MHSBAND : The MHS Band's Adventures with the JHS Band in Richmond, Part One

The MHS Band's Adventures with the JHS Band in Richmond!

PART ONE: Monroe Invades Richmond

APRIL, 1986. The bus finally made it out of the traffic jam in Cincinnati and arrived safely back at the Model Lab School in Richmond, Ky., around 5:00 p.m. The band members went home, with incredible tales to tell of their adventures in Monroe, Michigan, with the Jefferson High School Band, all the way from the cold to steamrolls.
AUGUST, 1986. Mr. Stephens gets a letter from Mark Felder, the Band Director of Jefferson. He says that the entire band is coming down in September to march in the Garrad County Tobacco Festival, and they were going to stop in Richmond along the way. He announces this to everyone, who gets extremely excited and start remembering everything about the last trip.
The band members at this time (86-87) were: (Seniors) Joe Ballew, Keith Hartman, Jimmy Kwak, Peggy Lin, and Sarah Warner (with Jonathan Leung and Aaron Francis dropping in every now and then); (Juniors) Stacey Hubbs, Stephen Jett, Josh Meckler, Meena Mohanty, Shay Quillen, Chris Staples, Bert Thomas; (Sophomores) Kurt Adams, Mischa Blair, Sebastian Woodlam-Odong, (Freshmen) Brian Fardo, Carla Gover, Willie Gump, Ryan Jones, Jeff Kuhnhenn, Brent Murray, Jim Washabaugh, Joe Williams (Eighth Graders) Brent Chastain, Regina Gagliano, Tanya Harris, T.J. Mansfield, Robert Robinson, Stephen Rupard, and Jamie Shoop.
SEPTEMBER, 1986. Shay Quillen is elected Band President, and the planning out the schedule of events with the Jefferson band begins. Eventually it comes out to: September, 19 - band arrives, open rehearsal at Brock Auditorium that night. September 20 - parade at Lancaster, banquet that evening, dance at Boonesborough that night. September 21 - band leaves (and goes to Ky. Horse Park).
SEPTEMBER 15, 1986. Shay and Kurt call up the Thrifty Dutchman hotel and cancel the reservations. All 35 of them.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1986. Shay and Kurt tell Mr. Stephens about canceling the reservations. He calls in the "dumbest thing they could ever do." Later on, they call up the hotel, say they were "just kidding", and make the reservations again.
SEPTEMBER 17, 1986. Shay, Meena, and Jimmy make a banner for the Jefferson band, with the rhythm figure for "Mars" on the top and signatures of all the band members at the bottom. Band members who went in red, those who didn't go in blue (all of the eighth graders, Carla, Ryan, Kurt, and Stacey).
SEPTEMBER 18, 1986. Everyone gets ready for the big event. Mr. Stephens gets out "Seacliffe" overture for both bands to play together, and starts getting other music together. . .
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19. 2:00 p.m. All the band members went to band class and got hats assigned for the parade on Saturday. They already had uniforms assigned.
3:00 p.m. Jimmy Kwak got out of driver's education, then drove home to tape "General Hospital". As he was heading back to the school, he spotted three buses parked in front of the Thrifty Dutchman! He quickly turned in and parked at the motel. The buses were from Monroe! He met Mr. Felder and welcomed him there, who was organizing all 35 keys. He also met most of the chaperones. Mr. Felder had not called Mr. Stephens yet, so Jimmy jumped back into his car and sped to Model, where he screamed the news to everybody. Everyone started to migrate over to the motel, including Shay, Josh, Jimmy, and Meena (who came later).
3:45 p.m. By this time, most of the Monroe people had gotten their rooms and were settling in. Josh went to talk with Mrs. Navarr, the mother of his host. Shay and Jimmy looked at everyone, who looked real different. Shay spotted Lori Gonzales, and quickly turned away (he didn't really think she was going to join band!). They also saw Rhonda and Jodi, some girls from Monroe, who didn't even recognize them! They also met Sara Low.
3:55 p.m. Josh wore Shay's JHS jacket, and asked one of the chaperones where his room was. The man asked "What's your name?", then Josh pointed to the room list and said his name was there, and walked off.
4:00 p.m. Shay, Josh, and Jimmy found where some people were staying and went to see them. They went to see Jason Jones first ("It's Casual"), then went upstairs, where Shay met Trudy again. One of Trudy's friends kept taking pictures of them together. They also met Amy Osbourne, and learned of the fight between her and Rhonda on the bus (which resulted in Rhonda moving downstairs to her mother's room). They finally met Jodi again, and several other girls. They stayed there and talked for about thirty minutes with everyone. Amy O. called Meena up, and also talked with Ranjan.
4:30 p.m. The three headed back for the front. A lot of the Monroe people were in the pool already, diving and swimming around (even though it was slightly cold). Josh asked another chaperone where his room was. The three walked with Amy O. to find the bus where her flag was so she could twirl (Mr. Felder said "Look for the bus") but they couldn't find it. The three went back to the car and drove off (almost backing into a frisbee game) and followed Mr. Stephens, Mr. and Mrs. Felder (they were walking) to the Shoney's, where they made fools of themselves. Then they went home. . .
All 100+ Jefferson band members walked across the street at around 6:00 p.m. to Shoney's for dinner, where they would get a 10% discount. After eating, they went back to the hotel and got ready for open rehearsal that evening at Brock.
Meanwhile, most of the MHS band members arrived at the auditorium to find the main doors locked. So they called security and got some mean looking lady toy cop over who unlocked the side doors so everyone could get in. This was about the same time the Jefferson band arrived in their three buses.
Josh and some others quickly rushed to put the banner up somewhere. They put it on the small wall where the organ was. As they put it up, they used Jimmy's clarinet case to hold it there. Some Jefferson band members saw it and laughed their heads off. A few noticed the "Mars" rhythm figure on the banner.
Everyone got out their instruments when Mr. Felder announced that his band was going to give everyone a free concert performance. So all of the MHS band members (except Shay) put away their instruments and sat down to watch the JHS band perform. Mr. Felder and someone else conducted their band through the parade tunes (where the flag twirlers performed) and some other tunes (including "Burning Heart" and "Hello", with a good trumpet solo).
Meanwhile, Shay and Jimmy ran around backstage, looking for a switch to turn on to power the outlets, so Jimmy could plug up his tape recorder. They finally found it, after almost causing a total blackout (not really).
Finally, the MHS Band came on. After a long time setting up and tuning up by Joe (where he tried to imitate the JHS tuning up procedure), we were ready to go. Then Mr. Stephens made an announcement that both bands - JHS and MHS - were going to perform together! So once again there was great movement, where everyone sought to rearrange themselves in correct order. But still, there were some problems, like a whole row of first clarinets being placed after thirds, and so on. Music was handed out, with about four to a stand. Some music was missing, and the problems continued. . .
Finally, they were set to play. They got up "Prayer and March" first, which the JHS band took too slow, then too fast, and kept messing up (it was sight-reading to them). Then they did "Seacliffe", which came out horribly awful, because the JHS band kept messing up. Then came "Phantom Regiment", which went along pretty well, and then "Impresario", where the entire JHS clarinet section burst out laughing when they messed up their soli parts. When that was over, it was all over. Everyone packed up and prepared to leave. . .
Eventually all of the band members of Jefferson and several Model band members make it back to the hotel. Mr. Felder has set a curfew for 11:30 p.m. (but if everyone is real good, he might make the curfew for Saturday night around 3:00 a.m.). Everyone goes around, talking to everyone, until 11:30, when they are chased out of the rooms.
Shay, Meena, Josh, and Jimmy start to drive off when Joe and Kurt show up. Shay and Meena start shouting that they can't go in, but Joe doesn't believe them and drives on in. A few seconds later he drives on out, after being chased out. He tries to get in a few more times that evening. . .

Continue to Part Two