One of my not so graceful moments took place after a high school football game. My cousin and I were riding in the back of my brother’s pickup while my parents were in the front driving. While riding, I was wrapped up in the sousaphone that I played in the marching band. Why I had it on still is a mystery to me. We were turning a corner and all of a sudden… falling over the side was a body wrapped up in a sousaphone. My cousin yelled “Stop!” Mom came running out of the truck to make sure I was all right… yelling at dad because he went around the corner too fast. Actually, I think the instrument took most of the damage. I was more worried about what Mrs. Curtis was going to say Monday about the condition of the horn (she was more worried about me, of course). To this day, everyone who was involved or knows about the incident gets a chuckle. Shortly after we got back to the school, Chad, Dan, and I left for Columbus where we met my oldest brother, Jeff, to go to Cleveland the next day where the Buckeyes were playing a special game. On the way to Columbus, I had an ice pack over my head. AH, YOUTH.
Your sousaphone was all brass? The ones my high school used were the white ones, like this one. Anyway, I remember the joys of marching band myself. I couldn’t care les about football so I remember stuffing my marching hat with a walkman and tapes to listen to during the game when we weren’t playing. These days all kids need is a tiny MP3 player that can easily fit within the uniform…
Yep… mine was silver brass. I believe they have reverted to the plastic. I loved marching band season. Sitting in the stands, freezing our tails off at times… good times.
How about band camp- did you do that? And then there’s watching one of two schools always win the marching band competitions when we couldn’t do better than fourth. Oh, and the parades- marching in those heavy uniforms sometimes in 80-90 degree heat. Those were the days all right. 🙂
Back in the day, our small town marching band was really good. Three state championships. I remember marching at the college band day at Emily’s alma mater. Elvis tribute. About a five mile parade, I believe… then halftime during the f-ball game. Of course nothing compared to my cousin’s days in the Ohio State University Marching Band.
And I did have a summer of band camp.
I remember one of the competitions being at Northwestern University, and being impressed at how good the college marching band was with their 3/4 turns and whatnot. Alas, I gave up playing the trumpet after high school. My friend and college roommate, however, continued with his sax and marched in NIU’s marching band. I wasn’t to be without music for very long though. I started singing only a couple of years later, and made it to the top choir at NIU despite not being a music major.
SWEEET!!! Never give up on things that are meaningful 🙂
I sing in my church choir nowadays, besides the occasional musical. Just had a rehearsal last night. Speaking of church, singles group starts in 15-min, so it would seem to be time to end this pseudo-conversation. 😛
See ya.