Music: Good for the Soul

Friday, September 7th, 2018
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Keep the music alive!

In 2018, you can give beginning August 1st until 5 pm on September 14th

I played the flute from 5th grade until I graduated from High School, then played in the Bishop California Community Band a couple times right out of high school. I moved to Jackson for a summer in 1980 and stayed, life, work, family, children, and Jackson Hole activities filling my life and my flute collecting dust in the closet.

In 2004 I was sitting in the stands at my son’s little league game. One of the other moms, Nancy Ninnemann, who I also know from Boy Scouts, was talking about paying the flute. I told her I played the flute in High School, she immediately said “why aren’t you in the Community Band”. After a bit of arm twisting I agreed to come to a rehearsal.

I had not played with an organized group in almost 25 years and had not played more than a few notes in 20 years. I pulled my flute out of the closet and put it together. The Cork on the head joint was loose but it still worked and I could play a scale from memory. Remembering how to play it was like riding a bicycle, no problem. However remembering how to read music proved to be a bit more challenging, I pulled out my fingering chart and went to rehearsal a couple days later.

When I arrived at rehearsal there were about 30ish musicians there, other than Nancy I only knew one other person, Cecilia Bellinghiere, also from Boy Scouts. Nancy had a chair and stand ready for me, and when I sat down she handed me a folder of music. OMG! What did I get myself into? Lots and lots of lines and black dots, I was completely overwhelmed. I looked at Nancy and said “Middle line is a B, right?”.

One of the pieces we rehearsed that night was The Liberty Bell by John Phillip Sousa… lots of black dots were on the page. I must have had the ‘deer in the headlights’ look on my face, Nancy assured me I would recognize the tune. We began… the Monty Python Theme! And right where the Monty Python Theme stops and spits a raspberry the conductor, Don Cushman, stopped us. If I had only known these people like I do now I would have filled in the empty air with the classic raspberry.

I practiced often that spring, windows open, torturing my husband and neighbors. I remember after a week or so my husband comment that it’s starting to sound like music. YAY, it was coming back. I went to a few more rehearsals, performed in a parade, a concert, then summer break. During the break I sent my flute at a shop for a tune up.

Even though there was a near 25 year break all that knowledge was still there. The marches on little pieces of paper are harder to see than I remember, I have to blow up them to read the notes. Playing pieces I had memorized in high school was a little weird too. I would get to a part I still remembered then lose where I was on the music in front of me. Within a year I purchased a metal piccolo for parades, eventually becoming 2nd piccolo, and roping my husband into pulling the band on a trailer in the local parades. In 2012 we lost our primary piccolo player, Norma Foster, to cancer, I moved to her chair, I think about her often and always try to live up to her example.

It’s 2018, I have two jobs, a weekend ski pass, my husband and I spend most summer weekends in our RV, we fish, bicycle, and I have band. I’m the Librarian, Vice President, the JHCB Website Administrator, and a much better musician than I was in high school. As busy as my life is, I can not imagine my life without music, music is good for the soul. And the friends I have made in Community Band are like an extended family.

Did this make you reminisce about your years in High School or College Band? Do you miss a life with music in it? Why aren’t you in the Jackson Hole Community Band? Rehearsals are 7pm at the Center for the Arts, in the performing arts wing. Dust off your instrument and join us. Don’t live in Jackson Hole? Many towns have a community band, do an internet search and see what’s near you.

Halloween Concert 2017 Flute Section: Sammy Douville, Noah Osnos, Anna Senecal, Nancy Ninnemann , Holly Balogh, Julie Wilson

Keep the music alive!

Please remember us at Old Bills 2018.

In 2018, you can give  beginning August 1st until 5 pm on September 14th. We hope you can join us Saturday, September 8th, for Old Bill’s at the Jackson Town Square!

What is Old Bills?

We cannot thank you enough for your support!

Thank you from all of the Jackson Hole Community Band Members.

2018 – 2019 Season

  • Old Bills Fun Run
  • Oktoberfest
  • Halloween Concert
  • Tuba Christmas
  • Holiday Concert
  • Wyoming Special Olympics – 50 Years!
  • Spring Concert
  • Old West Days Parade
  • Independence Day Parade & Lions Club Breakfast Concert
  • Jackson Lake Lodge Patriotic Concert

Click for Upcoming Events

The Perks of Camp Coffee

Thursday, August 23rd, 2018
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For heavens sake! Nobody wants to hear your generator at zero seven thirty!

You say you don’t like percolated coffee? That is because you are not doing it right.

I never thought I’d using that internet cliche in a bog, but it’s true. I didn’t like it either until I got it right.

We bought an RV upgraded from tent camping to glamping in 2015, my first pot for the rig was one of those enamel ones without a see through thingy-bob on the top and I used the RV sink water. Tent camping and making a large pot of percolated/boiled coffee never bothered me, it was strong and hot, exactly I want after sleeping in a tent. But my first several pots of RV coffee were awful, since then I got it figured out. So now that my delicious cup of percolated coffee is ready I thought I’d jot down the way to make a good cup of camp coffee.

Get the right pot

You spent good money on that electric coffee maker, don’t go cheep with your camp coffee pot. Get one that will double for a camp fire and RV cooktop coffee pot. Mine was a Christmas gift from my husband, he found it at Cabela’s. I found the same one on Amazon, and linked it here.

Material: Mine is a stainless steel pot with high-temp stainless steel handles, I’m not sure if stainless steel over enamel makes a big difference in taste, but the stainless steel ones seem to have a better construction. I wound NOT get an aluminum one, I think it gives a really bad aftertaste. I used one in the 80’s and can still taste it as I type this.

PercView knob: Get one with a glass knob, you want to see when it starts percolating so you can time it, and you don’t want it melting if you put it on an open campfire.

Basket: Find one with a basket assembly with a custom fit and evenly distributes the water while percolating.

Stainless and Glass

Fitted Basket Cover

Fitted basket assembly

Get the right grind and grind it right.

Don’t go cheep and easy just because you are camping, buy what you like when you go out for breakfast. Whether relaxing by the river or vacationing, you deserve the best.

Beans: I start with good whole beans, Starbucks is my favorite for camp coffee. I usually get Italian roast but have used their specialty dark roast coffees as well.

Grind [Important!]: Get it ground for a percolator, not a drip maker. Whenever I ask for this at Starbucks the staff usually looks at me like I have a chicken on my head. These young people have never seen a percolator. Rodger Dudley at the Smiths in Jackson, however, knows exactly what I am asking for and gets it perfect every time. If you don’t have a Rodger, and you get that look ask for the french press grind setting.

Storage:

Keep your ground coffee in a tight fitting container and in a cupboard out of the light. I use a Tupperware container. The small green container contains the filters.

 

Good water:

For a weekend camp I fill a one gallon Tupperware container with filtered water from my house tap. I am fortunate to have good tap water. For longer camps I use bottled water, I buy enough gallon jugs to make coffee every morning.

Filters:

They do make filters for percolators, get some. Put a filter in the empty basket before adding the grounds, then another on top the grounds, before putting the lid on the basket. this contains most the loose grounds and makes cleanup much easier.

Round Filter

Filter on top and bottom

Measure [Important!]:

Tastes vary, I like strong coffee and camp at high altitude. Start with one rounded scoop (tablespoon) per 8 ounces of water. If your coffee has good flavor but is to week or too strong adjust your ratio of grounds to water accordingly.

Lightly tap the grounds so they are even in the basket but you do not want to compress the grounds.

Please reply below with your beans, ratio of water and grounds, percolating time, an altitude.

Time the percs [Important!]:

Use a high flame but not one coming up the sides of the pot. Once it starts percolating, perc for 3 to 5 minutes. No more than 5. I need 5 minutes at high altitude, however if you are camping at sea level 3 minutes should be sufficient.

  • If your coffee tastes watered down it needs another minute or two of percolating time.
  • If your coffee tastes bitter or burnt it needs less percolating time.

Your coffee pot will be hot! Have a hot pad ready when pouring your cup of joe.


Keeping it hot:

You can either put the coffee in a thermos or reheat on stove as needed. If reheating on stove DO NOT boil and especially do not re-percolate.

Cleaning:

Be sure to wash your pot after every use, getting any old coffee grounds and film out of the pot. The filters help contain most of the grounds, I use a paper towel to wipe away the rest of the grounds into the trash, then wash all the parts in hot soapy water.

  • A straw cleaning brush works great to clean the tubes if they get icky.
  • Avoid getting grounds into your gray tank.

Straw cleaning brush

Ready for next brew

 

More tips:

  • Coffee comes out better if I get it ready to put on the fire before I go to bed.
  • Coffee always tastes better when made to drink with a friend.
  • If all else fails, add some Baily’s

Enjoy!

 

Please reply with your beans, ratio of water and grounds, percolating time, an altitude.

 


I was a Teenage Band Geek

Wednesday, August 1st, 2018
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I remember sitting with a music teacher talking about instruments when I was in 5th grade, I vaguely remember holding a clarinet but I ended up playing the flute because my cousin Audry had one she no longer played, and that is what my parents could afford. The first tune I ever played was Hot Cross Buns, my mom says I practiced it all the time, I don’t remember that. I do remember practicing my flute sitting on my bedroom floor, legs crossed, and music on the floor. Perhaps the fact that practicing my flute was fun, not like homework, is why I don’t remember how much i did it.

A few weeks prior to starting my Freshman year at Azusa High School, marching band rehearsal started. I don’t remember being bothered that band cut my summer vacation short. My very first performance with the Azusa Aztec Marching Band was marching onto the field of Angel Stadium in Anaheim to open a Dodger game with the Star Spangled Banner. I was hooked!

The Azusa Aztec Marching Band was good, we won many awards. I had to memorize all my marching music, I still remember what our competition marches were. My Freshman year it was was Army of the Nile, the first march I memorized and as I type this I can her it in my head. French National Defile March my Sophomore year, “today-today-today, not tomorrow-tomorrow-tomorrow”. And The Southerner my Junior Year, (I might have my Junior and Sophomore years mixed up). We played the Southerner March in the community band a few years ago, it was fun playing one of our old marches. Except my 50+ year old eyes and the tiny little notes on that 6 3/3 x 5 piece of paper, I had to enlarge my copy so I could read it.



Azusa High School Marching Band plays “King Karl King”, by Henry Fillmore in SCSBOA parade competition. The recording is from a reel to reel tape converted over the years to cassette then CD then mp3. The performance is from November, 1973 and the photo is of the band that season.

 

Concert band was 5th period and marching band was 7th period (after school), we practiced halftime shows and did drill downs, but mostly did a lot of marching up and down Rockvale Avenue. Our rows, files, and diagonals had to be perfect, and my flute had to be parallel to the ground. A typical fall weekend would consist of a Friday night pep band at the football game, followed by T-Ping houses (for luck), then a Saturday morning marching band review. There was that infamous TP job of 1976… But that’s another story.

Because we were a competition marching band the uniforms had to be perfect. We had white shoes with white bottoms. We had to scrub the bottoms of our shoes with Comet to get them white before every parade, only to step in horse poo during the a parade, (I hated parades with horses!) The uniforms were hot and sweaty wool, with tall white fuzzy hats. The hats looked like a Q-tip and all our hair had to be tucked underneath, band moms would walk around as we were warming up and tuck pose strands in with a Rattail Comb and the spray with Aquanet.

Traveling to the band reviews was a blast, we got up early Saturday morning, loaded our gear, put on our uniforms, and bused to places like National City, Long Beach, Arcaida, and many more. During the parade we performed our best, and after we finished the parade we loaded back on our bus and changed into street cloths. Under our wool uniforms we wore socks, underwear, (girls wore a bra), and a cut off white tee, that was it. After the parade our cut off tee was usually soaked with sweat. We all changed on the bus together, boys and girls, ad took our sweaty tee shirt off. It wasn’t weird though. Our underwear showed no more than a bathing suit, and we were excited to get the the activities and the awards ceremony.

The Maytime Band Review in National City was our yearly overnighter. Each year the “prank” was everyone flushing their toilet at the same time to “flood” the bottom floor. It was funny until I got the bottom floor. No flood. Hmmmm.

Sometimes before the awards we had some free time to watch the other bands or do activities. At the All Western Band Review in Long Beach we were able to visit the Pike. I remember riding a big Ferris Wheel, it was dark and we could see the Queen Mary all lit up in the harbor. I rode that old Cyclone roller coaster too, It closed a couple years later. That same year they found a corpse inside a wax dummy in the “Laff in the Dark” ride while filming an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Thankfully I did not ride that one. For the award ceremonies all the marching bands piled into the Long Beach Arena and waited to hear if we won and award, Azusa often did, there was a lot of cheering and screaming at the top of our lungs.



Not all of the parades were band reviews, and those had horses. We would do a parade at Disney Land every year, the Azusa Golden Days Parade, and I think there was one or two others. If there was a pile of horse poo in the road we had to stay in rank and file and step in it. Did I say I hated parades with horses?

Back lot of Disney Land

When marching we had to remain focused on staying in form and on the music, looking around was not allowed. Faces forward. At one of our Disney trips my Grandma and Aunts happened to be there and were yelling a big hello to me, I didn’t look. The band was loud, I don’t remember hearing them either. She later told my parents how I ignored them. I always thought that was funny.

At the end of my Junior year my Dad got a job for Inyo County and we moved to Bishop, California. I liked our new life but missed the competition from the band reviews. Bishop’s band was different and focused on the concert band. No band reviews and only one or two non competition parades a year. We did take week long a trip to Simi Valley for a concert band competition and tour the Hearst Castle.

Bishop marching band did a drill down while rehearsing for an upcoming parade.There was one other member of the Bishop band who moved from a large school, He and I were the last two standing. A drill down is basically a competition within a band to follow the drum majors exact commands. If you fail to accuracy perform the command you fall out of line and stand on the side at attention. Last member standing wins. I don’t remember who won but I never got to the final 2 in Azusa!

Being in High School Band holds some of my best memories from high school. Yup, I was a band geek.