Ray Sands is the only original member still playing in the band, The Polka Dots, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. His wife, Sue, plays saxophone in the band. In addition to playing in The Polka Dots, Ray Sands also managed a 30-cow dairy farm until last year. (photo by Krista M. Sheehan)
Ray Sands is the only original member still playing in the band, The Polka Dots, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. His wife, Sue, plays saxophone in the band. In addition to playing in The Polka Dots, Ray Sands also managed a 30-cow dairy farm until last year. (photo by Krista M. Sheehan)
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KENYON, Minn. - For the majority of his life, Ray Sands from Kenyon, Minn., could either be found in the barn milking cows or playing accordion on a bandstand at a regional ballroom.

Sands is the only original member still playing in the band, The Polka Dots, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. In addition to the band, 78-year-old Sands also managed his dairy farm with 30 milking cows until July 2008 when he sold the herd.

"I was going to try to hold out until (I was) 80 but I just kept slowing down a little more and thought I have to start enjoying life a little too," Sands said.

At the age of 5 in 1936, Sands milked his first cow. At that time, the family did not have electricity in the barn so the cows were milked by hand in the glow of a lantern hanging on a nail in the wall. After asking his dad for the opportunity to milk a cow, Sands was assigned to Ronana - the tamest of the 17 registered Milking Shorthorns in the barn.

"I got a milking stool and sat down next to her and milked her that night," Sands said. "Boy that was fun so I asked if I could milk her again in the morning."

He milked Ronana for about a week then decided he would quit.

"My dad told me, 'You can't quit now.' So I was hooked for 72 years," Sands said with a laugh.

His curiosity for music also started at a young age.

"I loved the accordion from day one, but my dad talked against it at first. He called it dry music," Sands said. "I told him I liked it."

At the age of 9, Sands received a $25 accordion from his dad, who was a tuba player.

"That was the biggest thing in my life," Sands said about the accordion. "I was the happiest kid in the country. Every night after milking I practiced faithfully."

By age 11, Sands had taught himself how to play the accordion well enough to join his family's band.

"I don't read a note of music," he said. "I learn everything by ear."

Throughout his teenage years, Sands played in the family band and worked on his family's farm. In 1949, a year after Sands had graduated from high school and joined in a farming partnership with his dad, Sands had another musical opportunity come his way.

A municipal city band played on the street in Zumbrota every Saturday during the summer to raise money for a new hospital. When fall came, the band wanted to continue playing together.

"Some guys came over after milking and said they were forming a polka band in Zumbrota and were wondering if I could help out with a couple gigs," Sands said. "I said I was pretty busy, but I could help a little. Now 60 years later I'm still helping out."

Word about the new band - The Polka Dots - spread quickly.

"It really mushroomed after we started," Sands said. "We were one of the busiest bands in the nation in the 50s."

The Polka Dots played in the tri-state area of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. The eight-member band had three saxophones, two trumpets, one tuba, one accordion and a set of drums.

"We went to nearly every ballroom that existed," Sands said.

They also played at least five nights a week, usually Wednesday through Sunday night, serenading crowds with polka, big band and old-time country music.

"At that time there was a circuit of ballrooms and they were usually packed with people," said Sands' wife, Sue, who joined the band when they were married in 1970. "It was a totally different day and age back then."

Since the band played so many gigs they never had time to practice.

"When we got new arrangements we would just play them on the job," Sands said. "Everyone else reads music well so we would play it later in the evening when the crowd was noisy."

In the 1970s the band slowed down to about three or four nights a week and in the most recent years, The Polka Dots play every weekend and occasionally during the week.

Two of his favorite places to play were the Chart House in Minneapolis, an exclusive club where the Minnesota Vikings and Twins would gather, and the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul.

"It was ultimate as far as ballrooms," Sands said about the Prom Ballroom. "It was probably the fanciest ballroom in the five-state area."

The band also had two European tours, playing first in Austria and Germany, then in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The highlight of all performances has been when the band played at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for Minnesota Day in July 1997.

"That was quite an experience," Sands said. "I couldn't believe the size of the crowd. It was around 1,000 people."

The Polka Dots today still have about eight people, with Sands' wife, Sue, and daughter, Kristy (Sands) Jacobson, both playing saxophone. Their other daughter, Heidi (Sands) Gusenius, occasionally sings with The Polka Dots. The band knows nearly 400 songs, including two songs Sands recently composed - How Soon and Polka Dot Waltz - along with its signature song, Ping Pong Polka.

"There's not a gig today we can get by without playing that [signature] song," Sands said. "It's part of the ritual."

Although The Polka Dots took up a large portion of his time, Sands also had a farm to run. On the nights he played gigs he found neighbors who would milk cows for him. He usually returned home early in the morning and sometimes after long trips he headed right out to the barn to start chores for the day.

"I was young and if I got three or four hours of sleep I was in good shape," Sands said.

Even though Sands sacrificed sleep, he never regretted his years of having double careers. He has a passion for music and cows.

"I didn't want to give up either one.," he said.

In fact he still hasn't. Sands still has some youngstock on the farm from his herd of Holsteins.

"I'm still in the business a little. A farm without cattle isn't a farm, in my opinion," Sands said.

Although Sands has stopped milking cows, he just can't stay out of the barn - or off the bandstand as the only original member of The Polka Dots still playing in the band.

"It gets in your blood."