Marching Band Got Me Again...

It's fall. You know how I know? Well, the air is getting crisp; leaves on the maples are turning red and yellow; we have fall calves in the field behind the house; my husband - who, for blogging purposes, I call The CEO - is deeeeeeep into college football. And the biggie: marching band season has started.

My daughter - she needs a nom de blog - is a 9th grader this year. She's playing alto sax in the marching band, and she loves it. Just loves it, and she's terrific at it. I'm so proud. What's really fun about that, of course, is that I get to go to all the competitions and cheer on her band.

And relive my high school experience, too. See, I was in the marching band. I didn't play an instrument; I was a stalwart member of the choir, and there just wasn't any way to do both. So I took choir class and marched with the drill squad - the best of both worlds, in my opinion. I got to go to regional, state, and honors choir, and I got to eat lunch daily with the rest of the band geeks!

Recently, some friends posted some pictures of our high school band on Facebook. (Isn't Facebook great? Fun to see where your friends have wound up and what their lives are like now.) Here's one of the band the year before I joined it (I'm sorry to say that I don't have a credit for this photo, except to note that it was an "official" one taken at the VA state marching band competition, West division, held at our high school in 1982. I'll be happy to add a credit and/or purchase rights if anyone recognizes it.)

Yes, that's right, your eyes work fine... our colors are orange and maroon. The band uniforms themselves have changed over the years. After I graduated, they moved to white military-style uniforms with lots of orange trim, gold braid, and brass buttons. Ick. Saw the current band yesterday at a competition, and their uniforms are mostly black, which I can't get used to, with white, orange, and maroon accents. They're sharp. I'm not in this photo, but I look it over and see so many friends... thanks for the memories, guys. Who are you? BYRD!

Nobody else - and maybe this is a good thing - had anything like our big orange plywood letters. They were great for parades, fun for football games, but difficult to choreograph for competitions. No judge ever knew what to do about our letter squad, except to treat us as a drill squad, and of course we never scored very high. I loved being "a letter," and hangin' with the girls. Jackie, Angela, Betty Jo, Stephanie, Nita, Dawn, Laura, and especially Angie, Carlynn and Trudy - you rock. I miss you. 

Here's another photo, taken at a football game in October 1984 by Angie's dad. The uniforms have changed - hey, how about those yarn tassels on our boots? Quality items right there! - but there we are, with our big orange letters in all their funky, hard-to-wield glory. (I'm the one carrying the R.) And you can't see the scoreboard, but I'd be willing to bet we were losing the football game.

Ah, I miss those days. I didn't realize until yesterday how much I missed cadence... here's a youtube video, about 2 minutes long, of a really fun high school drumline cadence. (Questions for percussionists: when your high school band director issues you a school-owned percussion instrument, does the Drumline 'Tude come standard with it? Do you have to pass a test on the proper method of crossing your arms percussion-section style before band camp? I just wondered.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOPq92zoCsA&feature=response_watch

Yep, ol' Mals has got Band Geek Syndrome again. And she's got it baaaaad.

The top image is from the website devoted to my daughter's band. For safety reasons, I'm not identifying it, but will be happy to provide a link; just email me. Thanks to Rick Lawhorn, Trumpet Extraordinaire, for posting the second image. And thanks to Angie Chaszar for the photo of the Letter Girls. You sparkle, girl.