It's always Father's Day at the festival

Publication Date: 06/16/02

By EVELYN GANDER
Staff Writer

Five-year-old Michael Fisher has a one-of-a-kind
Father's Day present for his dad today.

"Michael actually wrote Daddy a book," said his mom, Kirsten Fisher. "Like every page was something they did together: 'Dad and Michael went camping together'...'Dad and Michael played T-ball.'"

On a picture-perfect Saturday morning at the start of the Great American Brass Band Festival, the little boy from Huntsville, Ala. could have drawn a brand new page in that special edition book -- Dad and Michael on Father's Day.

With crayons and construction paper, Michael could set to work. At the bottom of the page, he would color in the red brick walkway and green grass of Weisiger Park. Just to the right, he might draw the lines of a park bench perfect for sitting, listening to music, talking with friends. A little farther over on the page, Michael could draw a square for a blanket just the right size for a mom and a dad, two youngsters and two yellow balloons.

And in the space right in the middle, Michael would draw his mom, his little brother James and himself all lined up listening to his dad, playing the baritone saxophone with the Olde Towne Brass band in the gazebo.

In a life-size mural Saturday morning at Main and Fourth streets, fathers and grandfathers, old friends and families gathered in Weisiger Park, where the seven-piece brass band from Alabama struck up the music for the 13th annual Great American Brass Band Festival.

On a bench at just the right place to hear the music were long-time friends Ralph and Helen Saum and Bill and Dorothy Foster, all of Kettering, Ohio. "We're the groupies," said Dorothy Foster with a grin, as she and Helen Saum nodded toward their husbands who are life-long musicians.

Ralph Saum plays the clarinet and saxophone; Bill Foster the flute and piccolo. Long-time friends, the couples have been coming to the festival together for two years. "We charmed them into coming down," said Ralph Saum, a veteran of five Great American Brass Band Festivals.

The four no doubt would celebrate Father's Day with their families when they return home to the suburb near Dayton. This weekend, though, on a bench at Weisiger Park, the Fosters and Saums celebrated friendship and musicianship.

Being here, said Helen Saum, was a special way for her husband and Bill Foster to celebrate Father's Day. "I can't think of anything they'd rather be doing."

Ralph Saum smiled. "She's got that right."

In equally perfect pitch with the festival were Jennifer and Marshall Key and their youngsters, Vivian and Thomas. On a blanket about two rows from the Saums and Fosters, the Clarksville, Tennessee family were enjoying their third day in Danville after traveling more than four hours to be here Thursday.

"We're both band directors," said Jennifer Key, about her and husband's jobs at schools in Tennessee. The family planned to leave later Saturday in order to be with their own families in Tennessee today.

Being here this year, said Marshall Key, was a chance to come back to the music he heard when he first came to the festival in 1991. It was a chance for their family to be together, said he and his wife.

As she watched Vivian and Thomas holding tight to the ribbons on their yellow balloons, Jennifer Key smiled. "And the kids love the bands."

A little boy from Huntsville, Ala. would understand that. So would his dad.

After the band's performance Saturday morning, Mark Fisher remembered going to concerts with his father. He remembered his grandfather's career as a professional musician.

Bringing Michael and James to the Great American Brass Band Festival, he said, brings them to music and to history. "I think it's going to affect them all their lives."

Being here with his wife and their sons on Father's Day makes the music even sweeter.

"I think the neat thing is we're all together," said Mark Fisher. "We have fun together. That, to me, is very special."