Memorial Day 2007

It was Memorial Day and the last time the marching band would be together until band camp. We had met a couple of times before to practice the songs. The drumline mainly went over the cadence, since we made up the parts to the songs on the spot while we marched down the road.

We gathered at the cemetery in the morning and the drumline went across the street to warm-up (loudly enough to wake the dead, I might add) and got in line at the end of the marching band as always. The parade started and we marched down the road, with the middle school band marching and playing obnoxiously behind us. Our section leader tapped off and we began the cadence, trying to ignore the middle school band behind us and play at the tempo the section leader gave us. We stopped at the flag so that the veterans could salute the flag and two of our trumpet players hid in the woods and played Taps.

We marched on through the town and stopped again towards the middle of the 3 mile parade to salute soldiers again. By the time we got there, it was about 70 degrees and we were sweating in our woolen uniforms. The band moms got out of the car that was driving behind us (the Marching Band H2O Car, as they called it) and gave us bottles of water to drink while we waited to continue the parade. I took of my drum...my shoulders were throbbing. But, we couldn't stop for long and soon the drum was back on and we were marching.

The last stretch was the hardest. My body began to get really tired of carrying the drum in the hot weather in a woolen uniform. My arms didn't seem to want to hold up my sticks anymore and it became increasingly hard to play...I could feel the sweat all over my body. It was disgusting.

We finally got to the end and I whipped off my drum. The sudden weight loss made me feel as if I was flying...I felt as light as a feather. I wanted so badly to take off my uniform, but we had to keep it one to play "America the Beautiful" with the middle school band. After the ceremony and after we played, I quickly stripped of my uniform. I didn't care that I was in crappy shorts, a tee-shirt and knee-high black socks. It felt so nice to get into lighter clothing. As my parents drove me home, I thought about how good a nice, cold shower would feel...