We’ve Got a Contest Winner

Without the aid of his yearbooks (back in Gibsonia) while still down in Florida, Pete Brandt nailed those football players mentioned in my poem “A Has-Been” (see posting for June 14). I’ve since realized the grand prize, the gold and black pencil, is from the first football season (1955), which no doubt enhances its value on the collectibles market, although the poem was written about the 1956 team. That was the second year when we finally started to win games and play at home. Winner of the consolation prize (a program from the NAHS vs. Darlington game (a 28-0 win for NAHS) is none other than Bill Young, currently known to us as Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Classmates. The correct answer (tricky because there are two possible Bobs):

Bob Good or Bob Richard
Andy Sohngen
Stan Cleva
Wally Barker
Randy Brandt
Jack Chotta

An Overdue Thank You

Well, I’m still on a music kick this week. To get you in the mood, click on the title to go to a YouTube link of the Clemson University band, playing the Dixieland classic, “Tiger Rag,” as its fight song. (And remember to shout “Hold ‘em Tigers” at the right times.)

I’ve always loved bands, especially in parades. But since coming to Iowa, I now know just how passionate people can get about them. Meredith Willson, who created “The Music Man,” hailed from Mason City, Iowa. His musical, which was a huge hit on Broadway in 1957 (then a movie in 1962), is about the reverence in which marching bands are held throughout the Midwest as the citizens of River City demonstrate. The promises of traveling conman Professor Harold Hill to solve their problems by creating a boys’ marching band are gullibly believed. And when the kids miraculous strike up “76 Trombones,” Hill is taken in by River City, too (particularly Marian the librarian).

Members of my immediate family have each had their band experience. Including my own cameo performance playing George M. Cohan’s “Give My Regards to Broadway” on the glockenspiel in the St. Patrick’s Day parade (March 1955) along Fifth Avenue. Janet Gilleland and I joined but soon resigned from the Perrysville Fireman’s Girls Drum and Bugle Corps after that appearance. My husband spent his junior high school years in Lancaster, Pa. playing a sousaphone (left). He was the only kid big enough to haul it around, although the uniform trousers suggest the school wasn’t expecting anyone quite so tall. He soon grew tired of removing various detritus—such as pieces of hotdog and bubble gum wrappers—from the bell after every football game. Our daughter Lia seemed to be striking a blow against male dominance of the trombone by taking up that instrument for a couple years. When she got braces it proved too painful to continue playing—by then, the spit valve on her second-hand instrument was sticking way too frequently anyway. Our most successful musician, Brenda, played clarinet throughout high school and opened my eyes to just how important the band was at Ames High both for camaraderie among the members and its role of representing the school in parades, pep rallies, and athletic events. Both of my sons-in-law also took up wind instruments in school. Alas, none of us continue to play—but we all learned to appreciate what making music as part of a group entails.

Looking through NAHS yearbooks of our era I’m struck by how little attention those stalwart members of the Tiger Marching Band received. Although the six majorettes and drum major rated a two-page spread, the rest of the band (58 strong) also rated only two pages in 1958. And unlike the majorettes, whose names were listed as captions to both photos and again mentioned in the accompanying blurb, the band members remain anonymous (except for the color guard and the officers). I looked back to previous yearbooks; in 1957, again the band rated a 2-page spread but no names, and in 1956, they only rated one page but without even a group picture, much less names.

The Midwesterner in me cries “Unfair!” I talked to Bill Young about this the other day. He was in North Allegheny’s band from the beginning and quite serious about music. He remembers all the practicing individually and during band class, the half-time shows, the bus trips to Shaler or Hampton for Friday night football games. According to him, NAHS’ band teacher, the late Robert Testa, was “a prince” and one of those talents who can play every band instrument and listen with great patience to all those sour notes that novices inevitably make. Bill remembers once after a French-hornist made a gaff, much to her embarrassment, Testa stopped the band and demonstrated just how easily it could happen. By changing the angle of the mouthpiece very slightly, he showed how you could to be off-key in 5 or 6 different ways.

So today I want to bring NAHS Tiger Marching Band of 1958 back for an encore. We didn’t give you the credit you deserved for all your hard work and wonderful contributions to so many school activities, but you guys rocked. Let me name and thank each of you:

Karl Aveard, a drummer who really did continue to play in rock bands after graduation
Bob Benjamin, another drummer (captured in the photo right with Karl)
Chuck Gruber, sousaphonist (who no doubt has his own detritus stories) and band vice president
George Gunn, drummer (and timpanist with the orchestra)
Bill Young on saxophonist, initially entered college as a music major but could not see himself becoming another Mr. Testa so changed to chemical engineering. (See these three in left photo)
The three Benny Goodmans of the class were Richard Sass, Pete Thurston, and Bill Vestal (photo left). Bill also served as NAHS’ first drum major (1956-58); Bill Young enviously recalls Vestal’s trousers actually tailored for a smart fit—unlike the rank and file. Also the memorable piano-tuner routine Bill pulled off at one musical assembly.

I sadly regret that it's too late to thank Mike Thurston, trumpeter and band president in 1957-58 (right).

To fast-forward: If you’d like to see a video of the huge North Allegheny Marching Band entering Newman Stadium in August 2007, click here.

And Finally, a Postscript

After that earlier posting “When NA was the new high school” (4/12/08), I had this note about the NAHS school color from Bob Beilstein: “I was on the committee in 8th grade charged by Dr. Vonarx with coming up with the colors, and we had three choices—green/black, green/white, or red/white. Tom Maxwell was the faculty adviser and he said that after he went to Pitt, he always liked their colors, black/gold. To appease him, we added black/gold to the colors voted on by the school. (Of course, none of us, including Tom Maxwell, realized that Pitt's colors were blue/gold).

As is well known, black/gold won the student vote, only to be challenged by the juniors and sophomores coming out from Perry High. Vonarx then said we would have another vote, but prior to that vote, he arranged a special pep rally out on the football field where the band came marching out onto the field followed by the new football team—all in their new black and gold uniforms. Spectacular! Black/gold won the second vote hands down.”