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August 3, 2021
Bandera Musician’s Reunion planned
The 45th annual Bandera Musician’s Reunion will be held Aug. 15-22, at Mansfield Park.
Please bring chairs, camping supplies, snacks and fans. A community dinner will be held every evening around 5 p.m.
Come prepared to have lots of fun listening to music, playing music, or dancing.
“Buck is 97 years old and they are letting us have the pavilion just one more time. Thanks, Buck and Shirley.”
Please bring chairs, camping supplies, snacks and fans. A community dinner will be held every evening around 5 p.m.
Come prepared to have lots of fun listening to music, playing music, or dancing.
“Buck is 97 years old and they are letting us have the pavilion just one more time. Thanks, Buck and Shirley.”
Bandera Musician’s Reunion History
Memoirs by Shirley Sloan
Contributed
Buck and Shirley Sloan were married March 6, 1976. Tack Carroll, a friend of Buck’s, was living in his household and had been there for a long time and was an old family friend. Buck asked Shirley what he should do about him and she said, “let him stay.”
They went on their honeymoon and came home and after a while Caesare Masse, another old friend, took Tack to Bandera for a couple of weeks, or so they thought. He stayed and stayed, so Buck, Shirley and Coy, Buck’s son, along with Buck’s foxhole buddy Jack Thomas, who was married to Buck’s cousin Ina Ruth, and their son Mark set off to Bandera to see what had happened to Tack. Now Caesare was staying with Kay at the time. I don’t recall her last name, and then maybe a year later they were married.
When we got to Bandera, we found Tack playing at the Flying A Dude Ranch, beside the swimming pool. Tack was staying in an old shack behind the Copper Lantern at Wharton’s Dock. Buck and Shirley were in an old camper pickup (all six slept there) and were looking for a place to stay, so Caseare said, “follow me,” and he took them to a place called the Alligator Hole, or pecan bottom, and that is what started the Musician’s Reunion.
They found a spring there where they got their water. They took baths either from a gallon jug, or got in the river and bathed. That was the good old days. No electric.
From there, it got bigger and bigger. There was the six of us, plus Gary Wright, Duck Shuffield, Margie and Duke Ellington, Tex Adams, Arkie Blue, Myrna and E. J. Koubek, along with Myrna’s mom and dad Frankie and Johnnie Forehand. There was Dale, Lucille Searcy, Dewitt and Pat Compton, Tom and Mary Kay who had if I am not mistaken 17 children between them; the kid Buck and Shirley can really remember was W.B and T.R., and probably others that they have forgotten.
Then, Bill and Pud Reeves, Skeeze and Laura Ann Sloan, Pappy Dykes, Charlie Beddingfield, Bobbie and Harold Dennis, Gene Reed, Doctor Lee, Singie Foreman, Jessie Beaumont, Charlie and Roger Heinin, Ballen, Zane Haughton, Tex Thatcher and Joyce Wilkerson, Dan and Pat Turner and kids, Howard Swartz and Mary Ann, Wayne and Billie Walker and kids, Buddy Lee. There were many others who were not mentioned or cannot be remembered. It was so long ago.
There was always something going on. Buck recalls once that T.R. and W.B. were grabbling for fish. That is when they tied a big hook on their finger and went looking for fish. Buck and Bill Reeves got worried about the boys and made them a stick with a hook on it, with a loop they could put on their wrist and could slip their little hand out of. At that same instance they were going grabbling, Buck took the fish dipnet to get the fish out, Gene Reed got in his little van, and Bobby Whitehead was playing music with Caesare. He flew a little cub plane over and dropped a note for Caesare that they were going to play that night.
The bottle did not make it down to the ground, lodged in a tree and a lady across the river was watching all this. She called in and said they were making a dope drop. That brought the law out.
They shot the bottle and water came out so they knew it was not dope, but the paper read the next day there was a dope drop and they combed the Bandera hills. Everything fell into place so much; even Buck would think it was happening if he did not know what was going on.
In 1988, they were told the Alligator Hole was sold and Jerry Acord invited them to Pops place. They thought they were getting up in the world, electric hook ups and all. When the water was up, they really had a good time riding on the banana boats.
While we were at Pops Place, Caesare’s wife Kay died and Caesare remarried, and she became the mother of his son, Jeff. There are so many people coming by this time, they just cannot list everyone who was coming.
It got so big there just was not enough parking and was so far from Bandera that Vickie Adams mentioned it to Carla Stroud, and Carla offered them a place at the Beverage Barn in Bandera and they took them up on it in 1996. They have been there ever since.
After we went to The Beverage Barn, Caesare died with cancer. We still miss him very much.
They went on their honeymoon and came home and after a while Caesare Masse, another old friend, took Tack to Bandera for a couple of weeks, or so they thought. He stayed and stayed, so Buck, Shirley and Coy, Buck’s son, along with Buck’s foxhole buddy Jack Thomas, who was married to Buck’s cousin Ina Ruth, and their son Mark set off to Bandera to see what had happened to Tack. Now Caesare was staying with Kay at the time. I don’t recall her last name, and then maybe a year later they were married.
When we got to Bandera, we found Tack playing at the Flying A Dude Ranch, beside the swimming pool. Tack was staying in an old shack behind the Copper Lantern at Wharton’s Dock. Buck and Shirley were in an old camper pickup (all six slept there) and were looking for a place to stay, so Caseare said, “follow me,” and he took them to a place called the Alligator Hole, or pecan bottom, and that is what started the Musician’s Reunion.
They found a spring there where they got their water. They took baths either from a gallon jug, or got in the river and bathed. That was the good old days. No electric.
From there, it got bigger and bigger. There was the six of us, plus Gary Wright, Duck Shuffield, Margie and Duke Ellington, Tex Adams, Arkie Blue, Myrna and E. J. Koubek, along with Myrna’s mom and dad Frankie and Johnnie Forehand. There was Dale, Lucille Searcy, Dewitt and Pat Compton, Tom and Mary Kay who had if I am not mistaken 17 children between them; the kid Buck and Shirley can really remember was W.B and T.R., and probably others that they have forgotten.
Then, Bill and Pud Reeves, Skeeze and Laura Ann Sloan, Pappy Dykes, Charlie Beddingfield, Bobbie and Harold Dennis, Gene Reed, Doctor Lee, Singie Foreman, Jessie Beaumont, Charlie and Roger Heinin, Ballen, Zane Haughton, Tex Thatcher and Joyce Wilkerson, Dan and Pat Turner and kids, Howard Swartz and Mary Ann, Wayne and Billie Walker and kids, Buddy Lee. There were many others who were not mentioned or cannot be remembered. It was so long ago.
There was always something going on. Buck recalls once that T.R. and W.B. were grabbling for fish. That is when they tied a big hook on their finger and went looking for fish. Buck and Bill Reeves got worried about the boys and made them a stick with a hook on it, with a loop they could put on their wrist and could slip their little hand out of. At that same instance they were going grabbling, Buck took the fish dipnet to get the fish out, Gene Reed got in his little van, and Bobby Whitehead was playing music with Caesare. He flew a little cub plane over and dropped a note for Caesare that they were going to play that night.
The bottle did not make it down to the ground, lodged in a tree and a lady across the river was watching all this. She called in and said they were making a dope drop. That brought the law out.
They shot the bottle and water came out so they knew it was not dope, but the paper read the next day there was a dope drop and they combed the Bandera hills. Everything fell into place so much; even Buck would think it was happening if he did not know what was going on.
In 1988, they were told the Alligator Hole was sold and Jerry Acord invited them to Pops place. They thought they were getting up in the world, electric hook ups and all. When the water was up, they really had a good time riding on the banana boats.
While we were at Pops Place, Caesare’s wife Kay died and Caesare remarried, and she became the mother of his son, Jeff. There are so many people coming by this time, they just cannot list everyone who was coming.
It got so big there just was not enough parking and was so far from Bandera that Vickie Adams mentioned it to Carla Stroud, and Carla offered them a place at the Beverage Barn in Bandera and they took them up on it in 1996. They have been there ever since.
After we went to The Beverage Barn, Caesare died with cancer. We still miss him very much.