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1902-1996: Moves over the YearsMoving AroundLast issue I mentioned about going back and recording the moves our band has made to date. This has taken a lot of research, believe me. I hope it will be of interest to you and I will call it: Moving Around In 1902 when the band first started, they had their hall at the Ikey Club. The Club let them use their premises on a"no-charge" basis. In July of 1904, the town granted the band the use of the market building. This was fine until the fall as it became too cold to rehearse and the town council chambers were used. This was very inconvenient as many meetings were held there. In the Spring of 1905‚ the band moved to the rear of the Sovereign Bank (later on called the Royal Bank). The band for the first time now had to pay rent. Secretary records indicate that the last‚ meeting was held at the back of the Royal Bank on Feb.22, 1910. The next meeting recorded was held on Feb. 22, 1910‚ at the band room on Ainslie St.(where the market building is located). Now the band is at the market building (upstairs portion) and remained there, rent free, until, 1977. About 10:30 one October morning, at the office, I got a phone call and was asked "When are you going to move your equipment out?". I was devastated!! The caller apologized as he thought we knew the decision was made for the city to "take-over" our location. They needed extra space for meeting rooms. We had to move. On Oct. 24 a meeting was held to find a suitable new location. We moved out in Nov./77 to the center portion of the Grand River Shopping Plaza as a temp. measure. The G.R.S. Plaza was slated to be demolished and we still have to find a "home". Frank Gadd, Jim Wilton and myself looked at many places -- they were just not suitable. The city and two real estate agencies were also looking. With the help of Jim Pennington, we secured an area above Moffat's Catering on Grand Ave. (opposite Knox Church) and we moved there in Feb. of 1978‚ Faced with increased costthe band went into the BINGO business.
One Fri. P.M. in Aug. of 1987‚ we had a terrific downpour of rain. Gord called Bob that we were having trouble. The ceiling was leaking -- all over. Bette and myself spent three hours moving our materials and later on that afternoon additional help came. Ken had mentioned that the ceilings are too low and also our space to seat our members was becoming critical. Our band membership was over fifty! With this near disaster and other adversities, we thought of moving‚ In March of 1988 we were going to purchase a building on Roseview Ave. in Camb.(Galt) but the lottery corporation would only allow us 25% of the cost. We could not handle without Bingo help the other 75%. In Aug. of 1988 a tentative agreement was proposed to rent the facilities on 29 George St.S. After adjustments to the original agreement,a lease was signed and we took possession on Jan.1, 1989. On Jan.4, 1989, sixteen members started the monumental task of preparing our hall for moving in. It used to be a plumber's shop and was a mess! We had three months to have it done. Spearheaded by Paul Dearlove at least 1200 or more hours were spent in making our band hall one of the best in Canda Wives, husbands, children and friends helped -- my records indicate that thirty- six people worked in the hall. Some days, some nights and always on Sat. and Sun. - we just never stopped. On Sat. March 25, 1989, we left Grand Ave. and moved our equipment over to George St. In Feb. of 1990, our bingo slot was changed from Friday evenings to Monday afternoons. Comparing the month of Jan. to Feb. our profit was down some 490%!! In addition to this, our bingo games for the month of June were cancelled - doom and gloom as our band hall rent still had to be paid. The situation got worse ,as in 1991, we were allowed only 16 bingo games a year -- every Tues. afternoon for 1 month every 3 months of the year. Economics would not allow us to stay any longer. In March, it was decided to vacate‚ our beautiful band hall on May 31st, 1991. On Tues. June 4, 1991, we had our first rehearsal at the Galt Legion (Br.121)‚ All of our equipment was stored in 2 units at B & B Mini Storage. This was very inconvenient for property management, librarian and our bandmaster. The Legion had no room to store any of our equipment so we transported our equipment every Tues. for rehearsals but we were still looking for a permanent home. Simon Barnes received a call on May 31st, 1992, from St. John's /Royalaires Drum Corps to see if we would consider relocating with them. After checking the facilities and, also, noting that all our equipment would be in one place, negotiations, on a temporary measure, were made and we moved some of our equipment in on Tues., June 30th, 1992 to 230 Water Street St. S. (opposite Churchill Park). A lot of work was done to get the hall the way we wanted it. On Sat. May 1st, 1993, the remainder of our equipment was moved in from B. & B. Storage. In September, 1993, we started to receive complaints about our hall -- poor air quality, hydro problems, summer heat problems, flying bugs, running mice, water pipes busting, to mention a few. We were losing players! It was decided to start looking again for another location. In March of 1994 after considerable checking of proposed places, the band moved their rehearsal area to Jacob Hespeler Secondary School -- rent free. All of our equipment stayed at 230 Water St. S. Later on we were told that our band (Eff.Jan.1/96) would have to pay rent of $9.00 per hour for rehearsals at the school. In October of 1995, we were advised that the Galt Legion Youth Center was vacant and on Dec.19th, the committee visited the hall at 5 Elliott St. In Jan., 1996, it was approved to move our equipment there and try out the hall for rehearsals in the summer months. On Sat. May 11th, we all pitched in and moved‚ our equipment from Water St. S. to Elliot Street. As the sound was way too loud, it was decided to remain at the high school for rehearsals. The Legion let ushave the use of hall and storage area rent free. To our dismay, the building was put up for sale. Times were tough for everyone -- even the Legion. They were spending a lot of money for a building that was sparsely used. It was sold in just two weeks! So we had to move again! On Dec. 6, 1996, our equipment was moved to 17 Petty Place where we currently store our equipment.
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