Last night’s free outdoor concert featured the St. Charles Municipal Band in Frontier Park on the Missouri River. It was another beautiful evening to be outdoors listening to music. Ted and I noticed, however, that the concert skies are getting dark earlier as the season gets later.
The bandstand is on the left and the Missouri River is visible in the upper right.
The crowd was smaller than others we’ve seen and there was hardly anyone younger than 50 except that girl in the lower right. She probably came with her grandparents. The red arrow shows Ted; the blue one indicates Kilwin’s. Read on.
To be truthful, the band wasn’t that good, although there were moments when I thought the band members might have more ability than the music director / conductor gave them credit for. For starters, his tempos were the pace of a Missouri Synod Lutheran church organist. The musicians had plenty of time to read their music. No one danced. Frankly, I think the Oostburg High School band (an annual first place winner in AA state competitions back in my day) was better. Still, it was enjoyable to sit and listen.
During the slow times, we could watch the planes land at Lambert Field in St. Louis. (Look above the bandstand.)
I also had time to notice that, beneath the American flag, the small, dark, fluttering object was not a wind sock, but a tiny Missouri state flag. They couldn’t find anything bigger??!!
Ted and I were happily surprised to see that a former neighbor of ours plays clarinet in the band, and has done so for 35 years.
Ruth (our former neighbor) was one of the soloists during the Dixieland selections. After the concert, Ted and I played “groupies” and went up to the bandstand for a brief exchange of family news–hers and ours.
The “concert hostess” who introduced each selection informed the audience that Kilwin’s is a sponsor of the band and if we wanted some ice cream after the concert, Kilwin’s could provide it. (See the blue arrow in the crowd picture above.)
Ice cream sounded good and we’ve never been to Kilwin’s, so we stopped in after the concert.
It was a good night to join other after-concert ice cream fans on Kilwin’s outdoor patio. The ice cream was outstanding! We’ll be back for more.
It was a lovely night on the river banks. Did I mention that the band’s encore piece was “Down by the Riverside”?