I wanted to post a follow-up to operating the Caliola in the local
4th of July Independence Day parade in downtown Martinez, California.

I would like to say that it went off without a hitch, except we lost
a trailer hitch.  One of the Rotary Club members had a trailer.  This
trailer was sort of strange as it is a trash dump trailer.  I think he
said it was the marriage of a boat trailer and a dump truck.  It was
well sprung with two sets of wheel axles.  It was also a bit on the
high side, with walls preventing the organ from being seen from the
side.  We placed the organ on the rear of the trailer with the pipes
facing out.

A local equipment rental place gave us a good deal on a week's rental
of the generator.  In return they got a big sign on the mud flap.

We loaded the organ onto the trailer five days before the parade.
A local auto body shop in the downtown area was able to provide some
high door garage space so the decorating committee could place the
flags and bunting over the sides.  We also did a trial run, operating
the setup from generator and battery power for a social function at
this time.

The trial run was a good thing -- I can not express how important this
was.  Everything worked at the trial; this was important, as I had
planed a few improvements for the parade.

Sunday was the decorating party.  It was a really hot day -- 103
degrees F. outside, desert heat (no humidity).  Inside the tin roofed
truck and auto repair bay it was sauna temperature, as hot as is
humanly possible to stand.

Something went wrong in that hot sauna.  The organ started to play,
then it found some sort of poltergeist which wanted to play rat-a-tat
nonsense on all the pipes with some sort of "Keep the rest of the
spirits away" jangle.  The MIDI player was not connected but the organ
was playing something unintelligible.

I worked on the organ electronics until 7:30 p.m. and then took some
of the parts that were not working and rebuilt and tested them until
3:30 a.m.  Disappointed that I would have no player for the parade,
I went to bed.  I then dreamed about the old Octet UM1 MIDI player and
disk drive magnet rail out in the shed.  Unable to sleep, I woke at
6 a.m. to get out the old system.  I had this system up and running
again by 8 a.m. in time to meet the others for the parade preparation.

I think the people I was working with were impressed that I have
backups to the backups.  By this point I was on the fourth redundancy
to get the unit playing in time for the parade.  I think the number
4 is pure evil.  This was of course the 4th, I may have had 4 hours
sleep in 24, and so on.

I found the tracker tubing was too short to make the switch to the
UM1 player, but remembering irrigation hose was similar in size some
members of Rotary went to get some, although I would need about 44 feet.
In the meantime I retried the electronic system.  This time it worked,
if I had the bass and treble octaves swapped.  For some reason it would
not work if I had the cables connected the right way round.

The folk got back with the irrigation line.  I said It might not be
needed after all, that we could go with the player although it was
missing an octave.  What was weird was how all the decorators were
saying how good the Caliola sounded.

I asked how much time we had and was told we were supposed to be at
the entry line 15 minutes later, although we were entry 30 of about
40 floats.  I opted to go with the configuration of the organ playing
but with the 16 bass notes and 12 treble notes playing the wrong
octaves.  These are octave coupled anyway and the song was recognizable
-- Entry of the Gladiators -- and a Wurlitzer 165 roll conversion has
missing notes anyway.  Are calliopes ever expected to play in tune?

So the organ went playing in a way backwards, between the auto shop
and the courthouse through the back streets.  It would have been really
well heard on Main Street, too.  As we pulled up to the courthouse
steps a bagpiper opened up in practice.

Once in front of the courthouse steps I asked how much time I had and
was told that there was half an hour till the parade started.  This
would give me time to swap things around in a way that would keep the
wires in the working order and connected to the correct octaves.

My sister-in-law then wanted to place my 2-year-old niece into the
float, with open belting and micro-electronics all over the floor of
a dirty dump truck trailer.  I relented as long as they held her.
So my family was in the float.  I was so intent on keeping things
working I never was able to stick my head out and actually see the
parade.  The family was joined on the float by a bunch of high school
girls who came in and then we were off.

The parade was at a nice pace, with about one song or three minutes
for each block of the three blocks on Main Street.  The songs played
were "Fairest of the Fair", "Stars and Stripes", "Colonel Bogey" and
"American Patrol".

On returning to the auto shop garage the decorations were stripped
off the organ and it was returned up the hill to its dock in our own
car garage.  I think this was the first time I have ever witnessed it
being towed up the hill, as I am usually the one doing the towing!

This is where the lost trailer hitch comes in, because when
everything was unloaded I was asked if I had seen the extra hitch.
So I can truthfully say we got through the parade without a hitch.
We were going to pull the trailer with the owners' truck but the auto
body shop owner and Rotary member was able to use one of his vehicles,
and of course promote his business and the Rotary motto of "Service
above self".

Once back in the house garage I re-connected the motor and the player
and went through the modern play-list of the non-march songs I like:
The Muppet show theme and some of the Disney stuff and more up-beat
non-Wurlitzer stuff.  I stopped playing at lunch only to have the
neighbors come by to ask to hear more.  The weather got hot again and
I was able to get a break until fireworks time.

I restarted the organ an hour before fireworks, when the folk began
to line up.  Perhaps 50 to 80 or so, that like to watch fireworks over
the Napa Valley 50 miles in the distance.  We see the shows of at least
five cities and an amusement park with the mountains Veeder, Sonoma and
Helena in the background.  (Note: the next local AMICA meeting will be
hosted at this location July 24th but without the fireworks.)

Would I do this again?  Probably, if asked again.  The advance
planning and help along with advice from MMD readers made this work.
I had allowed for contingencies and had to use them.  In the end
everything came together.  This I think is the best way to keep
mechanical music in an active state, where the public can have a chance
to see and hear it.  Even if it is not at it's best, better that they
should see something than nothing at all.

In the end it everything worked, and the organ was at it's best.
I am told there are now photographs on Facebook, Flicker and other
social networking sites.  I have sent the MMD editor some photographs
so hopefully they can be posted in the photograph section here too.

Julie Porter