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By Larry Johnson, the band’s last director, October 6, 2018

Epilogue

But my story doesn’t end there. In a way, that’s where it begins. My high school director had been right about scholarship offers. I did get offers, and accepted one. Because of my circus band experience, I was appointed a student conductor of the college band as an incoming freshman. I remained in that capacity until I graduated. At the beginning of my Sophomore year, I was appointed cadet director of the R.O.T.C. band. I was the only non-senior to ever hold that position and I kept it for three years. Then, in 1966, I wound up as Commanding Officer of a Headquarters Unit at Ft. Polk, LA. My superior somehow found out I had band experience and assigned me to command the Post honor guard. I was only a Lieutenant, but I knew how to work with the Army Band that was attached to the Honor Guard. Ultimately, I was chosen to be troop commander for a ceremony which turned out to be the presentation of the Medal of Honor to the next of kin of a young soldier who had been killed in Vietnam. None of these things would have ever happened if it weren’t for the experience gained by playing in, and later leading, the circus band. It was the experience of a lifetime and one I shall always fondly remember.

The last chapter in this story was written in 2007. Gainesville built a new high school, and a new band hall, right after I graduated. Everything, including the music, was moved into the new band hall. During that decade (1960’s), the instrumentation of American bands changed. The adoption of French Horns in F, which took place at that time, rendered all the old music obsolete because it all had horn parts in E-flat. After enough years passed to build up a new library, the old music was moved to a storeroom in the basement of the auditorium and retired.

That old library contained all the circus music. I had browsed through it before access to the library was restricted and knew what was in it. Gainesville had become a repository of circus music that was equal to any other anywhere in this country, including Sarasota, Florida. In short, it was a hidden treasure.

Then, in 2007, a small stream called Pecan Creek, which flows through Gainesville, flooded. It had never flooded in the history of Gainesville and nobody ever thought it would. It looped within one block of the high school and when the floodwaters came they inundated the basement where the old library was stored and destroyed it. Gone was the last link to the circus band that once called Gainesville home. All that’s left are the parts to the Grand Entry, which I kept as a souvenir, and my memories.

Fine