Shimer touts how his tuba changed his life

FREMONT – When Dale Shimer of Fremont began playing tuba at Bellevue High School in 1942, he didn’t realize how important music would be in his life, especially because tuba wasn’t his first choice.

“The band director for Bellevue needed a tuba player. I wanted to play baritone, but he needed a tuba, so I consented and started with it,” Shimer said.

Music led Shimer down many paths — into the U.S. Army Concert Band, into hundreds of performances with various local bands, and into over six decades of marriage to his wife, Gerry.

“We met at a band concert. We met in July, and, next April, we were married. It’s 64 years now,” Shimer said.

Gerry — whom Shimer jokes plays nothing but the radio — became his constant companion during performances and often served as the band’s chauffeur. Being the mother of six children never slowed her down.

“I went to all the band concerts and all the band practices. Our kids went to band concerts and band practices before they were even born,” she said.

Today, at the age of 88, Shimer still plays tuba and sousaphone in two bands — the North Coast Concert Band and the Genoa American Legion Band. Between the two, he plays dozens of concerts every year all over Northwest Ohio.

He also participates in TUBACHRISTMAS, an annual worldwide event that brings tuba players together for quick practices followed by a public performance featuring all-tuba bands.

“I’ve been doing those for 30 years,” he said.

That lifelong commitment to music got a boost when he was drafted into the Army in May of 1945. At first, the typing skills he had learned at Bellevue High School got him immediately placed into an office, typing reassignment orders for men coming back from fighting overseas during World War II.

From there, he was sent to Alabama for Basic Training, after which he was again assigned to office duty. That changed when he saw a bulletin announcing auditions for the Army Band.

“I tried out and got in the Army Band, and that’s where I stayed,” he said.

He remained Stateside and played in band concerts for troops — and once for a general — and often kept the beat for recruits learning how to march.

“We played right on the post. There was a stadium,” he said. “We had two fellas from Radio City and one from Hollywood, but they weren’t anyone that anyone would recognize now.”

The 1940s was still a time of segregation, even amongst troops fighting common enemies overseas, as well as in the soldier bands performing back home. But though the rules may have been in place, the separation wasn’t always in the men’s hearts.

Both bands wanted to go on furlough, so some of each group were given passes. Shimer was one of only three men in the “white band” who did not receive passes that day.

“There were three of us — the tuba, drum and trumpet players. We went with the black band and played, which was something kind of unique for that time,” he said. “I think we played a concert at the stadium. We were treated really well. They knew why we were there, so the others could go on furlough. We had a fun time being with them.”

After Shimer was discharged in November of 1946, he continued to play music back home. He was a member of the Green Springs Community Band from 1947 until it dismantled just a few years ago. In the 1940s and 1950s, village concerts were a big draw that brought crowds to downtown Green Springs every Wednesday night. The band performed in front of what is now Pizza Rama.

“They had wagons set up for us, until they finally built a grandstand,” Shimer said. “We used to go to Put-in-Bay on the boat. You should have seen the people that came out to look when we’d go by.”