What a great weekend.

Wow! it shows I haven't posted since last Saturday morning!  With the four Dutch band members here and our helping with ushering at the high school for the Glenn Miller Festival from early to late, it has been hard to keep up with things.  Then, after putting the Dutch boys on the bus about 10:30 am on Monday we took off for Marengo, IA so Phyllis could be at an installation ceremony for youngest granddaughter Emily's entrance to PEO at Marengo that evening.  Back to Clarinda Tuesday so could gas up the borrowed car and then meet Theresa at her bus Tuesday afternoon from her returning on a 10-day trip.  Phyllis spent most of yesterday afternoon and this morning washing all the bed clothes of the extra 4 beds (and ours) and straightening up.  I had discovered Monday morning that somehow the Air Conditioner fan had gotten switched to "on" from "auto" so it had run all the time for at least a few days -- not exactly kind to the guys sleeping in the basement next to the furnace rwoom where it would have been running all that time.  They did not say anything about the noise.  All 4 were gentlemen.  Pjotr, Maarten, Fred & Gèrard

Click on any photo to enlarge.

This is both sides of a large post card they had left behind for us.

Thursday evening on the Courthouse Square we listened to Nebraska Brass from Omaha

They had individually given  us several things, a set of salt/pepper shakers from the Netherlands, several books, a coffee cup, pair of tee shirts from a Jazz Festival they had played in, a recipe book for Phyllis to cook some Netherlands foods.

Part of Friday's Tamina, Japan Girls Band performance 

Part of Friday's Tamina, Japan Girls Band performance.  There were about 70 girls,
all aged 16, 17, or 18 years old.  And they sound like a professional band.

Bill Baker's Big Band -- we housed 3 of these guys, plus the sound-man

Pjotr & Gèrard -  Playing Sax

Maarten Guichelaar   playing guitar 

Thursday evening concert on the square - Nebraska Brass, from Omaha, NE

Thursday evening, before the concert on the town square, we ate a "picnic"
in the commons area at the high school.  Bill Baker is in the plaid shirt in center of photo.

This shows one of our paychecks--Since we usher we
avoid paying this.  Though we don't always get to see everything.

Even a bigger paycheck for this one!

The Glenn Miller Orchestra -- they travel 50 weeks every year performing all over the world.

Was nearly a "sell out" crowd for Glenn Miller Orchestra 

Was nearly a "sell out" crowd for Glenn Miller Orchestra 

Saturday morning I had the 4 guys up at the Fire Station at 6:30 am, with their instruments.  They played from 7 am to 9 am with a break in the middle so they could eat some pancakes, sausage and fruit.

We went back about 8 am; Phyllis stayed until she needed to go to the high school to help with tickets, etc. and I stayed and took the guys to the school after they finished playing and helped pack all the equipment in the trailer Paul Negley was pulling for them.

Singer, Director, and Bill Baker at the mikes

Quite a few stayed and listened after they finished eating.

This and the picture below are a couple I found on two different web sites of the band from Holland

These 5 guys put on a very sharp musical program with a lot
of humor interlaced.

What can I say?  I was amazed that Warren
Buffet, the investor from Omaha, seemed
to be playing the Tuba in the Canadian Brass

This was the most expensive ticket of the weekend.
They played in the gymnasium and I would guess we
seated something around 400 people.  (That includes the
nearly 100 Japanese girls and the Bill Baker Band, who
did not have to pay)

3 Usher/ticket takers.  Marilyn Thompson in center and
Phyllis, on the right, worked together most of the festival

Saturday evening the guys insisted on taking us out to eat at J Bruner's

They guys had been up over 25 hours when they ate with us Wednesday evening, and they went to all the various events, practiced for hours, went to the Inda-Clare bar one night; but, by Saturday evening they admitted they were beginning to "sag" a little.

Sunday morning by 11 am, I drove the guys, with instruments, out north to our local State Prison,
here they performed two concerts and got to eat some "prison food", which they said wasn't bad,
but they were not impressed with it.

About 3:30 pm picked them up -- they did let the band back out
of prison.  They posed for a photo in front of the fence.

A little after 5 pm Sunday there was a "Pot Luck" supper with the Dutch Band
and the Tamana Girls Band and all the host families who kept them.

Guess what?  The host families had to wait to go through the line after
all the band members, including the 70+ Japanese girls you see in the line at the top of photo.

By a little after 7 pm Sunday the band was setting up in the bright 90º sunshine
for a concert in front of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum

Two of "our guys"

Our third guy, Maarten.  They were soaked with sweat and there couldn't get to be much of a breeze to help

Guys relaxing after the outdoor concert Sunday evening.

Sunday morning - our last meal at our house.  We had a really nice visit.

Getting our last visit.

All of us in front of our house.

All of us, at the high school waiting for their bus

Everyone trying to get their music stands, etc. inside their luggage
before the bus came.

We enjoyed very much having the guys with us this weekend.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A Few Clever Words by a Few Clever People::

- "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -- Winston Churchill"

- I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure" -- Clarence Darrow"

- He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." -- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)"

- I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." -- Groucho Marx"

- I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." -- Mark Twain

- "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -- Oscar Wilde"

- I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend. If you have one." 

-- George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill followed by Churchill's response: "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one.

- ""I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -- Stephen Bishop

- "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." -- John Bright

- "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." -- Irvin S Cobb

- "He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." -- Samuel Johnson

- "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." -- Paul Keating

- "He had delusions of adequacy." -- Walter Kerr

- "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" -- Mark Twain

- "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." -- Mae West

- "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -- Oscar Wilde

Till next time -- Lynn