Summer In The City

I delivered B.C. to the Alpine Garage to retrieve his Jetta and to relieve him of $500.00 this morning at about 8:30. Since it is no longer my practice to drive up Main Street to 900 South today was a real treat. It took me back to the Summer of 1962. Our neighbor, George Ipson, was a big time Democrat. Lots of drag with the party and elected officials. He got me a great Summer job with SLC Parks Department.

Most kids pushed mowers all Summer. I worked on the paint crew. This was way up the food chain. I delivered paint and supplies to the paint crews in the various parks. Mostly I set up scaffolding. But it was outside, in the parks and it was the greatest job a 16 year old ever could have hoped for.

Driving up Main Street in my own freshly painted 1953 Chevrolet (midnight blue) made me king of the world. In the morning the air was clear and cool and I remember how the trees shimmered in the morning breeze. It still smells the same. We worked all day in the hot sun but because it was in the parks it was bearable. I worked with some nice people that Summer and felt special about being the driver. I really think none of the real painters had licenses. They were notorious drunks! Never the less, the time passed sweetly. Made about 90 cents an hour but gas was only 25 cents, and burgers and coke was about 15 cents.

I remember reading or napping during the lunch break (mostly napping). I had a pretty active social life that Summer. Paul, Max and I played the Trumpet Trio alot. We played at the Terrace Ballroom, Lagoon, and Winder Ward on Highland Drive (this is where Brian and Melissa are having their reception). We played on the same program with an unknown vocal group of little boys from Ogden. The Osmond Brothers. No kidding, I still have the program.

The most memorable trumpet job that Summer was playing the event calls at the horse shows at the Cottonwood Club in Holladay (now a golf course). I had to dress up in white nickers (short pants with long white socks), a brilliant red coat, an ascot and a funny black riding hat. Looked pretty bad but played the calls well and made $25.00 a night. Big money! I also gave about 20 trumpet lessons a week for Summerhays Music ($2.00 a half hour). I was really well off when I was a kid! At Granite!

In late August we played Buglar's Holladay with the S L Municipal Band in the old band stand at Liberty Park one Sunday afternoon. The place was packed (mostly our parents and friends).
Mr. Bill Sullivan played in the band. He was our private lesson teacher and he was the principal coronetist in the Utah Symphony. He told me years later - when Steve was taking lessons from him - that he told the guy sitting next to him that Sunday "to follow the boys, not the conductor because it would be one hell of a ride". When we finished the guy said to him what was that? Evidently we played it a little faster than most.

The conductor was my first private teacher when I was 8 years old. After the concert he told me he was the Director of the 23rd Army Band in the Utah National Guard. He invited me and the others to audition. We did and joined the army that Summer. It probably saved my life. I would have been a lousy jungle fighter in Vietnam.

Well it was a great Summer. I learned to water ski, fell in love with every girl I took out, worked alot and played more. The most important lesson I learned was how beautiful trees are and how lovely it is to lay under a majestic conifer on a lazy Summer morning and read, nap or just enjoy the sounds of the leaves, the mystical light filtering through the leaves and the soft moist grass underneath my then bony body.

Thanks B. C. for taking me to a place I needed to go.