Henrietta Hay's Column

We had a band when I was in High School back in - well, quite a while ago. I know, because I dug out an old annual my mother had carefully saved, and looked it up. The band picture showed about 12 little boys in short pants grasping their horns and trying to look grown up. Certainly that band did not distinguish itself on the field of football. The football field was just that - a large field that was very dusty in dry weather and unbelievably muddy when it rained. The stands were stands - space where we could stand during the games! It had the advantage of intimacy. All the fans ran up and down the field with the play, so we could see the game quite clearly.

I have no idea where or under what circumstances the band played. If it made it to the football games at all, which I doubt, I'm quite sure it didn't do anything more than walk back and forth. But now some sixty years later the modern High School Marching Band is something quite different.

The change has taken place gradually and I haven't really been aware of most of it. I love band music and have a tendency to jump out of my chair and cheer when Professor Harold Hill's gang bursts into "76 Trombones" as I watch the movie for about the 25th time, and I sort of rate John Philip Sousa up there with George Washington. But I am way behind the times musically.

This year, however, my authority on teen-age affairs is playing in our High School band and I have been catching up on my band watching.

I have heard rumors that football is an activity for those kids who can't make the marching band! I suppose there could be a touch of prejudice there, but it makes sense to me. "The High School Band," whatever its size, in whatever town, has become not only a school activity, but also a part of the whole community. The band is most visible at football games and parades, but it serves the entire community by participating in all kinds of special programs throughout the year. This would have been unheard of in my day, but kids now even can letter in band if they meet very strict requirements, including 100 hours of participation outside the classroom. In spite of all this, the band member's claim, "they don't get any respect!"

It's hard for one of my generation to believe what these kids are doing. I watched some of them perform in Delta at the regional marching championship. The musical talent and showmanship of the High School musicians is not related to anything I remember from the so-called good old days. Today's bands, with their drum majors and auxiliary units and pop music can march and dance and ham it up and even run, and still have enough wind to play a piccolo or a tuba or anything in between. Their performances are choreographed as carefully as a stage show and they are so well disciplined that, if all goes well, their precision is absolute.

Of course, there are those unforeseen circumstances. The weather is one thing even the toughest band director can't plan on. This fall on one muddy field, one of the band members got stuck in the mud. He didn't even pause, but simply stepped out of the offending shoes and marched on in his socks. And then there was the kid who had a trumpet solo to perform. As he was marching onto the field the 3rd valve slide (see, I'm even learning the language and what's more, I know what it is) flipped off his trumpet. He got the attention of the trumpeter marching next to him and they managed to swap horns without missing a step. Who says modern kids can't think on their feet?

And the Band Parents! You may think football parents are a little wild, but have you ever spent time in a grandstand surrounded by band parents? They even wear uniform T-shirts so you know who they are in case you didn't hear them yelling. They're very proud of their kids and they have every right to be.

Any relation of today's High School bands to the one I don't remember when I was in High School is strictly coincidental. But I suspect playing your horn on key and marching on in step even if your shoes got stuck in the mud feel exactly the same today as they did then. If I owned a hat I'd take it off to these kids and their directors. As it is, I'll just keep going to watch and listen to them. They put on a tremendous show.