Hi Group,  I finally have everything put away and moved back to where it
belongs after the fun weekend at Sierra Madre, California, USA.  I of
course enjoyed seeing and hearing all of the instruments.  Seven of us
were in the Fourth of July parade with a variety of instruments.  If was
a great small town community parade.  There was a large turnout and they
seemed to appreciate the music.  I get a kick out of seeing the smiles
and looks of amazement on the peoples faces.  I really enjoyed watching
the kids dancing to the music as we went down the route with the
calliope.

The next day we assembled in Memorial Park to play all day.  Besides
getting the hear the instruments I got to meet a lot of MMD members.  It
was the first time that I had met Jody Kravitz and Robbie Rhodes the
Editors of MMD.  Jody met me, the author of so many HELP! why can't I get
the MMD messages.  I also got meet Pete Woodworth, Tom Steuer, John
Roache, and John McClellan.  I now have faces to put with the names I
have seen in the MMD.

David Wasson was also there but our paths never crossed.  I did see the
new truck that his organ "Trudy" is mounted in and heard his terrific
hand-cut arrangements.  Ralph and Gloria Schack were there and Gloria got
a little TV coverage on the evening news.  The Channel 5 cameraman spent
about 5 minutes tapping my calliope, Perlee book organ, and Wurlitzer
146A.  It all ended up on the cutting room floor.  Mike Ames' DeCap got a
few seconds as well as Lloyd Osmundson's Caliola, as an introduction to
the weather segment and under the weather statistics.

Jody asked if Robbie could hand play my Tangley CA-43 calliope.  I said
yes if I could video tape it.  So I now have a video of Robbie hand-
playing a nifty circus medley on my calliope.

I really had a good time and I think all of those who attended did as
well.  I would Like to thank Frank and Shirley Nix and Lloyd and Brooke
Osmundson and all of the others that year after year do all of the work
and planning necessary to put on these organ rallies.  I would also like
to thank the city of Sierra Madre the parade organizers, police, and
people could have been nicer.

Jack M. Conway, Los Angeles, California, USA

 [ Jody has some photo images of the event on the MMD Web site, too.
 [ -- Robbie