Summertime is a great time to get outside and enjoy some music, especially in a local park's band shell.

In today's Wandering Wisconsin, we look at how one band has "banded" together for more than a century.

Sarah: A lot of communities have community bands, but here in Menomonie, they can claim the longest continually playing band in the state of Wisconsin. It's called the Ludington Guard Band.

"As far as we know we are the oldest band of its kind, continually performing band since 1888," says Carroll Rund, the band's president.

It began even before that in 1877, it a cavalry unit called the Ludington Guard, it eventually dissolved, but the band found a way to keep these sounds of summer going.

"This is a piece of Americana at its best. You won't find this in very many communities," Rund says.

The members have changed throughout the years, but the quality of the music, and the commitment from the crowd hasn't.

Rund says, "it's a special feeling to play for your home town. Our crowd is very loyal, we have large audiences."

On summertime Tuesday nights, even the hot ones, people bring their lawn chairs and their little one's Disney chairs, to listen to the musicians in these chairs.

Their music really moves people, from a little ballerina to a bouncing baby, they get feet tapping.

"The music is pretty typical classic band music, we do marches, overtures, show tunes, novelty numbers," Rund says.

Carroll Rund has been in the Ludington Guard Band since 1974. He's the president and a tuba player.

"It's a labor of love for me. I love doing this. The band loves performing. We have people from all walks of life that do this," Rund adds.

He says there are 57 members this year, they range in age from their teens to their eighties.

"Once they join it becomes part of your blood. Obviously it has in mine and we just stay with it because we enjoy it so much," says Rund.

Larry Jess has played the saxophone and clarinet in this park for 46 years, "since I was 15. I was playing in the band before I had a drivers license."

His sister has played for decades here too, marking one of the family ties, but there are also love connections.

"Two people that were playing in the band are getting married this Saturday," says Jess.

Rund adds, "somebody once said music is the pathway to love, if that's the case, play on."

As the band plays on, the audience grows.

"It's the social event of the week really," Rund says.

"Unique gathering in that you get all the way from the little kids to the grandmothers and grandfathers," Jess continues.

Jess says it was his parents who got him hooked, "I started coming to these concerts when I was a little kid."

So it's fitting that the band makes it a point to celebrate the littlest listeners.

"Another tradition we do is a children's march at the end of the first half," says Rund.

Because you never know, it might be the band's next generation, taking their first steps across the stage.

Sarah: The Ludington Guard Band plays in Wilson Park, right across from the city government center in Menomonie every Tuesday night at 8:00 in the summertime.

The band helps support itself through a foundation. It also awards scholarships to young musicians.