If I could drop into any point in my grandfather’s life for a short visit, I’d probably choose the 1920s.  It would be like Owen Wilson’s character in Woody Allen’s latest movie, Midnight in Paris, time-traveling to 1920s Paris – but without the romance element, and substituting the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota for the Left Bank of Paris. 

My grandfather Ronald Riggs was born in 1901, during the rise of John Philip Sousa’s popularity, and he was a college student when the Great Migration and the proliferation of radios and record players helped popularize jazz throughout the country.

Ronald entered college in the fall of 1919.

It’s been a hectic month, and I have fallen behind in my plans to blog about the life of my grandfather, Ronald.  I do plan to pick up where I left off, and write about his musical adventures in college and his early career as a band director, but it will have to wait for next week.  Today, we are leaving for a vacation to Yosemite and San Francisco!

My grandfather loved to travel, too.  Here's a great photo of him with my uncle Bob, my dad and my aunt Dana on vacation.
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Much of my musical family blogging and research has focused on the career of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs.  This month, I’m devoting my posts to G. Oliver’s oldest child, my grandfather Ronald.  Ronald Graham Riggs was a talented band director and educator who happened to be the son of an acclaimed bandmaster.  He was born on Oct. 23, 1901, and he died Oct. 12, 1968.

My paternal grandfather was a BK – a bandmaster’s kid.  I’m not sure that’s a real term; I may have just coined it.
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