The LODB started the new year by playing at the Angel River Health and Rehabilitation Home in Newburgh for recuperating band member Carl Zimmerman, who had recently had life-changing surgery. They played the Really Big Show again for ARC and helped Castle High School alumni celebrate their 50th anniversary, as well as ITT celebrate its 50th. They helped ease ODCB member Mark Taylor’s father into eternity with its second Dixieland funeral. They played again for all the area nursing homes, whose residents benefit from their generosity on a regular basis.
Geniece Snow
If ever there is an inspirational musician story, Geniece Snow’s story is it. Geniece joined the ODCB when she moved to Newburgh to be near her son who was very ill at the time. She brought her flute which she had mastered so many years before, to us because she heard the band playing “Stars and Stripes Forever” at an outdoor concert,. She joined the ladies in the front row, adding her talent and quiet wit to the band. Within a very short time, all that would change.
Geniece had rotor-cuff surgery on her left arm and was recovering, although recently diagnosed with the same form of leukemia that had killed her son. Then, after a routine iron infusion in her right hand, she contracted a series of infections that almost killed her. She was left with a decision to undergo amputation of her right lower arm, and, with it, lost the ability to play her beloved flute.
This remarkable lady, though, did not lose her ability to play music, nor her desire to contribute to the band. She took up the only instrument she could… the French horn… an instrument she had played only briefly in grade school. She took lessons, bought a horn, and came back to us to join the guys and gals in the third row. She has a “modified” horn, which surprises people sometimes when they see the glove she leaves in the bell, but she has the humor to go with it, and the guts and determination to unpack her own horn and put together her own stand, as well as driving herself to practice and going out to dinner with the flute section or sometimes to “Archie and Clyde’s” to celebrate another good rehearsal with anyone who wants to go.
We in the ODCB are honored to have this truly nice lady in our organization. Geniece, you leave us all humble as well as inspired. By “golly“, if you can do this, we can surely practice and perform as well as we can. We can have fun without complaining about the petty differences in our lives and abilities and personalities. We can appreciate what we have. We do appreciate you, as well as admire you, and thank you for sharing your ongoing talent every Tuesday with us.
Carl Zimmerman
Carl’s story, too, is inspirational. Carl is the anchorman for the sax section, playing his tenor down at the end of the row every Tuesday evening. He also wails that sax with the Little Old Dam Band all over the area. But, Carl also lost something in these last few years. He lost his leg, also to an infection, and spent several months recuperating in a rehab hospital and a nursing home.
Carl, too, is back with us again. And he, too, lives his life as we all should, with quiet enthusiasm and unfailing determination. So we thank you, too, Carl, for sharing your talent and yourself with us all these years.
The big band again had several concerts at the Ohio Township Library and downtown at the courtyard on the corner of State and Jennings. Former Castle band directors John Sakel, John Wittenbraker, Tom Listenfelt, Larry Eifler, and Jack Schernekau helped James Leslie and Jerry Reese direct concerts that Spring, and we enjoyed their various styles and learned so much from all of them. Those concerts also acknowledged Jerry Reese as our new director and the new Castle South Middle School as our practice venue. What a blessing both have proved to be. We thank the Castle School System for allowing us to practice in their schools and providing these modern practice rooms for us! We are really “uptown” now!
Jerry Reese
MISTER Reese, as he is known around these parts to anyone younger than 40 or so… because he taught everyone or their kids at Castle High School… came to us in 2009, surely sent directly from a higher power. He came to us to direct and stayed to teach. This man is a marvel. Just ask anyone who has ever known Jerry.
Jerry was born in Sandford, Indiana, a little town just across the Illinois state line, and attended West Vigo High School and Indiana State University at Terre Haute where he received his bachelor and master’s degrees in music education. He has taught at Pike HS in Indianapolis and Pioneer HS near Logansport, before coming to Castle Junior High in 1978. After a couple of years there, he moved on to legendary status as director of bands at Castle High School where he took that huge band to class A state finals 9 times.
Probably everybody in this area knows Jerry in one capacity or other, and surely most of his students or former students, which includes a lot of area musicians by now, appreciate what he has done for them and for music in Newburgh. He plays euphonium and loves percussion, but his real specialty is writing and arranging music. He teaches now at Castle South Middle School, judges band contests all over the area, and directs the Old Dam Community Band!
Jerry and his wife, Chandra, who met when she was the auxiliary (flag girls and baton twirlers) teacher, have a married son and live in Newburgh. When Jerry gets up on the podium in front of us on Tuesday nights with his baton, we know how fortunate we are that they ended up in our area so many years ago!
We appreciate this man at every rehearsal and every performance. Jerry is a born teacher, and, as he directs us, he teaches us. I guess he enjoys us. I hope he does. Because we certainly enjoy band with him at our helm. And we get better as we learn from this wonderful music teacher. Thank you, Jerry, for each and every rehearsal.