Impressing the Band Director

As I sat and watched some of the Rose Bowl parade this morning, I could not help to think about a time when I really impressed my band director. We were marching in a very large parade in central Ohio. I was a first year majorette. The band was marching down a dimly lit street in order to make it to the main street.

I was a little nervous because I did not want to drop my baton during the parade. Well, something else happened instead. Someone yelled at me, and I turned to look and see who it was. The bad thing was that the band stopped marching and stood in place due to a holdup with one of the floats. As I looked for whoever yelled at me, I ran smack dab into the majorette in front of me because she stopped, and I didn’t. It was embarrassing because everyone standing along the parade route was laughing! I tried to gain my composure and marched along, happy to be leaving that part of the parade route.

The next Monday, the director started laughing at me as soon as he saw me. He said, “I didn’t know you could entertain a crowd like that!” This was always the joke. It is still the joke to this day. Geesh. I’m glad these “friends” were not around when I was practicing my baton routines and hit myself in the eye with it. Yes, it took a long time for the eyelashes I ripped out with the baton to grow back! Gosh, I don’t know how that happened, I told them! That baton left me with many bruises throughout the junior and senior years.

Later…