After 7 days on the go almost non stop, we finally had some free time. The young ones and those young at heart went off to enjoy the rides at Adventureland (a small Alton Towers style theme park). The rest of the band slept, shopped or just chilled out.
After 5 hours at the amusement park most of us met up at Bill and Joelle's for a terrific BBQ in their garden for a final farewell to Bandmaster Vic Anderson and members of the Des Moines Community Band.
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At 4pm we started to get ready for the big event of the day, the State Fair Parade. We assembled at 5pm on one of the many car parks close by the State Capital Building for our slot as Number 2 band in the parade. Given there was to be a prize for the best band/float, there was much serious rehearsal going around us. Perhaps we didn't take this aspect just as seriously - after all, we were there with a different objective in mind. Still, Bandmaster David Nicholson had us marching back and forth trying to fathom out his new-fangled whistle code!! It was something like "one blast to get ready to stop", "two blasts to stop (instantaneously!!)", "two blasts to start again (also instantaneously!!) and "three blasts to change marches". A sight to behold!!
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At the given signal we were off down the hill with the timbrels in front to the sound of Goldcrest to the centre of Des Moines and our destiny at the hands of the parade judges. We were lucky with the weather - the promised 105 degrees fahrenheit and high humidity turned out to be a mere 85-90 degrees with moderately high humidity. Never-the-less, at the end of the 2 mile march we knew we had been through the works. However, the great public relations exercise for the Salvation Army, with 4 TV stations filming, and standing ovations from the crowd of over 50,000 for the SA and the American Flag, made it all worthwhile. Well done Bass section and Percussion. Even more well done Cornets!
Words: Ian Kershaw
Photos: Gordon McKee
