My Small (Minded) Town

I'm not ashamed to tell you that I was a dyed-in-the-wool band geek. My geekdom lasted far beyond high school (where our uniforms had little red satin capes), into college and through my entire teaching career, a panorama of tall fuzzy hats, pants with stripes down the sides, and white bucks that required the kind of polish they make for baby shoes. I have marched in at least 200 parades. I also know what it feels like to have a piccolo adhere to your lower lip, via frozen saliva.

And--I have a certain animosity toward people who ridicule student musicians, or underestimate the efforts of school bands to provide music for community occasions. Kids who join the band and stay with it over several years just love to play. They like the rush of making music with their friends--and as they grow older, they become part of a time-honored cycle of performances and commitments that student musicians fulfill for school and community: football games, pep assemblies, the nursing home at Christmas, Honors Night, commencement. There are special band traditions--the hot cadence a talented drummer wrote back in '88, or gathering outside the band room to play a tearful Alma Mater before graduation. These are meaningful and healthy activities for kids, a way to share their talents with the wider world, to be responsible, to be part of something good.

So I was surprised to see a nasty letter to editor in the local daily, criticizing the high school band in the  small town next to mine for wearing their summer uniforms (shorts and band T-shirts) on Memorial Day (which was warm and sunny this year).

Several hundred people were in attendance to watch our show of respect for the fallen men and women of our armed forces. This was also a time to give respect to those who have served and are currently serving our nation. My discernment [sic] is the fact that our high school band did not show the respect deserved of these men and women. Marching down the center of Main Street in tennis shoes, little orange shorts and white T-shirts just doesn't do it.

Naturally, this was followed by the usual range of low-information comments on the slug-like nature of kids today, and why bands don't swing their instruments and high-step any more. (Answer: marching styles go in and out of fashion. The question is the equivalent of asking why cars no longer sport those attractive fins.) Some people defended the band, and thanked them for showing up-- for 60 years in a row--and playing in the Memorial Day parade. All in all, however--it was discouraging.

My bands played the local Fantasy of Lights parade when the temperature was in the single digits, and Homecoming in a freezing sideways rain, but summer parades are often the toughest. I was always happy, waking up on Memorial Day, to see cloudy, 50-degree weather, because I knew heat stroke was not going to be a problem. Wool uniforms are hot and heavy, and plastic hats trap heat. Students are reluctant to drink  sufficient water, because they can't drop out of a mile-long parade to use the porta-john. Wearing lightweight clothing was an eminently practical choice--a decision that had nothing to do with respect.

On Memorial Day, high school trumpeters across this county got up at dawn to meet members of the VFW and play Taps in dozens of little country cemeteries . Band parents transported trailer loads of marching gear, flags, chairs and stands to parks and parking lots, and teachers conducted the Navy Hymn and America the Beautiful once again. And in the midst of their final exams, graduation, prom and regional sports events, high school band geeks showed up--once again, on a day when their classmates were sleeping in--to march down Main Street in honor of those who sacrificed to make such a small town parade possible. Showing up, rain or shine, year after year. That's respect.

Image: Flickr/Creative Commons/dbking

Comments

[Cindi Rigsbee]

Thank you, Nancy, for helping your readers understand what some take for granted - being a band member is a commitment to entertain, celebrate, and honor - using music - while enduring all kinds of elements, some of which are not very comfortable.

Interestingly, yesterday I stood looking into my pantry trying to make a decision and noticed I was finger-tapping on the shelf. It was my high school's drum cadence (from c. 1975.) I wasn't in the band, but that beat is forever ingrained in my memory.

Speaking of memory, I wasn't thinking when a few of my fellow Teachers of the Year asked me to dip my toes in the water at the WWII Memorial when we were in DC (for a photo.) My son-in-law made a comment about the photo-that those soldiers "died face down in the mud" and I should have shown more respect. This comment tortured me, and I lost sleep over my actions. My brother is a Vietnam Vet, and I lost uncles in WWII. But I personalized the situation and thought about my uncles. I know they would say, "Cindi, put your toes in that water. We served our country and died in a war so you would have the freedom to live your life and have fun, for gosh sakes!"

The same goes for your Memorial Day bands. They could march those streets in their underwear, if they wanted, because of those soldiers who fought for them. That freedom in itself is a memorial to those men and women who fought.

I doubt one fallen soldier would say "Get your toes out of that water" or "you should be uncomfortable as you march to memorialize us."

March on, bands! Our lives would surely miss the "beat" without you!

[Melissa B.]

Those who would dare to criticize the bad kids or director are probably related to the administrative numbskulls I've been dealing with for 2 weeks. Hey, people, wake up...those uniforms are hot!

[Maria Stuart]

I hope the marching band kids didn't take the off-base criticism to heart. The kinds of things people complain about in the local paper never cease to amaze me. Great post, Nancy. You should send it to that local paper!

[Nancy Flanagan]

Thanks for reading and posting, everyone. This story has developed legs...

My favorite response came from a woman who said: OK, let's make the students wear their heavy wool uniforms as a sign of respect. But let's also demand that parade spectators show respect, as well, by coming to the parade in suits, dresses, and shoes. If the band is disrespectful in shorts and white band T-shirts, then the ladies in halter tops and everyone in flip-flops is equally disrespectful.

Not sure I want to sent the piece to the local paper, Maria (smiling). As a band teacher, I might be targeted as "part of the problem." Maybe...

[Laurie Wasserman]

Nancy,
Thanks for sharing this story. I have always been in awe of marching bands: kids who can play an instrument, march in unison without missing a beat, and doing it in all kinds of weather. To be able to perform no matter what the elements has made me respect those kids, and their band coaches (hope that's the right term). How sad to have folks show utter lack of understanding, sympathy, and worse, COMPASSION, for these kids on a hot day. I will look at future events, parades, and performances of marching bands with your story close to my heart.
Thank you for sharing it, and let those wonderfully talented kids know they have a HUGE FAN in Boston who thinks they are a wicked cool!
Laurie