I arrived home tonight to find an exciting package in the mail today – it contained the below advertising card for “Dale Simons and His Blue Denim Boys”. Why was this so exciting? Dale Simons was my grandfather!

I’ve been haunting ebay for months, hoping to find some sort of memorabilia from my grandpa’s band. He had a dance band in the late 30’s to the early 50’s in the midwest (though interrupted by the war, which took the family to Washington state where my dad was born). They toured through many midwestern states, playing polkas and other dance tunes. My grandpa played cornet and sang. I think this postcard is probably post-WWII, because the family lived in Winona, Minnesota and operated a dance hall there until dance clubs became unprofitable in the mid-50’s.

In this picture the band is wearing their signature overalls with a tie hanging out. There’s a better quality version of this image hanging in my parents’ hallway, and I remember looking at the row of funny smoking men on the bandstands a lot when I grew up.

Howdy!