There are Don Jacoby, who performed on national radio shows, Tim Warfield, Chris Baccas, Don Miller, Dick Herbst, Phil Stinger, Charles Budesheim, Glen Crowl, Dave Baker, Charlie Moul, Chet Sheffer, Ken Loucks, Walter Carl, Rudy Riese, Bud Leader, Dick Gruver, George Roye, Greg Good, Chuck Long and Maurice Oberdick. (Did Around Town miss anyone?)

Also among them is Eugene Budesheim, a great drummer, who is still working at age 82, but slowly moving into retirement.

He has performed with the famous Blue Moon Orchestra, a Valencia house orchestra; the Spring Garden Band; the York Drum Symphony Orchestra; the Columbia Symphony Orchestra; the York High band; Sunlight Serenaders; the Valencia House band; the Bob Harry Band; the Shirey Orchestra and the Walter Carl Orchestra. During World War II, he was with the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Norfolk, Station Naval Training band and the Navy School of Music.

He performed under symphony conductors, Louis Vyner, George Robert Mandel, Fransciou Yarosky, James Pfholl and Robert Hart Baker and Spring Garden directors Lester K. Loucks, Martin Keller, Don Krebs, John Gouker and Wayne Romer.

While in high school, Budesheim performed in the Southern District, Pennsylvania All-State Band, the West York Ringgold Band, the City Band, and the York Boys Band and then joined the Si Noel Band.

Budesheim's career began in third grade at Hartley Elementary School, where he auditioned for his teacher, Miss Suter, and qualified to play with the school drum and bugle corps under the direction of its principal, Jess Brown. He then moved to the Edgar Fahs Smith Junior High Band and orchestra.

He then became a pit drummer for Vaudeville shows at the Strand Theater on Saturdays in 1942.

He began instructing the York and Hanover American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps and the VFW trumpet and drum corps of York.

He played the York and Bloomsburg fairs, and backed some of the world's outstanding entertainers, including Red Skelton, Victor Borge, Englebert Humperdink, George Jessel, Cab Calloway, John Raitt, Jim Nabors, Shirley Jones and Henry Mancini.

And when not performing at concerts and shows, he taught more than 200 local students how to play the drums.

Budesheim and his wife, Lucille, have been married for 55 years, and they have two children, Mike and Janie Budesheim.

He's noticed that the business of big band music has slowed down, which he believes is supposed to be "according to plan for an 82-year-old drummer."

"I have to feel blessed to have had all the opportunities musically in my lifetime," Budesheim tells Around Town.
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Cleo Tyson Wagman of York is seeking information about June Gilbert Barnes, Jean Knaub Carder, Mary Ellen Koch Hostetter, Kathleen Lockwood Nailor, and Jean Myers Downs. She wants to notify them about the William Penn Senior High School class of 1940 reunion. Write to Wagman at 1955 Weisgerber Way, York 17404-6708.
Harry McLaughlin's local Around Town column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in The York Dispatch. Reach him at hmclaughlin@yorkdispatch.com .