1971-1972 as a 7th grader at Hawkins, I was first introduced to playing with the high school band. Not because I was an extremely talented musician, but because the high school band needed more depth. The 8th graders were already traveling to and from the high school from Hawkins daily to practice with the band, a tradition that continued while I was living in Forest.
Having only 4 trombones and 2 of them being 8th graders in the high school band, Mr Harvel and Dr Rigby recruited myself, Bobby McDill, and Harry Myers to augment the band. Bobby later transferred to the tuba section. At first we were only playing with the concert band. But that year at contest, one of the marching songs on the field was a song called "Perfidia". To start off the song was a cowbell to set the tempo for the song played by the percussion. Will Ferrell would have been a great addition to the band as he was a cowbell player extraordinaire. But anyway, I was chosen to get my first real marching band uniform with the plume and the tall hat and they trained me to stand on the sidelines at contest and at a certain point of the show when the band stopped in front of the pressbox to play their main number, I was to march out onto the field with a sombrero and the cowbell hidden inside, stop, do an about face, and gently set the sombrero on the ground. I would then march back off the field and assume parade rest through the rest of the show. The drummer would pick the cowbell out of the sombrero and then hit the proper tempo to start the song, "Perfidia". My job was done! Another all superior year for Forest and the cowbell solo must have finalized the deal!
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