Strike up the Band!

With the exception of seventh grade, I was part of the school band from fifth grade on. I started out playing the clarinet – our “family” instrument. It was the one we owned so all of us played it at one point or another. In fact, this clarinet is still in my closet.

Once I reached high school we also added in “Pep Band” where we played at the basketball games as well as “Jazz Band” which did more “funky” music at concerts. This was aside from being in “regular band.”
Part of band was also marching in parades. We usually did three parades on Memorial Day. Since we were a district high school, we marched in parades in three of the towns. Typically it would be hot and someone would always become a bit faint.

In my junior year (I think – it may have been my sophomore year), we had a lack of trombones. Our band director asked if anyone was willing to learn since we needed them for parades and pep band. I volunteered along with two friends. One friend typically played percussion and one played the flute. I loved the trombone. It was a lot of fun, but I was not very good at it. My arms were too short as well so it was hard to hit that last slide position.

My Mom was part of the “band boosters” and they worked very hard to get us new uniforms. Here I am modeling the new uniform that was worn for parades:



And when we had concerts, we added a lovely (note the sarcasm even today…) ruffle on our shirt with a black suit coat and blue bow tie and cummerbund. 



To this day, I still despise our Pep Band shirts. Yes, our school colors are blue and gold (ugh!), but really, you have to check this out….


….hideous color.   Of course, I can’t remember who was sitting behind me, but they didn’t want their photo taken that’s for sure.

A few more parade photos:


  
I am in the middle of the front row. The only clarinet amongst flutes. No, I don’t remember why Mr. Bouchard (our band director) placed me there, but I’m sure he had a reason.


These were our old uniforms. They were about 10 or so years old and we didn’t have enough pants for everyone so a lot had to wear jeans and some even wore just white shirts. The need for conformity got us the snazzy new ones above.

I truly loved band. I had a fantastic time. I played clarinet in regular band and pep band, trombone for a short time in pep band, and piano in jazz band. I miss music and I am very happy to report that I start taking piano lessons (along with my boys) this week. I couldn’t be more happy.



This is my 13th post out of a series of 15 for the Mommy's Piggy Tales project. If you'd like to join in saving your memories for your family, Janna will be starting a new session on October 7th.