the Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival weekend

 77º with bright sunshine and humidity only 35% here in Clarinda, IA at 11:00 am Sunday - predicted high is 82º late in the afternoon when humidity is predicted to be 37% so comfortable day.  Well, with working on the photos, and then going to the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum for a Concert by The Iowa Military 

Veterans Band from Des Moines performed at 1 pm .......and time has slipped by.  Is now 2:26 pm and 81º but still 36% humidity, so a fine day.

We watched from our lawn chairs in the shade across the street.  Good concert with a fairly small crowd.   Here is link to the Iowa Military Veterans Band click HERE

Wednesday evening we met the two ladies that were vocal contestants in the Glenn Miller Scholarshop competition, who stayed 2 nights at our place, when they arrived at the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum click HERE for museum website.  We took both girls to the Presbyterian Church where Linda Naven was accompaning them and many other contestants on the piano and they both practiced.  We then grabbed a pizza at Jays Pizza and back to the museum where all contestants and their parents and/or host families met for about an hour and went over the procedures for the next day.  10 instrumentalists competed in the morning and then 10 vocalists in the afternoon Thursday.

Amanda Robertson from New Canaan, Connecticut, who stayed with us, performed a Soprana solo is in photo at left.

Rachel Chapman from Richardson, TX (near Dallas) who stayed with us, also performed a Soprana solo but I did not get photo of her performing.

Rachel is third from left in this photo and Amanda is fifth from right.  This was at the
awarding of prizes.  Tall red-head got 1st; guy to right of Rachel got 2nd, and girl on right
of winner came in 3rd.  ($3,000 $2,000, and $1,000 scholarships)

I had taken Phyllis to the high school and helped set up area where tickets to the auditorium were taken then gone back home to get the girls.  They watched some of the instrumentalists and then, because it ran over in time I took the girls back home and we fixed sandwiches, bringing one to Phyllis who stayed to monitor the door.  The girls performed in the afternoon.  Back home after 5 pm where we had supper.  There was an eight o'clock outside performance on the square downtown at 8 pm by the USAF Band of Mid-America--Shades of Blue Jazz Ensemble Click HERE for their website.  Both girls were tired and decided not to go.  It was a good performance but not a large crowd.  We were told there were several ball games going on down at the ball park which may have taken some.

  On Friday morning I took Phyllis up to the school again and returned a little before nine to get the girls who had packed everything up.  They returned with me to watch the winners of both instrumental and vocal perform and receive their scholarships. 

They got to see a little of the Stage Show with GMBS Big Band, made up of area people who performed some 1940's Glenn Miller music.  Then, got the suitcases and backpacks from our pickkup and the girls, along with another girl and a boy were taken in local funeral home limosuine to Kansas City Airport.  Our two girls had ridden from KC in the same caar Wednesday.

Adam Swanson performed at 1 pm.  He was born in Shenandoah, IA, just 20 miles west of us, and graduated from High School there.  Adam Swanson is the only FOUR-TIME World Champion Old-Time Piano Player! He now lives in Durango, Colorado and performs all over the world, mostly Ragtime. You can check his website by clicking HERE He performs here at the Festival every two years. He drew a pretty good sized crowd and always has a very up-beat pereformance.

The Louis Pettinelli Experience put on a show at 3:30 pm.  They were a good sounding group, but first time here and had a very small crowd attending.

At 7:30 pm we had a large crowd (around 200) listen to the ever-entertaining Glenn Miller Orchestra.  Click HERE for their website.  They perform every year at the Festival, once in the auditorium on Friday and then a big dance in the Gymnasium on Saturday evening.  An acquaintance of ours here in town always bitterly complains that they have a plasticized tarp laying over the floor and it is difficult to dance on.  I heard him complain to the lady at the desk and she said they were avoiding possible damage to an $80,000 floor.  

In this photo Nick Hilcher, who was the orchestra leader from January 2012 – August 2021, came up out of the audience and sang with the "Moonlight Serenaders" a song he often perfromed when with the band.

The current leader, saxophonist Erik Stabnau, did a lot of singing, alone and with the other vocalists.

Was a long day, Phyllis had help at the door with tickets and holding the crowd back until I could let them in when getting the okay from the current performers upon finishing their sound-checks.  I helped with wheel chairs and walkers and getting people seated inside the auditorium.  We got home about 9:30 pm.

Saturday morning we ate pancake breakfast at the Clarinda Fire House while listening to the Jazz Ensemble from NorthWest Missouri State in Maryville, MO.

Dennis Spragg (Click HERE) did all the emcee work for the festival.  He gave a very interesting talk on Saturday morning, enlarging on information he had written in his book.                                                            

A lot of Q&A about the day Glenn Miller attempted to fly from England to Paris and his plane was lost in very fowl weather.  It was brought up that the pilot did not file any flight plan and was not licensed to fly by instrument only.  Read the book, it is interesting.

At 1:15 pm we seated crowd for the Steve Shininger & the Shin-Sings band.  They are from east of St. Louis, MO and featured not only Glenn Miller music but a lot of Frank Sinatra.

Steve, a retired Airforce airman, and several of his group had been in the Airforce's bands, did a lot of vocals.  Very entertaining.

His website is HERE

At 3:30 pm Saturday we seated people for the Moonlight Serenade Orchestra from Kansas City, MO.  Click HERE

for their website.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra did a Festival Dance at 7:30 pm.  We did not attend that, but ate at the "Pre-Dance Dinner" where visited with some people who have attended many years.  Phyllis calculaates we have helped with the festival for more than 30 years now.

Several couples were dressed for the dance.  Phyllis thought this guy looked like a gangster from the 1930's.  When our family was with us a year ago we watched some of the dance.  They had competition for variious types of dancing and costumes.

We were home by 7 pm and "pooped out".  Well, I have been working on the the 250 photos, editing, labeling, cropping, etc., looking up websites of performers, and writing this post for about seven hours now.  Hope you have enjoyed.

More sometime LCarroll Miles

Red Skelton

 RED SKELTON'S SECRET TO THE PERFECT MARRIAGE 🌟

1. Two times a week we go to a nice restaurant, have a little beverage, good food and companionship. She goes on Tuesdays, I go on Fridays.

2. We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in California and mine is in Texas.

3. I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.

4. I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" she said. So I suggested the kitchen.

5. We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.

6. She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread maker. She said "There are too many gadgets, and no place to sit down!" So I bought her an electric chair.

7. My wife told me the car wasn't running well because there was water in the carburetor. I asked where the car was. She told me, "In the lake."

8. She got a mud pack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.

9. She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, "Am I too late for the garbage?" The driver said, "No, jump in!".

10. Remember: Marriage is the number one cause of divorce.

11. I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was 'Always'.

12. I haven't spoken to my wife in 18 months. I don't like to interrupt her.

13. The last fight was my fault though. My wife asked, "What's on the TV?"

I said, "Dust!".

Can't you just hear him say all of these?

I love it. These were the good old days when humor didn't have to start with a four letter word or political. It was just clean and simple fun. And he always ended his programs with the words, "And May God Bless" with a big smile on his face.

Ready for Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival here in Clarinda, IA

68 degrees with hard rain right now at 5:51 pm in Clarinda, IA.  Had a high 87 earlier and some warnings of wind and/or hail with this storm.

For only 14 years now I have been intending to straighten, level up these tiles around the A/C Condensor.  I finally did it a day or two ago.

Will be able to mow closer to the unit without getting into it now.  Imagine the rain now falling will flush the little bit of dirt off the tiles.

I think I put a photo of the muddy gravel road I drove on near the farmstead I grew up in Custer County Nebraska last week.  Realized after we had returned that the wheel wells of the pickkup were quite laden.  I knocked all the sand/gravel/mud loose and had just over half a 5-gallon bucket. Spread it along the street curb where I have been gradually building up the lawn area ever since the street was creaated some 12 years ago.  Imagine it is getting wetted down as I write.

Photo of sky a couple days ago.

Rose bush in front with whatever
that fusia-colored plant is in front

Some color east of the parked trailer.

We trimmed this old lilac bush a few days
ago, thinning out several branches.  It
seemed to lop, so I coralled it with rope.

Well, the Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival begins Thursday.  We attended a meeting several days ago since I had been volunteered to go to Kansas City to pick up some of the high school seniors or college freshmen that will be competing for Music Scholarships.  At the meeting was informed that instead of picking up 5 kids, one guy would pick up two (at Kansas City, MO airport) in the morning and I would ride with another guy to pick up three ladies mid-afternoon.  Phyllis made contact with the 3 girls and arranged for them to call me when they arrived at a pickup point and we would drive from a designaated cell-phone waiting parking lot.  Well, the guy driving the car called yesterday and informed me that his wife was going to accompany him and she could do the contacting and helping get the girls and did I really need to go.  Of course, I wasn't excited about it to begin with.  So, now we will wait tomorrow afternoon for one of the 3 girls to call us when they are about to get to Clarinda (a two-hour drive from the airport) and let us know where they will be.  Two of the girls, one from Connecticut and one from a town near Dallas, TX, will be staying with us Wednesday and Thursday nights.  They are both vocalists and they were to be with our good friend Linda who plays the piano for some of the vocalists, at 3 pm and 5 pm in the afternoon.  Since their flights are to get in just after 2 pm and nearly 2:30 pm, they will probably have to reschedule their practices because of the 2-hour drive from the airport.  They, and we, are to be at a meeting at the Museum at 7 pm along with all the other contestants and their hosts, and many who are helping with the festival and will take them to the church to practice with Linda afterwards if that comes to be.    We will start with the ushering and ticket taking early Thursday for the instrumental competition and at some point get the two girls to the auditorium so they can compete sometime after lunch.

      Thursday evening will see a performance

by "Shades of Blue" an airforce band on the square at the Courthouse.  Hoping for good weather that day--forecast is for sunshine all day with 80º as a high and 74º at 8 pm when the concert is to begin.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday during the day will be working in the High School Auditorium with air conditioning and a roof.  There is no further rain forecast here unil next Monday.  We will be busy at all the venues inside and will probably attend but not work at the outdoor concert by the Iowa Military Veterans Band at 1:00 pm at the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum here in town.

Will be an interesting several days, looking forward to them and looking forward to them being over.

A young man asked his grandfather, "Grandpa, how did you live in the past without technology . . .  without computers, without Internet connection, without TVs, without air conditioners, without cars, no cell phones?"                                                 Grandpa answered: "As your generation lives today . . .  there are no prayers, there is no compassion, there is no respect, no real education, there is no personality, there is no shame at all, there is no modesty, there is no honesty.

We, the people born between the years 1940-1980, were the blessed ones. Our lives are a living proof."

* While playing and riding a bike, we have never worn a helmet.

* Before school then we played and again after school until dusk and hardly ever watched television.

* We played with real friends, not virtual friends.

* If we were thirsty, we would drink tap water, or water from the hose, not mineral water.

* We never worried even as we shared the same cup of juice with four friends.

* We never gained weight by eating plates of pasta every day.

* Nothing happened to our feet despite roaming barefoot.

* We never used food supplements to stay healthy.

* We used to make our own toys and play with them.

* Our parents were not rich. They gave love, not stuff.

* We never had a cell phone, DVD, game console, Xbox, video game, PC, internet, chat . . . but we had true friends.

* We visited our friends without being invited and shared and enjoyed the food with them.

Parents lived nearby to take advantage of family time.

* We may have had black and white photos, but you can find colorful memories in these photos.

* We are a unique and the most understanding generation, because we are the last generation that listened to their parents.

And we are also the first ones who were forced to listen to their children.

* We are a limited edition!

Take advantage of us. Learn from us. We are a treasure destined to disappear soon.

LCM

June the First

 76 degrees here in Clarinda, IA at 8:15 pm Saturday with bright sunshine.  Hit 82 degrees earlier this afternoon.  If it keeps this up we may have to turn on the A/C.  Last few weeks have been kind without either the furnace or air conditioner running.  Full window exhaust fan keeps our place real cool anywhere under the high 80's.

We ate both breakfast and lunch on the deck today.  Was in the recliner in front of TV for supper.

Photo at left was of a great surprise when I went into our attached garage and these ants were coming up out of the crack in the cement floor just beside the pickup..  They did quit moving after I sprayed and poured Home Defender on them and down the crack.  Guess will see if I can somehow fill in the crack.

After lunch today

we went uptown to the "Cruzzin' Clarinda" auto

show.  Were a lot of cars, trucks, tractors

on display around the square

and also on the lot at Shore Motors.

This is the tenth year that the Clarinda Chamber of Commerce has sponsered ths Cruzzin Clarinda.  At 3:00 pm they had a parade, but I would guess less than 10% of those on display took part in the parade.

Phyllis got to visit with Sally Nordland, seated in photo at left.  They were classmates, year of 1962, here in Clarinda.  She has returned to Clarinda from Arizona this winter.

While seated to watch the parade we got to visit with 91-year old Dale Sunderman.  Phyllis was able to catch up on a lot of friends and relatives of Dale/s.  Dale is still liviing on the farm northwest of town but his wife is in nursing home here in Clarinda as well as his brother Paul and sister Evelyn.  His brother Cecil is having quite a bit of health trouble, also.

Photo at left was taken off Facebook last week on the Chateau Girardeau page.  Brother Don and his wife Vicki are pictured during their exercise time, which they go to several days a week.

This turtle watched us trim the lilac bush.

Did some major trimming of the old Lilac Bush.  We have two small ones to the west of it, but will be several years before they are anywhere near this big.

LC -- will maybe do this again sometime.

Things You Probably Never Knew About The Great Lakes.....

I found these facts so interesting that I copied them and put them here for your enjoyment.

1. Lake Superior is actually not a lake at all, but an inland sea .

2. All of the four other Great Lakes, plus three more the size of Lake Erie, would  fit inside of Lake Superior.

3. Isle Royale is a massive island surrounded by Lake Superior. Within this island are several smaller lakes. Yes, that’s a lake on a lake.

4. Despite its massive size, Lake Superior is an  extremely young   formation by Earth’s standards (only 10,000 years old).

5. There is enough water in Lake Superior to  submerge all of North and South America in 1 foot of water.

6. Lake Superior contains 3 quadrillion gallons of water (3,000,000,000,000,000). All five of the Great Lakes combined contain 6 quadrillion gallons.

7. Contained within Lake Superior is a whopping 10% of the world’s fresh surface water.

8. It’s estimated there are about 100 million lake trout  in Lake Superior. That’s nearly one-fifth of the human population of North America!

9. There are small outlets through which water leaves Lake Superior. It takes two centuries for all the water in the lake to replace itself.

10. Lake Erie is the fourth-largest Great Lake in surface area, and the smallest in depth. It’s the 11th largest lake on the planet.

11. There is alleged to be a 30- to 40-foot-long “monster” in Lake Erie named Bessie. The earliest recorded sighting goes back as early as 1793.

12. Water in Lake Erie replaces itself   in only 2.6 years, which is notable considering the water in Lake Superior takes two centuries.

 13. The original publication of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax contained the line, “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie.”  Fourteen years later, the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss to make the case that conditions had improved. He removed the line.

14. Not only is lake Erie the smallest Great Lake when it comes to volume, but it’s surrounded by the most industry.

Seventeen metropolitan areas, each with populations of more than 50,000, border the Lake Erie basin.

15. During the War of 1812, the U.S. beat the British in a naval battle called the Battle of Lake Erie, forcing them to abandon Detroit.

16. The shoreline of all the Great Lakes combined equals nearly 44% of the  circumference  of the planet.

 17. If not for the the Straits of Mackinac, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron might be considered one lake.   Hydrologically speaking, they have the same mean water level and are considered one lake.

18. The Keystone State  was one of the largest and most luxurious wooden steamships running during the Civil War.  In 1861, it disappeared. In 2013, it was found 30 miles northeast of Harrisville under 175 feet of water.

19. Goderich Mine is the largest salt mine in the world. Part of it runs underneath Lake Huron, more than 500 meters underground.

 20. Below Lake Huron, there are  9,000-year-old animal-herding structures   used by prehistoric people from when the water levels were significantly lower.

21. There are  massive sinkholes in Lake Huron that have high amounts of sulfur and low amounts of oxygen, almost replicating the conditions of Earth’s ancient oceans 3 million years ago. Unique ecosystems are contained within them.

22. Lake Huron is the second largest among the Great Lakes, and the  fifth largest in the world.

23.  In size, Lake Michigan ranks third among the Great Lakes, and sixth among all freshwater lakes in the world.

24. Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake that is entirely within the borders of the United States.

25. The largest fresh water sand dunes in the world line the shores of Lake Michigan.

26. Because water enters and exits Lake Michigan through the same path, it takes 77 years longer for the water to replace itself   than in Huron, despite their similarity in size and depth. (Lake Michigan: 99 years, Lake Huron: 22 years)

27. When the temperature of Lake Michigan is below freezing, this happens.

28. Within Lake Michigan there is a “triangle” with a similar reputation to the Bermuda Triangle, where a large amount of “strange disappearances” have occurred. There have also been alleged UFO sightings.

29. Singapore, Mich., is a ghost town on the shores of Lake Michigan that was buried under sand in 1871. Because of severe weather conditions and a lack of resources due to the need to rebuild after the great Chicago fire, the town was lost completely.

30. In the mid-19th century, Lake Michigan had a pirate problem. Their booty: timber. In fact, the demise of Singapore is due in large part to the rapidly deforested area surrounding the town.

31. Jim Dreyer  swam across Lake Michigan in 1998 (65 miles), and then in 2003, he swam the length of Lake Michigan (422 miles).

32. Lake Michigan was the location of the first recorded “Big Great Lakes disaster,” in which a steamer carrying 600 people collided with a schooner delivering timber to Chicago. Four hundred and fifty people died.

 33. Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in surface area, and second smallest in depth. It’s the  14th largest lake   on the planet.

34. The province Ontario was  named after the lake, and not vice versa.

35. In 1804, a Canadian warship, His Majesty’s Ship Speedy, sank in Lake Ontario. In 1990, wreck hunter Ed Burtt managed to find it.  Only, he isn’t allowed to recover any artifacts until a government-approved site to exhibit them is found. He’s still waiting.

 36. Babe Ruth hit his  first major league home run   at Hanlan’s Point Stadium in Toronto. It landed in Lake Ontario and is believed to still be there.

37. A lake on Saturn’s moon Titan is named after Lake Ontario.

Credit for this article goes to respective owner!