Memorial Day Parade 2011

Today was the 2011 Memorial Day Parade. My forethoughts were that I hadn't marched seriously in a long time. Even suiting up felt strange, but I'm so extremely glad that it's over. It was excruciatingly hot. We were all so happy for the occasional breeze. We had to meet in a local development at 8:00, so I woke at 7. A day off, and I had to wake up early.

For our parade, the order was a police car, some musicians in Civil War era clothes, another float, the high school marching band, and then some other floats/groups. The marching band order was two people carrying a flag, some rifles, and then the band.

The actual marching took about two hours. It was so extremely hot that I felt as if I was swimming in the sweat in my uniform. No wonder half of the marching band flautists didn't want to come.

One of the hardest parts for me was the Civil War musicians. They had drums, and we were playing against them. At first, it was kind of hard since the first drum I heard was their's. Some upperclassmen had to tell us to listen to our snare. Another hard part for me was staying in step 100% of the time, especially when we were playing. I didn't actually have the music memorized as well as I should have. For me, one of the easier parts was dressing.

Even my marching band mentor commented that I was dressing the whole time, and that I looked good, even though I haven't seriously practiced for about six months. I told her that it hopefully means I'll remember my skills some band camp. She said if not, we'll work on it. That was probably the best part of the whole parade.

I've decided that I'm just going to call her my marching band mentor, since she was the one who approached me and asked me to come early to give me individualized help with exactly what I needed, where the other experienced people just told me what I was doing wrong. This person is half drum major next year, but the drum major still does basics block with us, so if I need help, I can ask her. Apparently, the first day of band camp when I marched like a duck, I became her project.

I seriously don't know what people did without cell phones. I was used to middle school parades, where the end point was at a church. I didn't realize this year that we would loop around to end at the cemetery. I told my mom to meet me at the church. So the end of the parade comes, and I called home. I barely missed my mom. So I called her cell, but she forgot it. I had to catch a ride down to the church with my marching band mentor. Fortunately, my mom was there.

This is the last thing we're doing as a marching band for this season, and I'll really miss some of the seniors. The band is going to different next year.

Next year, my mom is going to the parade, since my brother and I will both be in marching band. I'm not looking forward to the heat of that or band camp...