Cremona Photo Player and Crow Fair, Tuesday, 8/26/14 and Wednesday, 8/27/14

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

It was in the forties this morning, but the afternoon was sunny and nice in the low seventies.  We were off work again today, and we went to Sheridan this morning for our last Montana chiropractic visit.  We returned to Virginia City at 10:15 a.m., and then Chuck drove to Ennis to get his truck detailed before we head back to Florida next week.  (We have love bugs in Florida in May and September, and their guts eat the paint off of any vehicle they are squished upon.  Therefore, Chuck wanted the truck to be ready with a good wax job.) 

Chuck dropped the truck off and then took about a two mile walk through downtown Ennis to the Madison River.  He spotted three deer along the way and then stopped at our favorite pizza restaurant for a bite of lunch.   

While Chuck was gone, Cindy spent a while doing laundry and boxing up some souvenirs and extra clothes in an effort to get a jump on packing for our trip home.  She also cooked an early supper of chicken parmigiana and broccoli with cheese sauce and had it ready when Elise and Chuck got home.   

At 6:30 p.m. we all walked over to the Opera House Theatre to see the live performance of “Dracula.”  The play selection and the performers were way better now at the end of the season than they were when we saw them their opening week.  After the play there was a fifteen minute interval, and then a series of vaudeville type skits ensued which we thoroughly enjoyed.  There is a 1914 Cremona Photo player organ installed at the front of the stage and it was amazing to hear it played.  In addition to piano keys it also plays the xylophone, flutes, drums, and tambourine and is the only one known to be in public use.   It was actually made to play silent movies and also had a player piano roll on it to play background music for the movie.  The sound effects and other music was played by an actual person sitting at the keyboard and watching the movie.  

 

We walked home at 9:15 p.m. and had a snack of milk and cookies before retiring for the evening.

Cremona Photo Player

 

 

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

 

It was beautiful weather today—clear and sunny in the seventies.  Chuck worked at the gold panning operation, but first he was called on to fix the train as the brakes were not working.  He got it fixed in short order and it only missed the first run of the day. 

 

Cindy worked at the Nevada City museum and it was slow all day.  However, the first customer of the day was a truck driver just passing through who wanted to see what Nevada City was all about.  He said that he is a Crow Indian and that his tribe celebrated the Crow Fair last weekend.  The Crow Fair was created in 1904 by an Indian government agent to bring the Crow Tribe of Indians into modern society.  It has continued every year and is held the third week in August on land surrounding the Little Big Horn River where Custer met his demise.  There are approximately 1500 teepees erected in a giant campground and the gathering attracts approximately 60,000 spectators.  The Crow Fair is similar to a County Fair and serves as a venue for the display of arts and culture.   Robert Yellowtail was a leader of the Crow Nation and great-grandfather to this gentleman who stopped in Nevada City today.  Cindy was regaled with several stories about Robert Yellowtail including one in which the visitor insisted that great-grandfather told him that John Wayne was a Crow Indian who lived with the tribe until age 13.  Supposedly a traveling circus came through the area and noted how talented and charismatic Wayne was in the part he played in the Crow Fair.  He was then offered a job with the circus and that is how he got his start in show business.  Cindy looked up John Wayne on the internet, but she could find nothing to support this fantastic story. 

 

We got off work and arrived home at 6:30 p.m.  Elise had warmed up some soup, and we made grilled tuna salad sandwiches to go with the soup.  After doing the dishes, we all headed over to the rehearsal hall to use the internet.