Today was our field trip day with the Carsons. We decided to go to Mason City, which was the inspiration for The Music Man musical, and home to Meredith Willson, the guy who wrote it.
There was a building that contained both a town square mock-up and a museum. Next door was the house Meredith Willson grew up in. The town square had the ice cream parlor, and a large room with a wall painted like Madison Park with the footbridge in the distance. (Kindy and Elementary school classes sometimes go there and march around with instruments inside.) There was also a reception room that spilled out into the square that was all set up for a wedding reception. There was another glassed in room featuring a mannequin school girl at a piano in the looking like she was having a lesson.
The museum had all sorts of trivia about the making of the play, the movie, and Meredith Willson. Dan's favorite trivia facts: most of the characters in the story were named after real people in town when he was growing up...and also that the only song the high school band could play straight through without stopping was the Minuet in G. As a kid, Meredith and his friends would grab onto the runners of the Wells Fargo Wagon to hitch rides. Meredith Willson and Walt Disney got together in LA and started the Big Brother program for underprivileged kids.
In the house next door, there was a bowler hat on the stairway post. The guide told us that Willson's mother's name was Rosalie. When his dad came home, he'd toss his hat on the post and call out, "I'm home again, Rose!" Rosalie's sister's name was Lida. (Remember the barbershop quartet's song?)
Sounds like a perfect trip 😊
ReplyDeleteWow, it's like a Music Man Disneyland!
ReplyDeleteWow, it's like a Music Man Disneyland!
ReplyDelete