenn Miller Orchestra last night.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra put on quite a concert.

Not many seats left.

Well, it is 7:30 am on Saturday as I write this.  I got up at 6 am and had the guys and their instruments down to the Fire Station at 6:30 so they could play for the 7 am pancake breakfast.  Phyllis & I will be going there in a bit to eat and then pick up the guys.

Later, Lynn