For more than 30 years, the eclectically dressed, crazy-hatted Juneau Volunteer Marching Band has brought life and sound to the Fourth of July parade. Now the band is honoring even more than just Independence Day.

On June 28, the Juneau Volunteer Marching Band will break out of its marching madness to present a sit-down afternoon concert dedicated to the "Long-timers" of Alaska.

"It's not just to recognize the older people but everyone, young and old, who is here now," said Larry Stevens, one of the band's original founders.

Peter Anderegg, who started playing with the band during one of its first years more than 34 years ago, believes this concert will be a perfect way to celebrate the state's 50th anniversary. Guest speakers will include Sen. Dennis Egan, whose father was the first elected governor, and Reps. Beth Kerttula and Cathy Muñoz, whose families both have a long, established history in Alaska.

"It's really a nice way to put a cap on this whole year - plus we've been celebrating the 50th year of statehood," Anderegg said. "As a young state, we're still at point when we can still get a chance to talk with those folks who made this state happen, and we're losing those people over time. ... It's just a chance to kind of say thank you to those folks."

Anderegg described Sunday's concert as a mini carnival-party-birthday-bash. There will be birthday cake, and Jeff Brown and the local clown group, Juneau Joeys, will entertain.

"It ought to be a fun afternoon for everyone to get together and say, 'This has been quite a ride for 50 years,'" Anderegg said.

HISTORY

According to a description by the band's former bass drummer, Jim Bradley, now deceased, the band was formed in 1975 by Charlie Northrip, Bill Ruddy and Larry Stevens, who, after watching a silent Fourth of July parade, decided the parade needed to have a band. They played for the first time the following year.

"That first parade in '76, when we were inspired to do something, was because there were no bands," Stevens said. "It was silent, and especially a Fourth of July parade should not be silent."

Although parades of the 1960s included a few local musicians, Ron Maas and Dick Garrison being two of them, playing Dixieland tunes while sitting on the back of a flatbed truck, live music wasn't a regular parade standard.

"And certainly, no one played and marched at the same time," Stevens added.

Stevens credits Alaska's football-season weather with the lack of marching bands.

"There were no marching bands in Alaska except very recently," Stevens said. "The reason for that is that there's no football to play outdoors in anything other than snow and ice and cold."

In addition to realizing there were no high school marching bands, the band's founding fathers discovered even the musical kids had little experience with march music.

"They don't know the literature of Sousa, or Pryor, or Cohan or anybody else," Stevens said. "I always get a bit of a laugh the first time during rehearsal when the conductor says, 'Let's start at the dogfight,' and all the kids are, 'Duh,' because they don't know the form of the music."

HILARITY

Even musicians who don't practice with the marching band - and show up the day of the parade - get to march. But the only requirement is that you have to wear a funny hat.

"For years people wanted to know, 'What's the uniform?'" Stevens said.

In the beginning, the marching band required "Juneau moccasins, Levis and halibut jackets" as their attire, but nobody paid much attention to that. So then they tried red, white and blue halibut jackets.

"And nobody's got a halibut jacket that's anything other than brown or green or some sort of mold color," Stevens said. "So it was one of the Floyd Dryden teachers who said, 'Funny hats, let's have everybody wear a funny hat,' and that just sort of stuck."

The band actually has used the hats to collect donations during the parades for the past decade or more. About three years ago, the band also started hand-making tuxedo stripes by putting various colored duct tape down the sides of their pants. This year, their tuxedo stripes will be yellow - to match their 50th anniversary T-shirts.

WORLD'S OLDEST DRUM MAJOR

Bea Findlay, the band's drum major, also will be wearing a unique costume.

"Normally I have them made for me by locals," Findlay said of her drum major costumes.

But because this will be her eighth and final year marching with the band, Findlay special ordered her costume this year.

And if you see her in the parade, be sure not to call her a majorette.

"A majorette wears a little skirt and boots," Findlay said. "I don't care about politically correct - except that I'm not a majorette."

As far as being in the band, Findlay said she believes the variety of members come back just because they enjoy playing.

"There's people who have marched before, a lot who have marched in some big bands," she said. "But it's also just a real opportunity for people who haven't experienced marching to march."

For Findlay, marching offers a return to her past, when she was a drum major in high school for an award-winning band.

"When I left after many years, I thought, 'You know, if I could only do one more parade before I die, that would be wonderful,'" Findlay said. "And I've been privileged to find, through Larry, the Juneau Volunteer Marching Band."

At 70, Findlay calls herself the world's oldest drum major.

"What a blessing to be able to do this," Findlay said. "How many people can say they're still marching (at my age)?"

CHANGE

"Nothing is permanent, even change," Larry Stevens said when asked how the Juneau Volunteer Marching Band has changed in its almost 35 years.

One example is the band's emphasis on marching, which was strongest in the beginning.

"It was because all of us old guys came from a marching tradition," Stevens said. "But every year there was a certain amount of resistance to actually marching. Some people complained bitterly if we said we were going outside in the rain and march, so the emphasis on marching has definitely waned, and we hardly do what we could call marching."

But comically, the group has patented what they call their Glacier Turn.

"If you go out to the glacier and you see how the lines sort of swirl around the corner, well that's kind of the way we turn corners," Stevens said.

"We just go like this and say 'Start turning,'" Findlay added. "Just loop around the corner."

Stevens recalls one year when a band member made it his mission to shape up the band's corner-turning.

"He got the cops to let him go down the street the day before the parade, and he marked all the corners with chalk so that there was no question where the corners were and where you were supposed to turn," Stevens said. "Well, he's no longer in Juneau."

Findlay has seen many members come and go in her eight years as the band's drum major.

"Even in the small time I've been there, I've seen it change from mostly older folks to middle-aged, to younger, to back to older," Findlay said. "Last year, we had a whole bunch of young kids in it. This year, not so much."

CONSISTENCY

Although the members seem to change from year to year, the band's partnership with a local school has not changed for more than 30 years.

Traditionally, the band's conductor is a teacher from Floyd Dryden Middle School's music department, and the school provides rehearsal and storage space.

"Drums and sousaphones are big, ugly things, and it's a whole lot nicer if you've got a place where you can leave it from one rehearsal to the next," Stevens said.

However, in the last five or six years, the band has had to find alternative locations to practice, due to school renovations. This year, although the conductor, Mike Bucy, is from Floyd Dryden, the band practiced at Thunder Mountain High School.

"The community schools and the Floyd Dryden administration have been very supportive and helpful with the rehearsal and equipment needs of the band," Bucy said. "Brian Van Kirk, band director at Thunder Mountain, also has been quite generous to let us rehearse in his space and use his equipment. It is a bit loud there, without any carpet on the band room floor yet, but it was appreciated all the same."

Although Bucy is excited about the parade, he is even more excited about Sunday's sit-down concert.

"The legislators' connection to and participation in Alaska's history, including statehood, is remarkable," he said. "I look forward to hearing the speech that was given by Sen. Egan's father at the original statehood celebration while the band plays the Alaska Flag song in the background."

On Sunday, Rep. Cathy Muñoz will lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and while the band plays America the Beautiful, Rep. Beth Kerttula will read the invocation given at that ceremony in 1959.

"We did it in rehearsal, and the prayer, originally given by Rev. Samuel McPhetres, was read by our drum major," Bucy described. "We both had tears in our eyes when the band finished. It's such a lovely thing.

"It feels like the celebration of our county's founding should feel - individual citizens working together for the common good."

Although Bucy's first year conducting was a bit difficult, he said he'd surely do it again if asked.

"I have enjoyed seeing all the players come out of the woodwork and being surprised at how much talent there is in this town," Bucy said. "Larry Stevens, Peter Anderegg and Michelle Bonnett have all been the real coordinators of this thing, and I really appreciate all the work they have done this year - and in many years past - to make this band happen."

• Contact Neighbors editor Kim Andree at 523-2272 or kim.andree@juneauempire.com.