I remember the first major trip we did with the Lejac Marching Band. It must have been 1964 or 65. We had already done a trip north to Dawson Creek, Taylor and Fort St. John. However this was our first venture south. We spent the first night in Pr. George at the Catholic high school.
We arrived in Kamloops early afternoon the next day where we let all the boys out for a wander in the city for a good leg stretch. The first thing I knew the boys were putting pennies and nickels into the parking meters just to see the arrow move up the dial. Of course the boys had never seen a parking meter, nothing like that in places like Tachie, Talka or McLeod Lake. The other big fascination was pigeons. As one of the boys said "Gee! Sure friendly bird" then proceeded to try and catch one. We ended up at the big Okanagan band tattoo. There were bands from all over BC including the Canadian Forces Band. The boys had perfected most of the moves developed by the RCMP Musical Ride. They did some rather complicated figure marching all done to the music they played, mostly Irish rebel songs. It was quite a site to see. In the stadium in Vernon the Canadian Forces Band members watched the Lejac band. They stood up and applauded about half way through the routine and remained standing until the boys were finished because they were so impressed with the performance. For me that was a very proud day. We also performed in Penticton and Kelowna. We were housed in the Armed Forces base in Vernon and ate in the cafeteria.
Another fond memory was our drive over the Hope Princeton Highway. We met and passed an old antique car with a rumble seat. A few miles later they passed us and all the boys started to encourage our bus driver to "catch ‘em up and pass ‘em back". This went on back and forth for quite a few miles.
The boys were also counting the rural mail boxes at the end of people’s driveways as this was also a new experience since there were no RR mail boxes up in our area at that time. They also had their first experience of fast food as we made a few stops at McDonalds and Dogs & Suds to feed everyone.
In Vancouver we gave each of the boys $20.00 and took them into Eaton’s department store. With Bruce McCormick in the lead and myself taking up the rear we took the boys onto the escalator and headed up to the sixth floor only to turn around and take them all the way down to the basement. We then set them loose to go and find a treasure to spend their money on. What an experience for a group who had never seen a building so large or ever ridden on an escalator.
We tried to take the boys to Marine Land in Stanley Park but unfortunately the park attendants were on strike. We did however manage to take the boys to the Vancouver Planetarium. As we sat there for the show it felt like it was night and they took the roof off the building and we were looking at the stars. I do believe a few of the boys fell asleep during the show.
All in all it was a wonderful experience for all, and a real eye opener for the boys.
