I started this post on May 5, but then got sidetracked, as has been happening a lot lately.

So today I watched the parade for Tri-State. The parade started out with older cars, with a dance school, then ended up as a band parade.  Once the band parade started, it brought back a lot of memories.  Like any typical band geek (bet you’d never have expected that! LOL) I played clarinet.

I remember our band uniforms weren’t that hot compared to what other schools wore.  I felt so bad for those kids, some of them were wearing black uniforms.  Now, granted might not be bad if it’s cool out.  Normally, Tri-State is a rainy weekend, which makes for a miserable parade.  However, today it was sunny and 70’s.  I actually got some color on my legs while sitting and watching the parade.  Sunny and 70’s isn’t a good combination with wool uniforms.

One thing that bothered me – I saw kids finish their part and then run back to the beginning to give their instruments to the next set of kids from their school. If it was just drums, no problem, but horns too.

If I remember right, the first set was the elementary band, with the next set being the junior high band.  I said it was horns, but it was a number of brass instruments.  Not trumpets, but a tuba and a baritone horn.

I had hoped that they were passing the instruments because someone had forgotten theirs, but I was told by a coworker that some schools provide the instruments instead of students purchasing their own.  She said that most likely they just didn’t have enough instruments for everyone who wanted to play them.

To that, I just say a big eww.  I couldn’t imagine playing some of those instruments after someone else had played.  Spit valves are there for a reason.

I won’t go into it more than that, but if you’ve been around instruments for awhile, you know what I’m talking about.