As you probably know by now, our family is musical family. Not only on the instrumental side, but also the boys and Daryl can sing. Because Kyle and William have performed in The Music Man before, it was about time that we loaded up the car and headed west to Mason City to check out the Music Man Square. Now Mason City, Iowa is only about 60 minutes from our farm, but after talking about it for weeks, we finally decided to go on Friday afternoon. I took off a couple of hours of vacation from work and off we went. 
We weren’t sure where we were supposed to go once we got to town, and with the help of William’s cell phone, we found it with no problems. Sometimes you can think that kids rely way too much on their phones, but honestly when you need them in a pinch.. they really do come in handy.
OK, so the first stop was to go to the boyhood home of Meredith Willson. It was right across from the museum, so that was easy. The home is beautiful and our tour was great! Since it was a Friday afternoon in January, you guessed it – we were the only ones there, and lucky us! That meant a private tour. After the house tour, over to the museum we went. Once we got inside the Square I just couldn’t believe it. I think you would know what I mean. It’s like when you expect that it will be good – and then it’s like it was way over the top. The square is a 40,000 square foot facility with an indoor 1912 River City Streetscape. It’s a replica of the movie set from Warner Bro’s, and what we found out in our tour is that the original burnt a couple of years ago, so it’s the only set that is still in existence. There was everything on the set, from the billiard room to the gymnasium. And everything was set just like it was in the movies. We learned why he named the town River City in the movie, and also who he named a lot of the actors in the movie after in his childhood while growing up in Mason City. Even some of the businesses that are in the movie are still in town with the same names. After we toured the square, off to the next museum we went. In this area was all of the things that Meredith Willson was involved in, and let me just tell you – it was a lot! There was also quite a lot of unique musical instruments in this museum, and some the boys haven’t seen before. 
The tour ended with the guides asking if we wanted some ice cream from the ice cream shop on the square and then to the gift shop we went.
A replica of 'The Music Man' movie set
Inside the museum
Statue of Meredith Willson in the square
What a fun day, and part of what made it so fun was that the tour guides just couldn’t believe that both boys were helping to keep the spirit of the musical alive by taking part in the productions in high school, in community theater, and also in the local theater in Canada.
And what did we see at the end of the day? A billboard that you stand behind and put your face through. Now William hates these things, and when I asked who would take a picture with me? He was so grateful that Kyle was there. Pretty cool picture if I must say so myself.
What a good picture!