One of the strangest items I kept in my box of treasures was a plastic case containing a number of silver dollars. Really had to think about that one for a bit, why were these coins important?
A couple days later it came to me. It had nothing to do with the coins at all. The case was in fact a fancy antacid package from the 1970’s, the former contents of which were critically important to my next story.
I’m a bit fuzzy on the date but I believe it was 1977. Half of the band was hired for an evening performance at the Jockey Club of Canada Sovereign Awards.
This awards show is a big deal in the horse racing world. Lots of very important people in the business world were involved in the sport at the time including one E.P. Taylor and the Conn Smythe. Never heard of them? Take the time to read their Wikipedia bios – quite impressive.
The very next day was an important regimental engagement as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Colonel-in-Chief of the Toronto Scottish was arriving in Canada on an official visit and the Regiment was to be at CFB Downsville to provide an honor guard. Very inconvenient.
Sense a conflict coming? Read on.
The Sovereign Awards show presented a pretty standard format for the band. We marched in dignitaries and awards throughout the night and waited in a room for long periods between sessions.
But something was a bit different with this job. One of the important people, I believe it was E.P. Taylor himself was a patron of the military and arranged for us to have a constant stream of refreshments throughout the evening under his tab.
Not wanting to disappoint, we enjoyed his hospitality during and way after the award ceremony. Eventually we were in effect cut off and told to leave. I believe my particular poison that night involved orange juice.
So there we were, tired but feeling “good” with a desperate need to get to the base in Downsview. It was also a requirement that we were to be in sound enough shape to perform, imagine that!
After a bit of a rest, and by popping those antacids like candy, I managed to make it into formation just as the plane approached. Picture running with all your equipment to catch a plane but in a full dress uniform. I still may have some deep bruises from the snare drum.
In the end I and my bandmates avoided passing out on parade, doing anything else gross even pulled off a passable performance. As close to half our group was involved in the previous night’s event, it was an amazing feat of endurance.
I heard later on that a senior officer commented it was all he could do to keep the Queen Mother and the inspection party steered away from and upwind of the Band as the morning after smell was overpowering.
In the end got paid, met Sandy Hawley (Google him), didn’t die (felt like it though) – a win win right? It was however several years before the smell of orange juice didn’t trigger a gag like reflex.
And with that story another “treasure” down.