In the Fall of 1971, I received an invitation to participate in the United States Collegiate Wind Band, which would tour Europe and the USSR in the summer of 1972. Two from my school were invited. We both turned it down.
Word got to the local newspaper that I had been invited. A bank contributed half the amount and there was a drive to raise the other half. There was a picture of me in full Holmes MB uniform in the paper. Because I delivered newspapers, the headline was for a Newspaper Boy invited to travel to Europe and USSR.
It was a three-week tour. I flew out of the Cincinnati airport to New York, where I met the directors and staff. Professor Al G. Wright, Director of Bands at Purdue University, and his wife Gladys were the directors. The staff member responsible for woodwinds was Diana Hawkins, daughter of the Director of Bands at Morehead State University.
There were approximately 120 in the band, representing 26 states. Towards the beginning of the rehearsal process, we had auditions and I was appointed 1st Chair Clarinet.
Tour Stops
BRUSSELS and ANTWERP, Belgium
LONDON, England
PARIS, France
COPENHAGEN, Denmark
ZURICH and LUCERNE, Switzerland
MOSCOW, U.S.S.R.
Moscow, U.S.S.R.
1976 was in the “Detente” time between the US and USSR. We were a token of that effort.
It was a tense trip for us. Keep in mind that the Cuban missile crisis was only nine years old and the arms race was in full force (until the ’72 treaty).
We were to depart from a Swiss airport for the 4-hr flight to Moscow, arriving in the early evening. It wasn’t until we arrived at the Swiss airport that we learned the Soviets had decided we would fly in on one of their Aeroflot jets, which didn’t leave Moscow until they confirmed that we were waiting. That 4-hr wait plus the 4-hr flight ensured our arrival in the middle of the night, when no one would see us. Not an accident, I’m sure.
We did not pull up to the large, impressive airport terminal, stopping instead a fair distance from it. Our welcome included two busses, which pulled up alongside the planes, and two armed guards (rifles) standing at attention at the doors. We were instructed to deplane and get on the busses. “Your luggage will be taken to the hotel for you.” Not only did that prevent our entrance into the airport terminal for baggage claim, but it also gave them a few hours with our luggage.
The bus ride to the city was annoying and uncomfortable. Each time the manual transmission bus would get up to speed, the driver would shut off the engine and we would coast…. then as the speed decreased to a near stop, he would pop the clutch for a jerky engine restart and then repeat the cycle.
We were greeted warmly at the hotel and treated to some amazing food as they prepared us for our “orientation”, which also delayed our hotel check-in. Unlike our other stops, when we normally had at least half a day to ourselves and to explore the city we were visiting, the Soviet guides said we could not leave the hotel. The reason, “The Soviet people do not speak English and if you get lost, they won’t be able to help you get back.”
When we finally got our luggage, organized neatly and alphabetically for us, we discovered they had removed all the souvenir luggage stickers from the previously visited countries. There was no way to replace all that, and there was little doubt our luggage had been searched.
In most of the countries, we would get a “continental” breakfast (a roll and drink), were on our own for lunch, and then would get a good evening meal. In Moscow, we were fed multiple-course meals three times daily with some lasting two hours, leaving less time for sight-seeing. I tasted caviar for the first time there.
We never traveled by foot. As we bus toured the city, we kept seeing weird vending machines. Customers would take the community glass and put it over a nozzle for rinsing. Then they would dispense what looked like beer, stand there to drink it, then set the glass down for the next person standing in line. When we asked our guide we were told that “those are soft drink machines”. We concluded the machines were dispensing beer.
They took us to Moscow University, a huge, modern campus, and told us that college is free in the U.S.S.R.
We went to the pre-revolution section of “Old Moscow” to view poorly maintained buildings. “This is what Russia was like before the revolution“.
At a huge cathedral we heard, “Unlike what you hear in your country, there are 55 operating churches in Moscow“.
As we toured, we were constantly instructed when we could and could not take pictures.
Lenin’s Tomb was impressive and unique. The line to get in was very long. A married couple, still in wedding garb, was escorted to the front of the line. What an honor. Inside the tomb was extremely cold, dimly lit, and had a soldier every few feet. No talking. No cameras. And the main attraction……the actual body in a glass casket.
We were in Red Square, a huge area somewhat like a brick version of the National Mall in Washington DC, when we saw someone fleeing a group of soldiers. The soldiers released a dog. We’ve all seen videos of well-trained police dogs taking down and “holding” a criminal. Nope. Not this dog. We were too scared to take a picture. I did get one of some soldiers who were unhappy to have a picture taken by a teenager with a US Flag patch on his touristy shirt.
This was a music tour and we gave concerts before huge crowds everywhere we went. There was one town in Switzerland where they built us a stage in the town square and literally shut the town down so everyone could come. People wanted to hear us, meet us, talk to us, touch us, get autographs and pictures…. we were treated like famous guests everywhere, except in Moscow.
The Moscow concert was in an old building with a stage so small part of the ensemble had to set up on the floor and a pathetic audience of about 50. The explanation: “Everyone in Moscow has a job and you are giving a concert on a workday.”
Even the departure was eventful. In every country, we would exchange currency and try to end up with souvenirs. Our guides emphatically told us it was illegal to “smuggle” Soviet currency out of the country. I put a Ruble inside a chewing gum wrapper inside a reed box inside my clarinet case. Things got interesting as we were in the lobby of the airport preparing to board our Aeroflot plane when a group of people arrived and started physically searching us. I heard coins hitting the floor. That process took an uncomfortably long time…..enough that the plane was late for departure.
They wouldn’t allow us to leave until our director signed a document that we were late arriving.
Switzerland: Zurich and Lucerne
We spent nearly an entire week in Switzerland, a beautiful country with mountainous views. And the town of Lucerne went all out for us, building a stage in the town square and basically shutting down so everyone could come to the concert. They were friendly and appreciative. I bought my mother a small swiss cuckoo clock.
Paris, France
Paris was one of our final stops and I was running out of money. Our concert jackets were pretty fancy and we would be approached by “artists” who would draw or cut a caricature and then try to sell it to us. They expected us to purchase and I recall one angry artist pointing to my jacket when I tried to explain I didn’t have the money for his art.
London, England
I enjoyed the history a lot. I’ve always loved British pomp and pageantry.