Marching Band.........

I don't believe I have any archived photos of people playing musical instruments.  My three brothers played wind instruments.  This brother played a baritone and my older brother played the french horn.  Even though it was a french horn he did march in the Murray High School band.  I do think that my older brother Ron did have his photo taken at the same time as this one but I don't seem to have it in any of my boxes of photos.

My brother Rex shown above would practice his baritone horn in the upstairs bedroom with his window open.  The neighbor lady who was a few miles away claimed she could hear him while she was out hanging out her laundry on the clothes line.

The uniform, which was purple and white,  was fancy and each member was required to wear white dress pants.  The moms of the members were required to sew a purple cloth band down the side of the pants. With white shoes and a barrel tube hat with a brim, they looked really great.  They had ostrich feathers to stick into the top of the hat.

The practice times of the band when they were marching outside was at the same time as we had recess.  Students would line up and follow the band as they marched.  I am sure it looked like a good "Spanky and our Gang" type of movie with all those little urchins marching behind the high school band members.  I think it funny now that no one bothered to makes us stop doing that.  I would think the music instructor would have been out there but I guess the majorette was in charge of the band's practice. No teacher on duty either so it would have made for great chaos.

 The feather top notches are still used today by marching bands. As I do remember now that I do have a photo of both of my sons in band uniforms.  Unfortunately they are in photo form as the computer wasn't invented yet for private citizens to use.  Maybe I can put that on my lists of things to find when I do have some free time. I see many band hats, as we use to call them, are on sale on the internet. The photo has been swiped or borrowed from the sales site of ebay.

Those who are responding to the call of posting in SEPIA SATURDAY can be found by clicking on the Sepia Saturday name.  You will find others who are posting about musical things or maybe something else altogether differently than that.

Lookie, Lookie......

An old photo of four men who caugth some fish from the river. Times look tough so they will have meat on the table for supper.  My grandfather is the one who isn't wearing bib overalls.  I don't have any idea of who the other guys are but my grandfathers name was Leroy Martin Brown. The heavy eyebrows were inherited by a couple of generations beyond him.  I had a uncle and his son that did look like him on the family tree branch. My cousin Gerald looks like him now as he is older than probably than my grandfather in the photo back then.  Leroy died in 1937 from TB and is buried in Moon Cemetery near Macksburg, Iowa.

These three guys are all giving us that stare except for the young ones on the end.  The short guy is my Uncle Donald, my dad Jesse Burgus is the second one from the left. Uncle Ralph, Uncle Carl and then Uncle Cecil ends up the lineup. My dad was born in 1917 and if he looks 12 years old here it would date the photo as 1929. Ten years later he would be dating my mom and getting married and a couple of years later he was on his way to fight in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany.  These guys all had a German father and grandfather and a British mother and grandmother.

One more gaze from the Uncle Weaver Wheeler and his wife Ellen.  I could imagine him having a car as he seemed to do well in figuring out how to make money.  He and his wife lived away from the rest of the family up in Hardin County, Iowa.

It is number 301 posting for the group and I hope to see more posting from me.  It is a pleasure to share and to remember.  Visit others on SEPIA SATURDAY  by clicking on the name.  See all who have created blogs to join a group of people from all over the world. 

300 is Good!!!!

I started on Week 11.  I had to look it up.  I really didn't think that I could compete with the big ones who post so well and write so well, but I have hung in there.  I have stumbled a long the way and found life to be too busy to post.  I have always come back.  Not with the gusto that I once had but with the same interest that I had when I first began.

Family shots were my priority as I tried to organize and identify so many photos of my family's past.  The above photo is of my dad, creeping up on my two oldest brothers who are sitting in the yard.  As I look at it I am believe they are trying to get the boys to look at the camera and smile. The little girl is a first cousin that I have never met, lost because of a divorce, from family connections.  She and the guys are all older than me as I am not born yet in this photo taken probably in 1943.

The discoveries have been great, As I met blog deadlines I surprisingly found a photo of my grandparents visiting the Pacific ocean.  The took a train across the  United States to Oregon to visit their grandson. The boy is a year older than me and my grandfather died later in the year.  I never met him but Charlie was said to be a friendly old man.

I found a shot of two great great aunts.  They were my great grandmothers sisters.  I have only a newspaper copy of a reunion that my mom and others attend 70 plus years ago. The family name was Maxsun.

My Great Grandmother on my mother's side was Carrie Rosella Maxson Brown Driver. 

The two woman above are two of her sisters and the photo identifies them with their married names.  The woman on the left is Ida Roberts and on the right is Cara Brown. To have found this photo and it actually would be my Great great aunts is all amazing to me. 

Two other sisters were Jane Henderson and Ellen Boward.

There were also two brothers John Maxson and Walter Maxson.
That would make seven in total in the Maxson Family.

Because of this blog I was forced to find the facts and meet more family than I knew existed. 

Because of this blog I learned to tell the difference between my Grandpa Leroy Brown and my other Grandpa Charles Burgus. I use to confuse them and would put the wrong name on each.  This is my Grandfather Leroy Brown shown left.

 This is the photo of my Grandfather Charles Thomas Burgus. I never knew either one of them.  Grandpa Brown died of TB in 1937.   Grandfather Burgus died the year before I was born in 1949.

Sometimes my blog seems like a train wreck as I get started telling a story and it just plain derails before I am done.  I like that the purpose of the site is to share photos of the past and if one knows the history then you get to tell your story. I am so glad that I can post on the week 300.    Thanks for stopping by and check out the others who are posting on the 300th week anniversary.  Click on Sepia Saturday Posts and see what others are sharing.