{"id":2640,"date":"2022-09-23T22:44:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T22:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2640"},"modified":"2022-09-26T01:18:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T01:18:31","slug":"ftv-band-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2640","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Band Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When my folks finally moved from their last home at the age 93 and 89, they had owned three different homes in Marquette over a fifty year span.\u00a0 They had toyed with the idea of downsizing to an apartment when both were in their late seventies, but we pointed out, a) they were doing fine in their own home, b) gardening was still one of their major hobbies, c) figuring out how to downsize a house full of stuff to a two or three room apartment was going to take a lot of work, and d) when the time came and they could no longer live in their own home, their three grown children could take care of sorting things out then.\u00a0 Living in Marquette, my brother Ron took on the brunt of their household chores and we helped as much as we could from two hours away.\u00a0 When the house was being cleaned out before it went up for sale, my wife and I ended up with the dining room set because my mother really wanted us to have it.\u00a0 We also took one book shelf my father had built years ago because some of my earliest memories involve pulling books from it.\u00a0 Oh yes, we also ended up with the family archive of photo albums and trays of slides.\u00a0 My father loved to take pictures and when he discovered slides, he documented a good chunk of our life in that medium.\u00a0 The photo albums and slides are currently sitting in the basement waiting for me to convert them to some form of digital storage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you are wondering what in the world any of this has to do with a thing called Band Day, let me explain.\u00a0 When I was trying to figure out how many slides there are in need of duplication, I pulled a couple out and held them up to the light just to see what they were.\u00a0 The first one I looked at was of fellow high school band drummer Wayne Maki and I standing next to our back porch in our full uniforms.\u00a0 It had to be from our freshman year in high school because we were both wearing marching snares.\u00a0 Wayne ended up as the marching band bass drummer for the next three years so grade nine was the only year we both played parade snare drums.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That was also the year we participated in our first Northern Michigan University Band Day held at Memorial Field.\u00a0 Being a Saturday, we were simply told to take our uniforms and drums home and get our own ride to the field.\u00a0 Wayne rode the bus so during lunch hour on Friday, we hiked the two blocks from the high school to my house and dropped off our marching gear.\u00a0 We had to be at the field at 9 a.m. Saturday morning to do a run through with all the bands on the field.\u00a0 Wayne\u2019s dad dropped him off so we could get into our uniforms and my dad offered to drive us to the field.\u00a0 Once we got geared up, we had to let dad snap a couple of pictures before heading out.\u00a0 It was a great introduction to Band Day because it was a bright and sunny fall day.\u00a0 There were temporary bleachers set up across the endzones so we found our section and waited until everyone else showed up.\u00a0 We took the field and did a full run through of the program with the NMU Marching Band taking up the middle of the field and the high school bands arrayed in block formations around them.\u00a0 We played toward the concrete bleachers on the west side of the field and the echo returning from the empty stands was fierce.\u00a0 One had to consciously ignore the endless echoes and keep an eagle eye on the university band conductor.\u00a0 When we finished, he took up his bullhorn and announced from the top of his ladder, \u201cThat was great.\u00a0 I promise you won\u2019t hear all the echos when the stands are full.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We were done rehearsing by 11:00 a.m., leaving two hours for us to kill until the opening kick off.\u00a0 We wandered around and scoped out the other band\u2019s gear.\u00a0 Luckily, the concessions were open early enough so we could get a hot dog and a caramel apple before game time.\u00a0 When the teams left the field after warm ups, we all assembled on the sideline to be marched into place for the pregame show.\u00a0 We joined the Marching Wildcat band for the Star Spangled Banner and then listened to them perform the school fight song and alma mater.\u00a0 Their drumline marched us off and we climbed into the stands to watch the first half.\u00a0 Our director, Joe Patterson, said we needed to stay put until after halftime.\u00a0 Once we were done performing, we could stay for the rest of the game or go home.\u00a0 Our ride wasn\u2019t coming until 4:30 so we decided that watching the game beat the long walk home in uniform lugging a marching snare drum.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the weeks before Band Day, we had run through the music a few times during our band period.\u00a0 While the other players had music to follow, we drummers had to memorize our parts.\u00a0 I thought we had done a pretty good job of it when our last run through sans drum music was done.\u00a0 There were other drummers around us who must not have spent enough time learning their parts.\u00a0 Some of the lines we heard them playing didn\u2019t sound anything like what we were doing.\u00a0 Either way, getting to perform on the field with Northern\u2019s band was great.\u00a0 Marquette High School had not yet built the football stadium next to the new high school yet, so we were playing on the same field that we did our halftime shows on Friday nights.\u00a0 For our efforts we were given a mini-LP recorded by\u00a0 the NMU Marching Band which still resides somewhere in my record collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For the life of me, I can not remember participating in Band Day the next fall.\u00a0 My buddy Jim (who was a freshman during my sophomore year) became the other half of our \u2018dynamic drum duo\u2019.\u00a0 When asked about it, said he could only remember taking part in one BD, but he wasn\u2019t sure which year it was.\u00a0 Mr. Patterson\u00a0 passed away in the second semester of my sophomore year so perhaps he didn\u2019t sign us up that fall for health reasons.\u00a0 Our new director decided we needed new uniforms and\u00a0 had plans to change up how we did our field routines for football games.\u00a0 This task was easier than it had been when we marched at Memorial Field because we could simply go around the school building and practice on the new athletic field which now bears the name of our former principal, Willaim Hart.\u00a0 The new band director, Bill Saari, told us up front that he wanted us to be ready to march in a couple of parades at the Traverse City Cherry Festival (which we went to between my junior and senior years).\u00a0 In that Mr. Saari made sure we marched in both the Marquette Fourth of July parade and the NMU Homecoming parade, I am willing to bet that we also went to Band Day during at least one of the two years he was the director.\u00a0 Again, memory fails me here as I can only remember one return to Band Day which may have been either my junior or senior year.\u00a0 I had my driver\u2019s license by the fall of 1969 and I do remember driving Jim and I to Memorial Field in my mother\u2019s beloved \u2018whale car\u2019 – a 350 cubic inch Chevy Caprice (we dubbed it \u2018the whale car\u2019 because if handled like one).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The weather conditions are responsible for etching this second particular Band Day in my mind.\u00a0 It had poured rain for several days and we were warned the field \u201cmight be a little muddy.\u201d\u00a0 When we did the rehearsal with all the bands, the drummers were marched to the center of the field with the NMU drum line.\u00a0 A little bit muddy?\u00a0 The middle of the field was a soggy mix of mud and grass and we joked that if we started sinking out of sight, at least we had drum sticks to help us crawl out of the mud pit.\u00a0 It was a damp, drizzly kind of day right up to the run through, but then the rain stopped.\u00a0 It remained a humid, damp day, but we figured,\u201dHey, at least we aren\u2019t getting rained on.\u201d\u00a0 It was a good thing our new uniforms did not require us to wear white spats over our shoes because they would have been mud brown by the time we left the field.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I would be lying to say I remember who the Wildcat\u2019s opponent was that day, but it didn\u2019t matter because their white road uniforms didn\u2019t stay that way long.\u00a0 It was one of those games where a player would slide five or ten yards when tackled.\u00a0 Remembering how sloppy the field was before the game, we wondered how far we would sink when we marched out after it was chewed up by those beefy, cleat wearing players.\u00a0 At two minutes before halftime, we were supposed to leave the stands and form up on the sideline.\u00a0 Just as we stood up were to leave the stands, the stadium announcer told the high school bands to remain in the bleachers.\u00a0 The NMU band would take the field and we would play our parts from the stands to, \u201cprevent further damage to the turf.\u201d\u00a0 Further damage?\u00a0 Surely we would not have had the same effect on the turf as twenty two cleat wearing football players and the crew of officials did trundling up and down the field.\u00a0 In fact, we may have helped matters by packing down the clumps of sod that were sticking up here and there, but no, we stayed put.\u00a0 Massed bands playing together on the field was difficult enough.\u00a0 Playing with the bands all spread out around the stadium was much worse.\u00a0 Don\u2019t ask me how it sounded because the only word that could describe it is \u2018chaotic\u2019.\u00a0 We could hear our own band, but Lord only knew what the people in the bleachers were hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I hadn\u2019t thought about Band Day in many years until our kids were in high school band.\u00a0 The first Band Day trip I chaperoned with the Ontonagon band was in the latter half of the 1990s.\u00a0 Things hadn\u2019t changed all that much from my high school days.\u00a0 Full rehearsal for the bands was still scheduled for 9 a.m. and that meant loading the bus at 6:30 a.m. just before departure.\u00a0 We put the drums and big horns in the school van which yours truly drove to Marquette.\u00a0 Instead of being safe at home by late afternoon like my earlier high school trips to Band Day, it was well after 8:00 p.m. before we got the bus unloaded.\u00a0 One can\u2019t put in a full day and then not stop at the Golden Arches to feed the troops on the way home.\u00a0 Trips like this made for long days, but they were always enjoyable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back before everybody was taking digital pictures, I lugged along my trusty 35 mm Canon to document field and band trips.\u00a0 With camera in hand, no one ever gave me a second look when I would step across the rope barrier at the edge of the field to get some ground level shots.\u00a0 On one such trip, I was leaning against the goal post, snapping away and WLUC – TV 6 sports director Mike Ludlum standing on the other side of the same post filming the halftime show as well.\u00a0 When he set his camera down for a few minutes, I said, \u201cAs an old baritone player, you will be sure to get some good shots of the bands on the news, won\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cHow did you know I played baritone?\u201d and I reminded him that he had tooted it at the beginning of his <\/span>Friday Night Fever<\/span><\/i> sports reports.\u00a0 \u201cOh, yeah, I guess I have.\u00a0 Yep, I\u2019m an old band guy.\u00a0 I will be sure to get them some air time,\u201d he said as he headed to the other sideline.\u00a0 It was a little disappointing that the only air time the bands got on the weekend news was a brief mention that NMU had hosted so-and-so in football and it was Band Day at the Superior Dome.\u00a0 Not one frame of film was shown to prove it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The last time I chaperoned the Ontonagon band to Band Day, they volunteered to do a field performance after the game.\u00a0 In previous years, the long drive home dictated departure before the post game band performance.\u00a0 I was inwardly grumbling that this would make for a really long day, but there were several things that snapped me out of my moment of self pity.\u00a0 First of all, the Ontonagon band, at thirty or so members, was the smallest band that had ever been asked to perform the post game show.\u00a0 Secondly, our kids killed it.\u00a0 They put on a well oiled performance that was greeted by a very positive audience response.\u00a0 My high school band usually marched 120 (plus or minus a few bodies) and even that seemed to leave a lot of empty field.\u00a0 Watching the Ontonagon band perform so well at the Superior Dome reminded me that rule number one for a small school is always not how many bodies one puts on the field, it is the quality and enthusiasm of those musicians that counts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I haven\u2019t chaperoned a band trip in fifteen or more years, but if the chance arises to attend an NMU football game, I like to try and get there on band day.\u00a0 The only thing that I have found disappointing is the absence of my old school band.\u00a0 These days, travel is expensive and a band\u00a0 has to pay for transportation to festivals and solo ensembles so a\u00a0 director has to watch how many trips they take in a year.\u00a0 Transportation costs have kept the number of bands participating in Band Day lower than it was back in my day.\u00a0 Not seeing the home town high school band makes me wonder;\u00a0 Marquette Senior High certainly doesn\u2019t have the travel costs the out of town bands face.\u00a0 Even when transportation costs were much lower, we were expected to find our way to the game and home again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – no one does Marching Band like OkGO – This Too Shall Pass –\u00a0<\/em>If the uniforms were red, I could pretend it was my HS band!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When my folks finally moved from their last home at the age 93 and 89, they had owned three different homes in Marquette over a fifty year span.\u00a0 They had toyed with the idea of downsizing to an apartment when both were in their late seventies, but we pointed out, a) they were doing fine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2644,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/2644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}