I subscribe to the Caribou County Sun, a weekly newspaper published each Wednesday in Soda Springs, Idaho, the little town in southeastern Idaho where I grew up. A while back I posted about my name being in that newspaper. Today’s edition in the Pages From the Past section had this paragraph:

50 Years Ago — Sept. 14, 1961

The Soda Springs High School Marching Band under the direction of Brent Covington, band director, journeyed to Blackfoot on Tuesday, September 12th [1961] to participate in the Eastern Idaho State Fair Parade which was held down the streets of Blackfoot.

Approximately 40 members of the band attended and were sharply dressed in the new band uniforms. There were 105 entries in the parade, 19 of which were bands.

I remember that trip … now that it has been called back to my memory. I was a junior in 1961. We did indeed have new band uniforms, a product of light bulb sales the previous two years. The band members went door to door through the entire city of Soda Springs selling light bulbs. That became our annual fund raiser for the rest of my high school career. My first sales job: door to door selling light bulbs.

The uniforms were a bright Cardinal red (after the school mascot) and were made from wool. Very hot, very sweaty, very dehydrating wool. The parade seemed to be very long. I played the bass drum, which was a new, quite large drum attached to a rotating spindle in the middle of my chest (another product of the light bulb sales). I could spin the drum by the way I hit it with the drum sticks, which were on leather straps so I could twirl them in the air. For the first few blocks of the parade, I felt pretty spiffy: new uniform, new spinning drum. The last few blocks of the parade I was sure I was going to pass out and die, or something. The drum section consisted of two snare drums and me … and we three had to beat on those drums the entire distance.

That’s the only time I remember that we went to Blackfoot for the State Fair as a band. I did go one other time a year earlier to play the snare drum for the drill team as they marched in the parade. That time I didn’t wear the band uniform (we didn’t have any uniforms, yet) but a pair of slacks and a white T-shirt. Much better. Plus we stayed overnight. One guy (me), a couple dozen girls, and some adults. Nothing happened at all. I was too shy. Or maybe it was the lecture from mother, followed by one from dad…. My memory isn’t all that clear.