The MHS Band's Adventures with the JHS Band in Richmond!
PART TWO: The Garrad County Tobacco Festival
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. The next morning, Joe Williams and Seb go with the Jefferson buses to show them the way to Lancaster, where the parade will be. They leave at 9:30 a.m. By 10:00 a.m. the Model band is on its way to Lancaster. Everyone made it except Steve (the great percussionist) and Tanya Harris. Chris starts deciding what to do. Keith says he can play quads, because he knows the part. Kurt starts saying that he can now play bass drum! (His lifelong dream). Mr. Stephens says he will consider it. Along the way, Shay and Kurt sing various songs, from "Can't Get There From Here" to "Stephanie". Jimmy records it. Peggy writes a letter to someone. Everyone talks. After forty-five minutes, the bus pulls into Lancaster, Ky. Everyone starts reminiscing about past band trips to the place. They go down the road and drive into the school parking lot, where the parade originates. They pass the JHS buses, where some girls are practicing the flags. Joe and Seb stand at the side, and wave to the bus. The bus stops, and Mr. Stephens goes over instructions. "Stay in groups of two or more", "Be back and ready by 1:00", etc. Then everyone disembarks from the bus. Some stay in the back to change. Sarah finds her boyfriend, Tony, who is waiting for her already in Lancaster. The two start to go around together. Jeff, Ryan, Brent, and Carla walk around when they come to a jail. You can pay the people there to put someone in the jail for a certain amount of time. So they put Ryan in the jail and walk off (letting him out a few minutes later). Everyone spots Michigan people walking around - in uniform: flag twirlers, baton twirlers, banner carriers, and band members. Everyone seems to be having a good time. . . Seb bought a button saying "I'm The Best", because he was the King. At that moment, Jimmy discovered a dunking machine - the same one that Seb had played on two years ago! The group of Seb, Jimmy, and several others met Shay, Josh, Bert, Joe, Mischa, and many more down at the dunking machine. Two years ago, Seb had earned the title "Sharp Shooter Seb", when he made the MHS band record of dunking girls. When he approached the machine, the group of MHS students down there shouted "SEB!!!!" and the girl in the machine said "Oh no, here comes a good one. . ." Bert was already playing there. He had already made the MHS record of the day, of about three dunks. Seb came up and put down his dollar bill. He threw all seven balls - and missed all of them!! Bert came up and dunked the girl again twice. Seb put down 50¢. He made only two. He gave up. The machine started to have some problems with the seat going up and down. Everyone blamed Seb's great shooting. The girl in the machine said that it was her last time up there, so Bert came up. He got her once, which also broke the seat again! He missed a few more times, then was down to his last ball. He threw it. . . . . POING!!! The girl fell in!! Bert became the new "Sharp Shooter" in the band. Seb. . . he's still the King, but his sharp shooting days are now over. Maybe next year. . . The rest of the afternoon was not that much fun. The band members just walked around, getting helium balloons and some got MHS band tattoos on their faces. Shay, Kurt, Jimmy, Josh, and Joe went into some restaurant for lunch and waited an hour for their corn dogs. In that restaurant were several other JHS band members. Amy Osburne came over and sat next to Jimmy, and his glasses started to fog up!! Lori Gonzales also came, and Shay turned away. Jason Jones stopped in for a few seconds. Mr. Felder stopped in to play some pinball. Kurt couldn't find a menu (because there wasn't any). There was a crummy jukebox in there (which still had some "recent" tunes like "Born in the U.S.A." and "Run to You"), which had the lowest volume setting in there. The MHS band members there put some money in the machine and got only one of the tunes they selected. Other people came in and played tunes, which these five band members sang to and got weird looks from everyone there. After eating, these band members headed back for the bus. All the band members gathered at the bus at around 1:00 p.m. Stephen Jett was there, driven up by former band member William Hill and Aaron Francis. He was setting up to play the quads, so Keith went back to bass drum and T.J. stayed on snare. Mr. Stephens had a hat list, and everyone was changing into their uniforms and getting hats out. Joe was distributing gloves out, giving Clarinet players old one which they had to cut the fingertips off so they could open and close holes. So everyone was setting up and getting ready to perform, and it was getting hotter every minute! Everyone was qualifying for the "Peter Gabriel" sweat award. At that moment, a Garrad County band member came up and told Mr. Stephens that one of his band members (female) was sick in the bathroom! It was Krista Kelley! Regina Gagliano went with the band member to check on her. Joe lined the band up, minus one player. He lined everyone up in two columns, depending on their row position. They marched out to a grassy area near the school, passing by the JHS band of 100+ (who clapped). Then they formed a circle and played a B flat scale and warmed up and tuned to each other. Then they went through "Chester", and the percussionists already started to mess up on the cadence (they did both old and new). Then everyone moved to the wall in front of the school, where they were to wait for their time to come. The JHS band passed them, moving into position. A few minutes later, the break for the MHS band came. They jumped into position and got set up. Everyone moved out onto the street. Already there were a lot of problems with the cadence. Keith was messing up a lot, and so was T.J. Since they were messing up, a lot of people were getting off step! But the lines were straight, both ways, and a lot of people were in step! There was a problem with some people not looking straight and to the side (right Willie and Carla?) and the seventh graders, new to marching, were having some problems too. They stopped at one spot where the parade was getting kind of slow, and Joe told everyone how good a job they were doing. Also, it was incredibly hot!!! Everyone was sweating like crazy! So when Joe started to chant "BAND!" "WHAT?" "IS ANYBODY HOT?" everyone was inclined to say "YES!". But they didn't. Finally, everyone arrived back at the Garrad County High School and rushed inside to get Cokes. After the extremely hot parade, all of the Model band members got their drinks (and two or three) and plopped down in the hallway. Everyone was sweating like crazy - except Carla Gover, who didn't appear to have a drop of sweat on her. Shay asked if she had put on several cans of deodorant that day. It was then that we learned that twelve (12) of the Michigan band members had passed out because of the heat!!! That was due to the fact that it's normally cool in Michigan and 90 degree weather was considered drought for them. They all had to go to the hospital. Meanwhile, Krista Kelley was recovering. Mr. Felder was also reportedly real mad at the Michigan band members, because they had quit marching the last 400 yards or so and just walked off of the street, because it was so hot!! After resting for several minutes and three Cokes later for some guys, everyone managed to drag themselves back to the bus. They loaded all the equipment on and got on the bus. They drove off, heading back for Richmond. On this trip, there was nothing special. A few highlights: Kurt, Brent, and Carla sucked on helium balloons, Keith claimed to have seen a non-existent Thompson Twins video on MTV in Georgia, and the bus driver shouted at someone to take their hands out of the open windows. Finally, everyone arrived back at around 5:30 p.m. The next event on the schedule was for a banquet with everyone at 6:00, but since they had arrived late they moved it to 6:30 p.m. Everyone went home to shower and recover their sanity. |
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