I recently posted about my high school marching band days and then found myself watching a Iowa girls’ basketball district playoff game at the high school gym; however, since my former high school consolidated with a neighboring school district, the building houses the elementary grades. For whatever reasons unknown to me, high school basketball uses this gym. Go figure.
I was surprised to find many of the old marching band trophies on display, however the numerous wooden plaques awarded at state competitions were not there. Probably squirrel away in a box forgotten somewhere in the bowels of the building. Reading the trophies reminded me of this or that competition that we marched in.
One year the summer overnight band trip was to a state parade competition in Des Moines: dozens of bands, large and small, agreeing to march in Iowa summer heat. And, in the typical hurry-up-and-wait mode that most band competitions are run, we arrived at our staging position and waited for anything to happen. It was decently war, so everyone sought out whatever shade could be found and killed time by talking to friends, other schools’ band members, and anyone in the near vicinity to kill time….except the drum line. If you’re unfamiliar with drummers, drummers often drum without reason, so while everyone else rested the drummers played: solos, warm-ups, songs. Doesn’t matter what, drummers are going to drum.
The drummers next started playing cadences, including the cadence for this parade. As the cadence started, the band members stood up, grabbed their instrument and towards the drummers. The cadence finished, roll-off was played, and the band played our competition song. Totally unplanned and unprompted – the band director was nowhere in sight, likely taking a cigarette break – but everyone wanted something to do. The song concluded and just as casually everyone went back to their shade.
We fucking nailed it, and the nearby bands – the ones in our class whom we would compete against – watched in shock and awe as they realized they had already lost. And they had, as we finished second across all schools, losing only to a much larger Western Dubuque band by something like .5 point. Yes, we were that good and we knew it. Arrogant too: though we noticed the other bands’ reactions, our attitude was Meh, it’s what we do.
Ah, the memories …. there are others, but this experience is the epitome of what an incredible music program our school had, incredible instructors somehow pulling out masterful performances again and again.
