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Mr. Dennis father walked from Rixeyville to Luray with his friend to grab one of those SI a day tannery jobs and to find a home for his family. He rented a six-room house for $3 a month. "The old lady who owned it had it . for sale for $350,” Mr. Dennis recalled.
Then his father walked back over the mountains to get his wife and children. “We moved during Christmas week in a covered wagon. It took us two days to make the trip. It was just like in the Western days, the same spirit. We owned a cow and my father was afraid to tie her to the wagon, afraid that she might get hurt. I was 14 years old then and I walked all the way leading that cow.
“1 have to give them credit. My father and mother moved over there to give us seven ' children a better chance in life, a chance to go to better schools.”
World Of Music Opens
It was in Luray that the door to the world of music opened wide for W. B. Dennis, leading him down halls he might never have traveled otherwise. “I was a band man ever since I was a boy. It was born in me. In Christmas of 1891, Santa Claus brought me a stick of candy. an orange—and a harmonica. I learned to pay it when I was three. It was a God given talent,” Mr. Dennis said. “Back then, schools didn't have music classes or bands but every little town had one. I joined the old Luray Band when I was 16 so I could learn another instrument besides the harmonica and from then on. I was a band man all my life—until I lost all my teeth and then I became a director,” he chuckled, a twinkle in his eye.
Mr. Dennis started with the baritone trombone and then switched to bass. “There wasn't another bass player in the whole company. Nobody wanted to carry (hat big horn around so 1 took it home to try and 1 fell in love with it. It's the most satisfying instrument I’ve ever played. It’s the base of the whole band. Its vibrations are the center of the music.”
At the same time Dennis joined the Luray Band, he started a four year apprenticeship as a tinsmith. “I was a sheet metal mechanic. I put on roofs, gutters and downspouts. They all had to be made in the shop in those
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