First day with those green shirts

We played Hilbrook Recreational Center from August 2-8 for Henry Vehoff. (This was one of the most wonderful places I had ever seen for a festival. There were great clean showers, a laundry facility, a beautiful lake and campground)
Henry had asked Don Reno about starting a Blue Grass Festival and the best way to get started.
Don told him to get two great bands and have them all week. Have some workshops, some contest and a festival Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We spent Monday and Tuesday with workshops on the various instruments. Wednesday there were individual competions and a band contest on Thursday.

Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday the festival began, Flatt, Stanley, The Gentlemen with John Duffy (Gaudreau had a reserve obligation) Bill and John Duffey got the baseball gloves from under the bus and spent a portion of Saturday afternoon pitching baseball. Both seeing if they could out throw the other...Somewhere out there in "The vast "Land of the Flashbulbs of the Past" there are photos of that. If we could find one.
Top Photo Courtesy Dan Jones




Bottom Photo taken by Ginger "Sam" Kuykendall Alred. It was hot in that building.....
Henry asked Don's advice and Don suggested Reno, Smiley, Harrell and Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys for the week for workshops and to judge the contest then do a show each evening.

We worked all 7 days to a small but attentive crowd from Monday til Thursday then on Friday he had a good crowd for the remainder of the weekend.

Bill had all sorts of people who wanted to be close to him whereever he went. Many were great folks, but there were some who were down right irritating. On Monday one of these individuals showed up,,,,hanging around everywhere, on the bus, by the bus and just everywhere....On Tuesday another showed up..... Bill was very irritated at their constant hanging around and was somewhat ill tempered from time to time the remainder of the week. Thats how the Don Reno cutting Dan Jones hair came about.

But during the week one of these individuals who could get lets say a little "windy", told a fan about how the Blue Grass Boys always wore white shirts....all the time. You could tell it didn't set well with Bill, he didn't say a word at the time, but after the person had left he gave Joe Stuart some cash and told him to go and get the band a set of shirts---any color but white. Joe was gone a while and came back with Green Shirts. Thus the "Green Shirt Edition" of the Blue Grass Boys in 1971.