Community

Hillside Assembly in Gillett is inviting families to one of the area’s biggest fall festivals, the 10-31 Community Party, from 6-7:15 p.m. Tuesday at Gillett Elementary School, 208 W. Main St., Gillett.

The night features all kinds of seasonal games, such as bobbing for apples, a spider ring toss and pin the face on the pumpkin, to name a few. T&T DJ Service will be providing music.

Attendees are invited to bring their already-carved pumpkins (one per child) to put on display and enter for prizes such as Best in Show, Most Creative and Cutest designs. Candy will be handed out from 6-7 p.m. followed by a costume parade.

There will also be prizes for the Best in Show, Most Creative and Cutest design in costumes. This is a family-friendly event, so please no costumes with blood or gore.

The 25th season of the Northeastern Wisconsin Concert Band will be commemorated at its fall concert, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Oct. 29 in the W.J. Jones Auditorium at Marinette High School, 2135 Pierce Ave.

The band will be under the direction of Robert Berndt and Glen Reinke.

The concert band is a volunteer organization and includes close to 80 school music educators and others from the Wisconsin counties of Brown, Marinette, Oconto and Shawano, and the Michigan counties of Menominee and Dickenson. It performs spring and fall concerts each year.

Tickets will be available at the door for $5 for adults and $2 for students. The nonprofit band is financed entirely from concert receipts, donations and sponsorships.

Beginning the first half of the concert, Berndt will lead the band in “Flourish for Wind Band” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which was also the first piece performed by the NEW Band 25 years ago at its first public concert.

“Wine Women and Song,” a new original musical comedy, will be presented Saturday at the Townsend Town Hall. Shows times are 2 and 7 p.m. with seating at 1 and 6 p.m.

Music by troubadour Pat Lowery starts a half-hour before each show, which involves a studio audience attending a taping of “Fruit of the Vine,” a weekly series broadcast on WINE-TV.

Show announcer Char-Donnaye (Marcia Wahoske) introduces the guests, who chat with host Rhee Sling (Kathleen Marsh) before performing a musical number or comedy routine. Jon Marsh has a cameo role as curmudgeon janitor Jack Daniels. Scott Wycherley is Charles DeGallo, and Al Benson is studio cameraman and sound director.

Mavis and Bob Larmay, of rural Oconto, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 3 at the Ravine Banquet Hall in Green Bay.

Mavis Kovnesky and Bob Larmay were married in Coleman on Sept. 2, 1967. Bob was in the Air Force at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in Michigan. They have one son, Scott.

Six of their attendants of 50 years ago were present: Mary Thibodeau and Randy Larmay, Karla Baldwin and Delvin Haag, Joanne and Pat Shallow.

Bernice Johnson, sister of Mavis, and Hubert Johnson were also attendants; both are no longer living.

Tickets are now available for the Oconto Falls Friends of the Arts presentation of the Wisconsin Singers, with opening act Encore!, as part of their 2017-2018 Fine Arts Series.

The performance is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Falls Area Performing Arts Center, inside Oconto Falls High School, 210 N. Farm Road.

Featuring UW-Madison singers, dancers and instrumentalists, the Wisconsin Singers’ newest show, “Can’t Stop Dancing,” includes more than 60 songs from timeless legends such as Sam Cooke and Fred Astaire to current pop icons such as Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Swift. Broadway is represented with numbers from “42nd Street,” “Hairspray” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” while kids of all ages will enjoy moments from Sesame Street and the Mighty Power Rangers.

Tickets at $20 for adults and $12 for students may be purchased online at www.ocontofallsfriendsofthearts.com, by mail or at the door.

The past week’s dose of sunshine made me stop and think about a disease not commonly thought of this time of year. It usually seems to proliferate in late spring or when the dull dreary weather seems to never end.

The disease I thought about was ringworm, a self-limiting, fungal skin disease in cattle, most commonly diagnosed by the appearance of numerous circular, crusty, hairless patches noted on the head, neck, shoulder and abdomen of cattle.

The disease is not caused by a worm, but rather a fungus. The species of the fungus is trichophyton.

If you were to look at the fungus under a microscope, it is a work of art with all its branches and hyphae. However, many cattle owners do not share the same feelings particularly when a farm has it in epidemic portions. Calves have a greater tendency to acquire the skin infection.

The Red Arrow Snowmobile ATV Club and and Old Town Hall Bar & Restaurant have declared the 11th annual ATV/UTV Parade and Corn Roast, held Saturday of Labor Day weekend in Townsend, a success.

Despite the rain about 50 ATVs and UTVs lined up at the Red Arrow clubhouse to parade south. Grand marshal Ron Popp, former Red Arrow Club board member and club member since 1993, led the way to the Old Town Hall Bar & Restaurant and along the Nicolet State Trail.

The crowd pent the late afternoon and evening under a huge tent enjoying meat raffles, disc jockey music and food, including free sweet corn.

Some pretty interesting firsts occurred on Sept. 17, 1967.

The weekly spy thriller “Mission Impossible” premiered on CBS-TV.

The New Orleans Saints played their first NFL game, a 27-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

It is also the day Christian radio station WRVM began broadcasting to Northeast Wisconsin from the top of Suring Hill in Oconto County. The evening-only broadcasts emanated from a three-room, cinder-block building. There was no running water.

WRVM had a full-time staff of two – manager Hardy Hayes and announcer Lynn Herman.

“I was 26 years old,” Herman recalled.

Hayes, Herman and part-time station technician Dean Brubaker were the first voices heard on the station at 12701 State Highway 32. When asked if he remembered those first words, Herman said he couldn’t say for sure, except that is “was probably ‘welcome to WRVM’ and an explanation of what the station was, and what the call letters signified.”

Abrams Spotlight Productions Inc. has scheduled open auditions Sept. 18 and 19 for its winter show, “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

With music and lyrics by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, the production was adapted from the hit 1944 film of the same title starring Judy Garland.

The plot follows the lives of the middle-class Smith family as they journey through comedic misunderstandings, jovial pranks, love and hardship surrounding the 1904 World’s Fair. The film garnered four Academy Award nominations and includes memorable musical numbers like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “The Trolley Song.”

The musical calls for various roles, both male and female, 8 years and older.

Performers will have two opportunities to audition, from 6-8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, or 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, at The Byng Community Theater, 5852 Maple St., Abrams.

Christ Lutheran Church will celebrate its 125th anniversary with a pig roast from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the church, corner of Red Banks Road and County Road H in the town of Underhill. The public is invited.

The menu includes charcoal roasted pork, sauerkraut, German potato salad, red potatoes, baked beans, corn, coleslaw, fresh vegetables, buns, bars, root beer floats and beverages.

Prices are $9 for 15 and older, $5 ages 6-14, free for 5 and younger. The dinner will be served in the fellowship hall with some seating in an outdoor tent, weather permitting.

Christ Lutheran Church was organized in in 1892 in the neighborhood of Berry Lake and served by Pastor P.H Dicke, with descendants who are church members yet today.

Up until 1998, annual ham dinners were served in the basement of the church. Seating space was rather limited, and the members needed to use every foot of the small kitchen effectively for dinners and other big events.