4th of July Parade History with Jim and Carol, Part 2

Don't close it in the morning

Double URJN

We found that out for sure, Jim. Two years ago, when we did an in-person program at the Golden Rondell, it was called Summer in the City, and it had four parts like Kitty Land and it had the parade. And we saw from Gene Irons, which we'll talk about later this year.

Many, many pictures of our drum and bugle cars and the floats. And we found out we are not exaggerating as baby boomers when we say this was the heyday of these beautiful musical groups and the floats.

But coming over here today, I was thinking that of us three sitting here in the studio, I have never been in a parade.

Jim, I know you have been in many parades.

We've got to jam you in the rumble seat next time.

Just so I can say, I've been in one.

We'll get Lou Bergenny's classic car. We'll stick you in the shoehorn you into the rumble seat.

And we know that Don was just in the parade time. So tell us what it's like to be in a parade.

Well, it's, you know, it's, I've been in a million parades, but it's, you know, it's nice when you're traveling every yelling at you and throwing your stuff.

I got American flag. I got a bag full of bacon from the Main Street bakery.

You did?

Yeah, it's letting him in.

It has been the main thing.

It could be a bag full of bacon.

So many fans.

Yeah.

Let's face it.

The throwing bacon at me.

Ladies throwing their underwear.

It was like a Tom Jones concert.

No tomatoes though.

No, no, no.

It's very nice.

It's a classic car.

It's not as comfortable as, you know, being in, you know, a brand new car.

Yeah.

But it looked good.

Oh, it's a good looking car.

It's very nice.

And Lou Bergenny is very nice to let us use his car.

And it's nice.

You know, you see all these people in the parade ride.

You see people you know come running up to the car.

And they haven't seen them in years.

It is.

It's very nice.

Yeah.

We were behind the Ghostbusters car.

Oh, okay.

And I heard the same Ghostbusters theme for two hours.

Still thinking.

But they were good.

They had the whole, you know, the packs on the back and everything.

They had the ghost, the Ectocard and they had all this stuff.

They were good.

Yeah.

And this year we missed it because of the rain.

How was it for you?

What do you, the wicked witch?

You get a melt in the rain?

Come on.

So you weren't in a convertible.

So you didn't get wet.

Well, we had the window down.

You can get wet.

Well, my arm got wet to get out the window.

But big deal.

I mean, it's a little warmer.

Yeah.

And now it was good.

When you're a star, you got a show up.

You know, we had no air conditioning in the car, though.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

So it was a lot of wet.

It was nice.

I'm not complaining.

It was very nice.

Oh, my God.

It was good.

Maybe if we have time at the, we're at the end of our program.

You can regale us again on how, once you were the last person in a parade.

Well, that's when it was nine years old.

Yeah.

Well, we like, we like, you're that wonderful story once more.

Yeah.

So I'll have to just adjust to the fact that I'm the one that's never been in one.

You're never a beauty queen at one time?

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're all about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, now this 4th of July parade that we remember from the 50s and 60s.

Really, a heyday in, in Racine's history.

We talked last week, last month, and we talked about July 3rd, especially in those events.

But, Jim, I think, give us another little refresher about the festivities and how it started.

Back in 1931, there was intense labor strife between labor and industry in Racine.

Enter Ray Spencer, the retired president of Western Printing.

He asked for harmony when campaigning for mayor.

When he was elected, he immediately began working on a community project

that both labor and industry could work on together, and he was successful.

And that's how the goodwill celebration really began.

But a few interesting facts about it.

First of all, we never missed the parades since 1937.

Came close during COVID.

No, they still had like three, four years.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's why they can still say that.

And that's almost 90 years now.

That's right.

I did the math.

Yeah.

You did, okay?

In your head?

No.

No.

Let's see.

We were told that the parade in the 50s and 60s was probably one of the best,

if not the best in the entire Midwest.

Also, it was never held on a Sunday.

And during the 40s, the earlier parades, it actually went from south to north.

Just the opposite for today.

So...

I've been thinking about that.

Yeah.

And how...

What a change.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We now had to watch the parade in the opposite direction.

Yeah.

I think we'd be extremely confused.

We get dizzy.

We work.

People passing out, ambulance is along the route.

The emergency rooms, trauma rooms, to be filled with people.

Yeah.

We would know what to do.

Yeah.

A few lawsuits here and there.

To the ambulance.

Yeah.

The parade must go.

You have to be sleeping with dogs.

All type of strange things are going on.

You know, I shouldn't take the time, but I've seen with friends.

After all the years of thinking that,

that Von Lake Avenue was one way.

Lake Avenue.

Mm-hmm.

Now it's two way.

Mm-hmm.

And I feel like I'm taking my life in my hands when I drive the wrong way.

Mm-hmm.

So conditioned.

Just stay on the right side.

Do you want to have a problem?

That's what I do.

Stay on the sidewalk.

Yeah.

Well, the excitement, we can all relate to the excitement before we really go to

the music and the floats and more minor things, but important of the parade.

But the excitement.

We touched on that last month, too.

Now, I find myself in memories thinking of the night before the July 3rd,

waking up that morning and at the parade with hot weather.

Loved it as a kid.

Bright blue sky, hard to sleep the night before trying to get a breeze.

But in talking this over, Jim, I guess you had the experience.

Oh, yeah.

Rain.

Wind.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But this goes back, you know, 60 years or so.

You survived, though.

Oh, yeah.

Well, like Don said, we're not going to melt.

Yeah.

Oh.

And then, in a while, what a while.

And then, you know, you know, with someone understand this,

where to sit.

Now, this is a conversation and a plan.

Yeah.

That influences every single family.

Do you sit on the east side?

Is that too shady?

Do you sit on the west side?

Is that too sunny?

Do you sit near a tree?

Under a tree?

Do you take how many chairs today?

But in the past, you and I discovered Jim.

Lightweight chairs are a modern invention.

We took blankets pretty much to the parade.

Sure.

We can see in photos.

Yes, the crowds were really, really thick.

But a lot of people actually stood.

The pictures are people's and the men in white shirts and pants.

Yeah.

Semen ties.

The door hats.

Right.

Yes.

Yes.

So it was a big thing about where to sit.

How did it soon to get there?

That's another thing.

I guess today, now, it's a 5 a.m.

A 5 a.m.

Where you can save.

Right.

You're dead.

When was your dead?

Yeah.

He was always reserved a little spot by high in Maine.

My mother would drop him off at five in the morning.

At five.

Yeah.

He had was a blanket which he put on the curb.

So that's where my sister and I and him sat.

But we found a blanket.

We live on the parade route.

Yeah.

And we get up at about 4.30.

We line up the chairs on our front lawn with the rope.

And then exactly at five, we move them out.

To preserve our property out there.

But I've seen people set up at a quarter to five.

And the cops can buy and say move, move, move.

They can't make any exceptions because that everyone's going to do it.

That's true.

Move, move, move.

Yeah.

But we always preserve it for our relatives and friends who want to sit in our property.

Sure.

And you use our bathroom, eat us out of house and home.

You have things like that.

You really live in a great location.

Oh, yeah.

You like that on the 4th of July.

You got to put up with a fireworks traffic at night.

And you can't move loud noises.

So it's a wonderful living on the instrument.

Well, some of the features that we remember that we know music and floats.

Our primary in our memories.

But we would start out with officials and dignitaries.

And you and I, Jim, both re-recollected Senator William Prox.

Oh, yeah.

He was always in it.

He was well-elected over and over.

And he always had that sandwich board with his name on it.

Yes.

Right.

I have a picture of him at the Milwaukee Zoo.

And my daughter was just like a few months old.

And he took a picture holding her, having on my phone.

But he always had that sandwich board.

Senator Prox, William Prox.

Yeah.

He walked around with it.

That's right.

Well, I think most of us were pretty proud of him.

Oh, yeah.

And his golden fleece award.

Oh, he'd be giving out 20, 30 a day in Washington, Maryland.

He was ready to embarrass anyone.

And started something really.

I liked it.

He was good.

Yeah.

Alan Gifford was another fixture.

He was a prayed marshal on a horse for many, many years.

He had his flag with him a large flag.

He's the guy who won't progress of dairy.

But there were a lot of horses in that parade.

I remember because we had a watch where we stepped when we were marching.

You know, the Meisterbrow brewery in Chicago brought some claysdales at one time.

It wasn't anhyzer bush.

It was actually the small brewery in Chicago to Meisterbrow.

Miller eventually bought them out.

But they had their claysdales there for at least one time.

Another thing, Jim, we always looked for the beauty queens.

Oh, yes.

And Miss Goodwill, because we'll talk more that was the organizer of the festivities.

But I don't know if we ever had Alice in Dairyland.

But we had beauty queens, including now your sister Kathy.

Oh, yes.

Back in 65, she was on a float.

Miss Crout Festival.

It's our craft festival.

Only in the Midwest.

That's right.

Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that's it.

Oh, Marywell.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Then, of course, we had Don Hudson, the car dealer who would donate his convertibles for the guests.

They had the polished chrome, the pastel colors like salmon and aqua.

They were huge cars with those humongous fins.

Maybe desolder or Cadillac or Lincoln's, but they were very, very prominent.

And we remember talking about the big cars that some of our in-person presentations like

for the outdoor.

Oh, yes.

With the big trunks.

Yeah.

Perfect for hiding food for the outdoor.

The entity outdoor, right?

Mm-hmm.

And do that nowadays.

The man on stilts.

Yep.

Wondering, how can he do this?

And don't let him fall.

Yeah, for two and a half miles.

Yeah.

And we had the clowns, loved the clowns.

Mm-hmm.

Then we had the unicycle man.

Yeah.

And we had the man on the high wheeler who you knew Jim, I think.

That was Jim Fini.

And he did that for many, many years, sure.

And we'd look for these parts of the parade.

Correct.

And then I was always looking at those baton twirlers.

Because I had a baton.

I could hardly twirl the thing.

I could twirl a baton, but I can't throw it up in the air.

20 stories and catch it.

Yeah.

While you're still in beat.

And do it?

Yeah.

Right.

I can throw it over time, though, but I can't catch it.

Yeah.

I know.

So, you know, suspense as you watch these talented girls

was going to turn out.

You got a balloon story, right?

I do have a balloon story.

Okay.

You know, I...

Here I am, 77, still remembering this like it was yesterday.

Most women don't tell their age, Carol.

Oh.

We don't know if that's a real age.

Do they lie about their age?

Yeah.

We've got to cut her open and count the rings to be sure.

Oh.

Cool.

Well, anyway, at the parade, I got, when I was maybe like, let's say, seven.

I got an unusually beautiful balloon.

I knew it.

I...

It was rare.

It had silver on it.

And unusual in that today, their balloons everywhere.

But it really wasn't so many, many years ago.

They were so special.

Well, guys, I had to survive this.

About four or five in the afternoon, I was in my parents' home.

No, no, don't tell me.

It's coming.

No.

It's coming.

I let it go.

And there, it went.

And at first, you think I could catch it in a second, you know?

It's gone.

I was so sad about that balloon.

I still remember it.

And poor, some poor schnuck who's walking in Delaware down a street.

I came home with your balloon.

Well, he was walking.

Yeah.

The most beautiful balloon in the world.

It went away.

I feel a little terrible.

Oh, no.

I know.

I had to survive.

But that does bring us to the major bands, the music.

The music.

No.

My dad was in the Racine band, which was called the park board band at the time.

Yeah.

And oh, I went to so many band concerts at the zoo on Sunday afternoons.

And people were really, I saw your dad.

I saw your dad.

And that was pretty, pretty exciting.

The park board band at the time, they had more of a...

The military is kind of a maybe too strict to describe it.

But John T. Offer Cook was the director for many years.

A highly esteemed director, teacher, musician, and recene.

He wore a off-white uniform.

But he had this band crisp.

The uniforms were the bright red wool, highly detailed.

Caps, black shoes.

And like at the concert, you could not tap your foot.

You know, you had to sit in a certain posture.

So when I think of the park board band and my dad, red and crisp,

the high school bands, which were minus case and not built yet.

And then when we think of who was in purple, purple that Racine Elks.

Racine Elks.

Beautiful, purple uniforms.

So all was known.

Yeah, that was a band, not a drum corps.

Right.

Now Jim, you were in the drum corps.

So tell us all about that.

Well, little Jimmy in the band.

Yeah.

We have little Carol losing her balloon.

Now, little Jimmy's in the band.

My turn now, yeah.

Well, in the parade, we had a number of Racine Drummapuega corps marching.

The boys of 76, of course, the kiltees.

Who we all know.

Kilti cadets, which was really a feeder corps for the kiltees.

Racine Scout Corps and their feeder corps at Junior Scouts.

The ambassadors, New Dawn, New Day, and a few more.

We also had many corps from outside the Racine area.

And they were here because of the competition on July 3rd, the night before.

So what they did, they spent the night here, whether it was in private homes or schools,

school gyms or dormitories, but they all marched into fourth of July parade.

Some of the well-known corps at the time were the Chicago Cavaliers and Norwood Park Imperials.

Skoky Indians, Madison Scouts, Casper Troopers,

A Cedarburg Thunderbolt, St. Matthias Cadets, even the Kenosius shoreliners, and so many more.

But we had a ton of drummapuega corps back in the parade at that time.

Now, when I was in the corps, we marched in all kind of weather, Don.

Hot, cold and windy, rain, you name it.

Snow.

No.

Remember that?

Pleasers, ice storms.

It was a lot easier.

Right.

Yeah.

Buegos could take some rest periods because they had to rest their lips, but the drummers had to keep playing.

And you were the drummer?

Yes, for a while.

I was telling you, Jim and Carol, I'd like to be that guy in the kiltees.

Just the stick with the ball at the end.

I could do that.

I could march with that.

That way I don't have to play an instrument, then that's to worry about the music.

He just has to just be part of the show.

This carry that stick with the tennis ball at the end of it.

That's pretty good.

And look pretty.

Okay, we left off.

Little Jimmy was in the parade with his, what corps was that?

You were seeing Scout Corps.

The Scout Corps.

In the parade.

By the way, just for the heck of it, what you do when you weren't in the parade.

The Scout Corps.

Studied.

We were up to sticks together trying to start a fire with you.

We had really, we were called the Boy Scouts, but we had really nothing to do with the Boy Scouts.

It was just for the Scout Corps and that was it.

Officially, we had ties with the Boy Scouts.

Well, we never went to Boy Scout meetings or anything like that.

I was in the explorers.

It's in the Boy Scout.

Yeah.

But we were at the radio station.

There was the explorer post at the radio station.

We didn't do anything.

We showed up, played records and played with the equipment.

Yeah, fun.

We've got our explorers badges and everything.

Yeah.

You can do anything.

They said, well, don't you go to meetings and learn how to, you know, folklore and all that.

We don't do any of that.

We've got to go to the Beatles and Dave Clark five.

That's what we learned about that.

Go ahead, I'm sorry for you.

Well, marching in the Praiders, there was a couple of unofficial rules you had to go by.

One, you had to keep in step.

If you were out of step, you were told.

So one thing you had to do was just keep in step.

Another thing was watch the street ahead of you because we followed many a horse.

So yeah, it's the last thing you wanted to do.

I see it now in the parade.

Oh, yeah.

Those dancing horses don't want to be behind those.

No, no.

He used to have somebody called what was it?

They had a title for, you know, sweeping up that stuff.

Mr. Pickup or something like that.

I would hear a, you know, a microphone.

Mr. Pickup.

Mr. Polper Scooper.

Let's go.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

As far as fainting, I've only witnessed one person faint.

Really?

Yeah.

In the parade, I personally fainted once myself, Don.

But this was in Grand Haven, Michigan.

We were just standing at attention.

It was probably 90 degrees outside.

And I just went straight down.

And my color guard sergeant caught me and just put me down on the heat.

From the heat?

Yeah, from the heat.

I just went straight back.

And fortunately, he was there.

And I actually made the front page of the Grand Haven Tribune.

There was my picture lying on the ground.

Grand.

Yeah.

I still got that someplace.

And when it was really hot, we'd be given sips of, you know, water by an adult leader,

whatever.

We had to listen to our drum majors, though, for commands as to what song to play next.

Or in our case, we would sometimes go into the Iwo Jima maneuver,

which was a tremendous crowd pleaser.

We would stop everything and then all of a sudden go into that maneuver.

Holding the flag.

Holding the flag and everything.

What instrument did you play?

Well, I played drums for about three years and then switched over to color guard.

How did they switch the music when they're marching?

I mean, there's a little tiny booklets of music they have, like the trumpet players.

Right.

How did they switch the pages in there?

Well, no one ever had music.

This was all done by memory.

Oh, really?

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

But yeah, that was really a lot of fun to be in the parade.

What were some of your songs?

Oh, geez.

We had a song called Brazil.

Sweet Georgia Brown.

Brazilian.

Yeah.

A bullfighter.

We had a reunion march, maybe about 15 years ago.

And I said, well, sure, I can do it.

And my gosh, Don, halfway through.

You fainted again.

No.

I was ready.

Just calling quits.

But I had my pride.

I had to keep going.

I had to teach these young kids a lesson.

That, you know, us old-timers can still do it.

Well, the music, Jim, I mean, even you being part of it.

Yeah.

But here, sitting on the sidelines and waiting for the next band,

or waiting for the next drum and bugle core,

the music was incredible in the parade.

Sure.

Echoing coming from another block.

Oh, they're coming.

They're coming.

Yeah.

It still is.

Yeah.

It's wonderful.

Well, I guess it's time to turn to the floats.

Yep.

The music.

Talk about the floats.

And the floats.

Yep.

No.

And thinking back to two years ago,

when we were at the Randall, again, in person,

you and I had the privilege of getting a lot of black and white photos of the floats.

Yes, from Gene Arnold.

Yes.

And then your son worked to colorize them.

Mm-hmm.

So I guess I keep saying, were we correct in that we had beautiful floats?

Mm-hmm.

Well, maybe not the Rose Bowl, but looking at those pictures,

there was not a visible tire.

Sometimes there would even be the driver of the vehicle hidden in the float.

There must have been so much clay paper, solid, beautiful.

And another thing that we saw in the pictures,

it sounds so minor, but French.

French was used on every float completely around the bottom.

You could not see one tire.

Mm-hmm.

And then, what was the structure that was built on the float?

Maybe a very high throne for a beauty queen.

Every year, the parade had a theme.

They still do.

So, I will talk about it in a minute or two,

but maybe like a structure of a huge windmill,

a real like large windmill, all prepared.

Mm-hmm.

Or maybe there was one, a showboat.

The whole thing was like a huge Mississippi River floatboat.

We weren't exaggerating.

Maybe not flowers like the Rose Bowl,

but just as much clay paper.

We had a float when we were lining up on Augusta Street.

The float next to us was it got repelled.

It was a huge float.

Oh, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

When Matthew Briderick was on the float,

he jumped on that float in Chicago.

And they did the exact replica of it.

And I'm looking at this thing saying,

this was a lot of work.

They had a, first of all, get a picture of the float from the movie

and replicate it with all these kids on it.

Yeah.

From Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Tea.

It was pouring on these kids when we were lining up.

And they was soaking wet.

They didn't care.

But still, it was just amazing how they put this float together.

What a great effort and beautiful.

Well, we talked about Mayor Spencer

and in 1937, wanting goodwill among our citizens

instead of labor and union strife, especially business strife.

So the goodwill organization always had a major float.

And usually it did feature a miss goodwill.

But it set the pace for these elegant 40-foot long,

sometimes floats.

Then companies had came right into Mayor Spencer.

Jim, there were 20 companies at least that took part?

Well, all the photos that we saw,

I think we counted at least 20 different companies

that had floats at one time.

For example, Modine.

They had a couple different floats that we saw photos of.

One was this gorgeous lighthouse.

Another one was, you mentioned it before, Carol.

A windmill.

A twin disc.

I think they had the most floats.

They had a huge elephant that we saw.

A large pink whale.

And one of my favorites was an actual merry-go-round on that float.

But like Carol said, we saw so many photos of these floats.

When we were doing the Randell program,

we were just blown away as to the beauty of those old floats.

And now, I think it's time for me to say,

I did go online and put on just like recene floats 1950s.

If you search enough, there are maybe half a dozen pictures

that you can see.

So I hope our listeners go back now on Google

and eventually locate the site that will show a couple sites

that will show you a few of the floats.

I never understand how to see what Gima float, guys.

I don't know how they do that.

No, it's amazing, isn't it?

You're standing in that one position.

Yes. I never seen the move.

I'm sure they have the move.

No, no.

And they go that heavy makeup on.

No, Jim is going to talk about that.

But you know, we've seen Connie.

Can I step out of order?

Missing Connie, I just had a head a feature on a fellow.

Yeah, don't do that again.

A fellow, a man named Joe Irvin.

And they just did a feature.

Missing Connie, I, the newspaper.

And he has been doing that in participating in that float

for over 40 years.

And now his sons are taking part.

It's a great feature.

So look it up on Missing Connie, I, Joe Irvin.

Western printing during one of those years

had an anniversary.

And that float was exceptionally beautiful.

It was their 50th anniversary.

And so they had a lot in gold.

Walker manufacturing.

They're the ones that did a whole showboat as a float.

So now we've mentioned Modine,

when disc Western Walker,

Bell City Malibu Maligable was always in Hamilton Beach,

Massey Harris.

Jim.

Yeah.

And yeah, there were a few more to Webster Electric.

I was another one.

And most of these companies have moved on.

But they all participated back then.

There were a few more.

J.I.K.s.

Bell telephone.

The journal time.

Bell telephone.

My goodness.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then.

There's a plaster in the past.

Johnson.

S.E. Johnson.

J.I.K.s.

Who we's in one photo,

they were sponsoring the Iwo Jima float.

Darries, Jim.

Even the Darries.

Oh, yeah.

But you missed one.

Who did I miss?

The journal time slash WRJN.

I think I just said that.

Did you say that?

Yeah.

I didn't hear that.

My ears were to perk up at WRJN.

Goodness.

Goodness.

I'm in my own world over here.

Yeah.

We had the Darries participate.

Progressive Darry had a beautiful float,

as well as Mary Gold.

And the third one.

Carol.

First boardens.

And I loved that one.

That I think is online too.

I'll see the cow.

Who was big.

Yeah.

And yellow daisy.

So this float was all yellow and white pulled by a yellow

and white Ford Fairling.

We're in the home stretch with Carol,

Jim and Jim to see.

We're talking about the history of the 4th of July parade

on WRJN this morning.

Well, let's go what we left out.

We were talking about the floats.

Yes.

Another float came from, actually a few of them,

from the various business areas.

Elmwood Plaza had their own float.

I remember we saw a picture of a butterfly float.

It was just, was it one big butterfly, Carol,

or a bunch of smaller ones?

I think there were a bunch of butterflies.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uptown had a float.

That was a ton of red hearts.

Right.

West Racine for Western days, a covered wagon.

And downtown all of us had floats.

One year, excuse me, they actually had though,

I don't know, live elephants,

because they were going to sponsor a circus day in the future.

But these beautiful floats,

lo and behold, starting in 1936,

a man named Charles Arnold,

with his family,

started doing the floats

for the companies and organizations,

mainly the companies in their garage.

Eventually, they moved to a location

on State Street near the bridge.

But Charles Arnold and his family,

he did the floats until 1976,

when he did retire.

So the fringe, the cray paper, the designs,

we owe an awful lot to the history of Charles Arnold

and his family.

Yep.

And we still have those two emotional stunning floats

that Don mentioned.

And he started the Iwo Jima float.

Charles Arnold, I do it.

Yeah.

Iwo Jima and the Spirit of 76,

or Boisa 76 floats.

They are great crowd pleasers.

Everybody just stands up and claps when they go by.

Of course, the World War II Iwo Jima float

that commemorates our victory in Iwo Jima.

And we can see the Marines,

you know, raising the American flag.

Likewise, with the Boisa 76,

or the Spirit of 76,

that's a two-sided float,

honoring our revolutionary war heroes.

And this is true about the bronze paint,

but not moving.

And how do they stay still?

And in difficult poses,

my back would be killing me.

I don't know how they're doing.

For like how many miles and hours?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It brings tears from both eyes.

There must be a part where they change position.

It's gotta be.

I just don't know where it is.

Yeah.

I've never seen them go at ease, but they must.

They would have to.

Oh, there.

Look at you.

Military term.

At ease.

I'm up on these things.

Sergeant Carol.

At ease.

Yeah.

Right.

Now, the Kaliope,

when we were, again,

back to the Rondell presentation

and learning so much two years ago,

the Kaliope, actually,

along with the World War floats,

has been with the parade

about since the beginning.

And it pulls the parade together at the end,

you know, the unusual music.

But we found out that

the committees that keep good notes

that have had the parade history

and ran it through all the years,

they have a special feeling for the Kaliope.

And at one time it was in disrepair we learned.

And it was brought back to life

at probably great effort,

maybe great expense.

And it's stored very carefully

so that we still have the Kaliope

as an item from the past.

I mean the Kaliope.

The Kaliope.

At the layman's term for it.

Yes.

Yes.

Did we have that at our Rondell program,

the Kaliope?

I think we did have an outside under the,

yes, we had it there.

Sure.

Underneath the particle there.

Yep.

That's right.

And then we can't forget,

once the parade was over,

the music, the floats,

we did have afternoon picnics.

Lately I was thinking about North Beach

and rolling down the hill.

Kids would picnic and we'd roll down that big hill.

And we still had the carnival

and we had the fireworks at night.

So it was a marvelous experience.

And originally the carnival

with the rides and the fireworks

that was held at Washington Park

before they moved the fireworks

to the lakefront as well as the carnival.

But, and now let's give a little preview

about next month.

Yes.

Yeah.

Perfect weather.

Well, we are going to do,

going to the beach.

What do we call that?

Sonning and...

Well, that's going to be in our,

in our in-person program.

That's sure.

As come later in August.

Right.

We already got a title for August.

Okay, so August 25th.

Is in the in-person.

7 p.m.

Yes.

Which church again?

Living faith.

Right.

Right now.

Right.

Okay.

Free, open to the public.

Mm-hmm.

And you are going to,

what's the topic?

The beach?

The beach.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Well, it's going to be called

swimming and sunny.

Swimming and sunny.

Meaning, we already at the Rondell

back to the Rondell.

Two years ago,

I had included Washington Park pool

and you and Terry went to that site.

We did it here.

And we did it on the radio.

Yeah.

But...

I was so sad going back to these places.

Even Kittyland.

I was so sad going back.

So, due to Jim's family contact,

we now have the pictures

that were filling all the time

with the Washington Park pool.

They are animated.

Would you call it animated?

They move.

Yeah.

Because they are.

Yeah.

So, the pictures that we did show

that were colorized.

I still shot.

Now move.

Yeah.

So, we can see people jumping off this island.

Mm-hmm.

We can see people on the sand moving.

So, we feel that it was worth bringing it back.

But then, that's the swimming.

Then we've got the sunning.

We lived at the beach.

Especially junior high

and then high school after work.

So, the beaches were going to...

That's our in-person swimming and sunning.

The pool and the beach.

What about here next month?

That's going to be just the beach.

Going to the beach.

Yep.

Can't do sunning.

Yep.

Can't do sunning.