Saturday morning Tracey and went to see our towns Christmas parade. I have been to the parade probably a half a dozen times since I graduated highschool 18 years ago. I have fond memories of the Christmas parade. In highschool we always had fun marching in the parade.
The song our band director wanted us to play was a little lame and we were known to play other things when we got tired of playing the SAME christmas song. But after the first 15 times you play "Step Along with SANTA" and you still have two miles to go...Sorry Mr. Band Director we are moving on to something else. The funny thing was we knew what song to play by the cadance of the drum line.
The band directors would get pissed but there was nothing they could do about it so they just smiled and waved to the crowd as we did our thing. Trombones would do some head chops...Tuba's would swing around...drumline would get fancy with some moves....
The important thing was the crowd LOVED IT!!!
Each year all of the highschool band, cheerleaders, and drill teams march in the parade.
Two years ago (my last trip) that was still the case. Then the other day we kept waiting...and waiting...and waiting...No bands.
My kids LOVE the bands. They hear the music and the drums and they start getting excited. They know Daddy and Aunt Dana did band in high school and have even watched some old performance tapes I have.
This year there was a combined band of ALL 4 highschools. A grand total of about 60 kids. My highschool band had 300 kids in it and that was 18 years ago. It has grown since then. WTF????
Not only that but when the band was playing Rudolph about 1/3 of them were not playing and were just talking. AGAIN I SAY WTF????
All four of this towns highschool bands are EXCELLENT. There is a history of excellent bands in my town. When I was in highschool we placed 9th out of over 400 5A bands in the state of TEXAS. We were (*&E@#'in good! My sister was in the band and they were just as good as we are.
People like to hear the bands at parades.....I am not even going to mention that only ONE of the highschools drill teams showed up. And one highschool did not have ANYONE SHOW except for the handful of kids that marched with the band. No drill team, cheerleaders nothing.
WTF HAPPENED? My wife still works in our hometown district so she did some investigating. It seems that the Christmas parade has become OPTIONAL.
That to me is sad.
5 comments:
It's probably called a "holiday parade" too now...
It turns out (only in the band's case) that the "real band" had All regional competition that day so they couldn't march in the parade. Turns out the student's that were marching in the parade were the "B team". It was obvious.
I have to know what you played in band...... ;)
Tuba of COURSE!!! Don't I look like a tuba guy!
Joplin MO has a band that went to the Rose Bowl one year we were in MO. Carthage Days is in October as the maple leaves turn orange, yellow and red. The parade there was pretty good.
NOT a parade man though.
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