With more than 100 musicians squeezed into his backyard on Sunday evening, an errant horn tooting here and there, Larry Strobel mounted a step ladder at the front to repeat his usual refrain.

None of this was his idea.

"My wife and sister-in-law made me do it," Strobel announced before the beginning of the Perfection Nots rehearsal. "But it was a good idea. I'll give 'em that."

Many peg it as the highlight of Coeur d'Alene's Fourth of July Parade: The performance by the Perfection Nots, the consistent if somewhat ragtag community marching band.

It goes back longer than many might realize.

All the way to the late '70s, in fact. The chamber president at the time, Strobel recalled, had sent out a desperate plea for someone to fill the sad lack of music in the Independence Day parade.

"We were having Sunday dinner, and my wife and sister-in-law said, 'We know people who play. Why not see if we can get a group together?'" the Coeur d'Alene man said.

Responses were reluctant.

Many turned down Strobel's invitation to cobble a band, with the justification that "we don't want to march down Sherman Avenue and make fools of ourselves," he remembered.

High school students insisted on wearing bags over their heads during the performance.

"If it was a bomb, they figured they would be all right," Strobel said of them preserving their musical reputations. "But it was a hit. And the rest is history."

The band has thrived to perform at every Fourth of July parade since, he said. This is the 35th consecutive year members will march in goofy costumes down Sherman Avenue.

Generations of families have joined, teachers have invited students, folks invited friends.

Former residents drive back just to participate in the performance.

"It combines patriotism with happiness," said Strobel, band organizer. "It's just a very happy time."

At Sunday's informal rehearsal, the group was sprinkled with middle schoolers, teens and white-haired folks. There was no restriction on instruments; besides the usual marching band horns and percussion, there was a recorder, a washboard, several violins.

"People do it because they love the music and we love the people of Coeur d'Alene," said sousaphone player Bekah Geren, 19, of Coeur d'Alene. "I love the Fourth of July, I have since I was a little girl. It's being able to contribute to celebrating our country, with something I love."

Dennis Grant of Post Falls, performing with the group since 1985, was proud to point out this was the first year two of his kids, 12-year-old Alexis and 14-year-old Josh, were also playing.

"A lot of these people (in the group) I see only once a year. Relatives and friends come in," Dennis said, adding that his brother drove out from California to play.

Dennis has kept with the group because of the bond between the musicians, he said, and the chance to march alongside his family.

"The Fourth is more emotional, when you've got your kids with you," he said. "This year is especially special for me."

Euphonium player Samuel Palmer praised the group's diversity. Doctors, lawyers, hoboes, he said.

"Just show up with an instrument in your hand," he said.

The group is beloved, Palmer added, because of the tradition it represents.

"I think people just love the solidarity, that we're there year after year," the Coeur d'Alene man said. "I've heard people say 'I've seen the Perfection Nots perform when I was a little kid, and they're still marching today.'"

Trumpet player Tom Price added that the Perfection Nots is always the favorite band of the parade - because it's typically the only one.

"They don't put us in front, 'cuz everyone will leave after we go by," Price said with a chuckle.

On Sunday, Strobel as usual encouraged performers to wear anything, as long as they wore something.

"'Perfection' is how we hope to play," Strobel explained of the why members dress up. "'Not' is how we dress."

Strobel expects the group to last, he said.

There's the love between the musicians, the loyalty to the group.

And there's just the sake of keeping that parade lively.

"It's pretty dead without a marching band," he said.