Revelers at Colborne’s 150th anniversary celebration on August 1 will be celebrating a very special time in the history of the village. Former band and baton twirlers from over 50 years ago were here when the village hired the first full time recreation director in the province, a man who had an enormous impact on the young people of the village.
Bob Turner was celebrated here for his talents and the gifts and memories he gave the children.
He was a trailbreaker in many ways.
In 1946 he was a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
In 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in major league baseball, Turner was catching for the Chicago White Sox. He broke the colour barrier again, marrying Dorris Greenham before moving to Colborne. They had two daughters, Phyllis and Joy.
Turner, Carl Higginbottom and Ron Kelly were three black players brought in to bolster the lineup of the Colborne Colbright Intermediate baseball team which played teams from Peterbrough, Oshawa and other major centres.
Bob Turner will not be at Colborne’s 150th celebrating the successes of the Colborne Recreation Band and Baton Corps; he died at 35 from complications in a minor operation back in 1965. But Dorris, Phyllis and Joy will join the band and baton corps Saturday festivities.
Turner was only here for about four years before leaving unexpectedly for Cornwall, but he left behind a legacy of achievements and more than that, a sense of accomplishment by all of the 70 odd band members and baton twirlers who performed across the province every year.
Baton members recall that everyone could join, and starting in 1953, nearly every child in the village between the ages of five and 15 did. Talk to anyone who grew up in the community during that period – they wear their membership as a badge of honour.
Membership in the performing group wasn’t automatic. There were over 125 kids practicing some years. When they passed proficiency tests and paid their $5 deposit they got the uniform and the opportunity to travel with the performing group.
It went everywhere, with the group being paid for most gigs and playing in a lot of Santa Claus parades..
It was known across the province as the youngest and most proficient group of its kind.
In their second year it was one of 48 bands that performed before 50,000 at Peterborough at the Lions Club Parade the largest parade ever held in the district at the time.
In 1955 The Colborne Express listed the Merry-go-round formation, Charleston routine and Parade of the Wooden Soldier as part of the group’s growing repertoire
On August 27 of that year the Colborne Recreation Band and Baton Corps was listed with bands from Lindsay, Peterborough and Belleville as the entertainers at the Colborne Beef Barbecue and Jamboree. The barbecue held at Memorial Park on Victoria Street was a major local event at the time and included a carnival of games and dinner for a dollar.
That fall the recreation director organized a telephone bingo, with proceeds going to the recreation commission. At 2 p.m. each weekday three numbers were called at 2 p.m. The prize was $20 for each vertical line and 150 for full card. Numbers were listed weekly in the Colborne Chronicle.
The kids in the band faced one of their biggest disappointments in May, 1956.
Probably using his connections, Turner arranged to have the band and baton corps perform at the opening game of the Maple Leafs Baseball Team in Toronto. Sadly, they sat in the stands in the rain, waiting for it to abate. There was no next day – their teachers said they had to be back in class.
Disappointed that year, they performed every year until 1962. On their 7th trip to Maple Leaf opener, 49 members went wearing new uniforms with new shakos and gold plumes. The recreation director was Wayne Ring, and the band leader was Karen Van Meeuwen. Newspaper accounts of the day describe the parade from the ball park to Toronto City Hall, followed by “a tasty lunch with cold milk”. Band member Brian Troop retrieved a ball that had been hit into stands.
There were numerous accounts of the band and baton corps travels in 1956.
They opened the Bowmanville Carnival and paraded through town. The Canadian Statesman, printed in Bowmanville commented, “The talented coordination and skill of this entertaining group is especially noteworthy because of their young age.”
On July 11, 1956 they were in Campbellford for the Old Home Week celebration in Campbellford. Forty kids under Turner, were captained by Mary Van Meeuwen
There were many high points and perhaps the highest came in 1956.
The band and baton corps was invited to travel to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and participate in the massive parade. Two large photos on the front page of Section 2 of Toronto Star October 30, 1956 told its readers of the opportunity.
A Dec 29, 1956 article in The Star Weekly was titled “Rose Bowl Bound” They needed to raise $4,000 for the January 1, 1958 parade. Colborne had 1,500 residents at the time. The Recreation Director, and spearhead of the group, hoped to get money from the Ontario department of travel and publicity. In a newspaper photo of Turner with band members Arlis McLaughlin, Ann Self and Wayne Ring in Oct 56 Bob worried about where money would be found. The adjacent photo of Karen Van Meeuwen holding a football was captioned, “Youngsters have 15 routines, some with lights on their hats, others featuring ballet. Mr. Turner believes the parade will be the corps’ big chance.”
In the end perhaps their greatest triumph became their most lasting disappointment.. Parents stepped in and decided the kids were too young to fly that far
The next summer the Trumpet Band and Baton Corps went with Rotary club members and wives in 18 cars to Merrywood-on-the-Rideau, a summer camp for physically disabled children near Perth. The band played several numbers and baton corps gave demonstrations of precision drills and twirling techniques. Rotary clubs of this district financed the furnishings in the camp's new hall.
A brochure created by Turner and distributed to prospective clients gave a history of the group and promoted its “magnetic power”.
In 1957 Colborne Trumpet and Baton Corps with, 72 members, participated in 20 engagements – festivals, patriotic and community parades, fairs and novelty drills and their annual journey to Maple Leaf Stadium where they earned $125 for their efforts.
Their fame was growing.
A quote from the local paper praised the youngsters, “ The corps is nationally known: they have achieved stature and esteem as being a great crowd pleaser. Their magnetic power has carried them through three successive seasons.”
Their routine at the All Star Game in Trenton that year included a waltz, mambo and precision drill routines and a colourful demonstration of street marching.
In the same year the band and baton corps was the guest performer on Cobourg Army Night, attended three fall fairs and was invited to the Toronto Santa Claus Parade.
In the fall of 1957 Helen Upper wrote, about the “recreation-conscious village in the heart of the canning industry in Northumberland”
She went on later in the same article to state, “The success of the Baton Corps and Band is proof to the town of Colborne that money spent for recreational purposes pays off. It may be the smallest town or village in Canada with a fulltime paid recreational director, and the whole municipality benefits.”
In describing how the village had gone so far, so fast Upper added, “The seeds were sown a few years ago when a village meeting was called to discuss means of grappling with a growing tendency toward mischief on the part of the youngsters who were without organized direction for play.
Beatrice Smith donated an eight-acre field for a play park and the fathers met the challenge by voluntarily doing the necessary work of conversion. A good baseball diamond with floodlights and equipment followed. Colborne engaged a young New Jersey baseball player with a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University and launched a program of building its future voters into solid citizens.”
For the kids who look back so fondly to those golden childhood years, there is more than band and baton membership. Under the encouraging leadership of Turner there was weekly bowling, sock hops and teen dances in the Masonic Hall, skating parties, newspaper and bottle drives, penny carnivals.
They were glory years.
Cecil Nobes and Wayne Ring followed in Turner’s footsteps after he went on to Cornwall to be the director there.
One document lists Cecil Nobes as the director, giving his pay as $3,600 in 1959, with a $200 raise in 1960. By 1966 the recreation director hauled in $4,500 a year.
In Nobes’ time the band and baton corps had assets of close to $5,000 and earned over $875.In 1958 the band with its 65 members, known sometimes as the Colborne Recreation Trumpet and Baton Corps was invited to the annual Band Tattoo in Picton, and was part of the Bowmanville centennial celebration.
There are photos that year of the band at Presqu’ile Park. The caption describes the afternoon, “On Parade – One of the outstanding attractions at the Liberal picnic held at Presqu’ile on Wednesday afternoon was the display given by the Colborne Recreation Trumpet Band. Following the waterskiing demonstration the crowd was shown some fine precision routines by the band. The colourful costumes of the band added to the fun and gaiety of the afternoon’s proceedings.”
The display preceded the arrival of provincial Liberal leader John Wintermeyer.
Two years later 10 members of the Colbornettes put on a display of precision team twirling in front of a grandstand audience. Directed by Miss Gail Peebles at the Canadian National Baton Twirling Competition in Norfolk County Fair at Simcoe Ont., they won the Junior Fancy Drill.
Even though Turner had gone, the tie remained.
They opened the Cornwall Recreation Centre June 22, 1961 under director Wayne Ring. They performed on same program as Cornwall Sea Cadet Band, led by Turner
The Colborne kids gave an encore performance after the
French Nationale Parade the next day and got a $50 bonus.
At Turner’s death the Cornwall paper stated, (Turner) “was one of Cornwall’s most popular city officials, particularly with children”… “Since coming to Cornwall, Mr. Turner organized and correlated physical, social and cultural activities in a recreation program which has been described as one of the best in the province.” He was the first black recreation director in Ontario.
A letter to the editor by Colborne’s Isobel Ring, speaking about his funeral service put his contribution succinctly, “Bob’s life had known no limits and his deeds would be a living memorial to every man, woman and child who had known him. We, from Colborne, listened and how vividly we could recall the fine things this man had also done for our town.”
The band and baton corps continued to operate until at least 1966.
Over 40 years later some of the former members can still recite the routines
Its alumni will be hosting an open house at the VBJ Centre on Victoria Square in Colborne as part of the village’s 150th celebration. The organizers are planning a display of memorabilia, uniforms, photos and possibly even some old home movies of the era. If there is a 150th anniversary parade they plan to be there with bells on, and possibly their batons and instruments – but maybe not their uniforms.
Anyone with materials or memories to contribute should call Lynn Rusaw (McLaughlin) at 905 355-3792 or lynn.rusaw@hotmail.com, Marg Post (Lynn) at 905 355-2029, or Arlis Teal (McLaughlin) at arlis@rogers.com. They already have a list of over 120 former members and are hoping to add more.
Many of the former band and baton members are still friends 50 years later, others married members of the group. The prospects of rekindling old lost relationships from a golden era in Colborne has them eagerly anticipating the August 1 reunion and the windup the next day.
For more photos, go to the "band and baton" entry below.
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