The month of November is a special time of the year. Growing up in Graceville during my youth, there were so many exciting things to come in the month of November. Graceville was called the town with the largest Peanut Mill in the world at that time. The Peanut Festival, being such a large exciting, entertaining event and with the importance of peanuts to our town, the Festival and Fair seemed to be sort of an extension of Graceville. Playing in the High School Band, and getting to participate in the big parade and all the events going on around Dothan, Alabama, was a special event to be a part of representing our town.
I remember the last Peanut Festival that I got to march in. It was the fall of 1957. It was a rather warm day with the sun shining. Our Band Uniforms were made of an itchy wool material, and we were pretty hot in them as the school bus we rode to Dothan pulled into the school grounds where the Bands were being staged for the parade. As the parade got started, grey skies began to roll in overhead and a northerly wind started blowing. The temperature was in the mis 70’s and as we marched, we were sweating in those hot uniforms. The temperature started dropping and by the time we got to the finish line of the parade, it had dropped into the 30’s. Those uniforms didn’t seem so warm when that cold wind started blowing and went right through the thin, porous material. We had prepared and brought our jackets with us.
The Asian Flu was happening during that time, and I had it a couple of times that fall. I was just getting over an episode, the day of the festival parade. There was one more event for us to participate in and it was held that night. All the bands that were in the parade would perform one of our football half-time shows at the big football stadium in Dothan. It was sort of a big deal back then. With marching in the parade and working up a sweat, and then the cold air, the Flu symptoms started affecting me. By the time we got to the stadium, I was having tremendous chills and a fever. Several of the band piled their jackets on me trying to help keep me warm. There was no way that I was going to march, and I was one of the lead trumpet players. Our other lead player said that she wasn’t going to march if I couldn’t. Sadly, our band didn’t get to show our stuff that night.
This column was written by Graceville native Bill Clark.
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