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Post by SaxGirl on Jul 4, 2007 14:53:26 GMT -5
Today I marched in my last high school July 4th Parade (phew!), It brought me to the realization that between the 12-or-so miles of public parade marching I have under my belt, I have heard some very amusing things said by spectators. Of course, the classic shout is, "PLAY SOMETHING!" If only the spectators had to hold an instrument up and play for 3 miles. I'd love to hear what anyone here has heard! Here are some from today: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guy with a beer: Come on, play somethin'! *stands up out of chair, pointing at the drum majors* Guy with a beer: *starts waving his beer can around, shouting* Lady: Do you think they can play these instruments, or do they just carry them? (This made me want to jump off the left end of the line and strangle her. ) Guy: (We wore summer uniforms: polo shirt, knee-length shorts, and white Dinkles) HEY! NIIIIIIIICE SHORTS! Kid: *looks at my line* Whoah, awesome! TROMBONES RULE! "Clueless about instruments" Man: *sees emello3 and the rest of the mellophones* Oh, awesome! Look, trombones! TROMBONE SOLO!
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Post by dhsflute08 on Jul 5, 2007 10:06:37 GMT -5
we havent had very odd things shouted @ us, but my freshman year someone threw a rock at my bd's head. there has been weird things shouted amongst the band during parades. such as "watch out for the roadkill!!!". lol.
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trombonemeister
Newbie
True happiness can only be achieved with two words: MARCHING BAND!
Posts: 36
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Post by trombonemeister on Jul 6, 2007 22:12:00 GMT -5
One of the most annoying, although not bizarre things people scream to us is, "Don't smile!" Of course, we all just glare back, and in my head, every time someone says that, I think, "Okay. I won't." At the last parade we did, one kid would not stop throwing taffy at the 5th bass. The 5th bass player is like 6'7", so when he glared at the kid, the kid got scared off. It made me chuckle. Inside o' course.
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Post by lada on Jul 6, 2007 23:02:15 GMT -5
LOL, that cracked me up. ha ha... Anyway, two days ago we had a parade, and I played my marching baritone. And I heard these things: Some kid: "Oh my gosh! It's big old giant trumpet thingies!" [about baritones] Lady: "They're probably some kind of big, low-sounding trumpets..." [she got the first part right] Some guy [to us baritones]: "Yah! Go tubas!!" Some fat dude [to mellophones]: "Whoo!! Blast it, trumpets!" Little girl: "TROMBONERS!!" Yahh... no comment.
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trmptgrl90
Band Geek
Sucker for a trumpet player
Posts: 71
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Post by trmptgrl90 on Jul 7, 2007 1:00:55 GMT -5
Last year at our parade we had drunk guys on a balcony above the staging area throwing money at us because the clarinets played for them. The BDs tried to get them to stop playing until they realized people were throwing money, then they gave up.
This year we got a dance circle going because we had to get to staging 2 hours before the parade even started and were bored. We had the clowns yelling at us to break it down.
The announcers told us to do something "special" for the crowd, with actual emphasis on the word special.
I tend to tune out the crowd because I get distracted, but I did notice one cute little kid playing a toy trumpet. He was trying to play along with it. I smiled when we finished because of that.
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Post by lightningflute2010 on Jul 7, 2007 9:02:06 GMT -5
At the Edison Parade of Lights, there were kids who made signs that said "Play something!" It was rather rude, and they kept shouting at us to play a song while we were dancing to the cadences.
And when we got to the high school where it ended, this guy was like "Lehigh? You guys are a joke! You SUCK! Fort Myers high is so much better than you!" It was horrible. And, not to be rude or anything, but we got better FBA scored than the GreenWave band, thankyouverymuch.
...I'm done now.
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Post by trumpetspride on Jul 7, 2007 10:40:10 GMT -5
Little girl standing in the area where we were waiting for our enterance into the memorial day parade: Hi! HI!!!!! HELLOO!! HI!!! *waving* Why won't they say hi to me?! HI! SAY HI TO ME! (we were at attention by the way.) *this goes on for a little bit* Why won't they say hi to me? Person near her: *says something to her* Little girl: Ohhh. SORRY!!!!!!!
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Post by SaxGirl on Jul 7, 2007 13:52:03 GMT -5
^ Don't you love when that happens? I was proud of myself because I didnt't let my whole "intense band member" countenance down the entire parade, so even though my arms were burning and my lips were like mud, I stayed at full attention the whole time and sort of scared some cheerleaders who were walking by. Cheerleaders: *stares at trombones (almost all of us were very "intense" at the moment)* Oh my God... they're so... serious... That happened to me at Macy's, as well. The most unfortunate coincidence in my entire life. My aunt and uncle (who are very loud and love me a little bit too much, mind you) were standing on the very corner that the band just happened to stop at. We were stuck behind the Dora the Explorer balloon, and when my mom, dad, aunt, and uncle saw me, I was like, "OH NO. OHHHHHHH NO." I just stayed at attention the entire time, though my uncle got a huge crowd of complete strangers to start CHANTING MY NAME AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE. I only once let my guard down and stuck my tongue out at him. Most embarassing moment EVER.
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Post by samthered on Jul 7, 2007 19:58:34 GMT -5
We had a whole block of 10 people deep crowds chanting Play For Us! I couldn't hear the cadence because they were too loud.
We always get people who come up to us and yell, "Smile!"
During a really long parade our bd accidently put us at ease, so we were all standing there talking and goofing off, then snapped into attention. It scared a lot of people.
We get random people who come up to our band and ask if the uniforms are too warm, or if it gets annoying marching in place so long, or why can't you smile. It gets really annoying.
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Post by brassdancer on Jul 9, 2007 16:56:23 GMT -5
I marched in the Super Bowl Victory parade for the Steelers. Here, we have these yellow towels called "Terrible Towels". Well ... as you can imagine, everyone was ESTATIC (and drunk) and I was on the end of the line. I couldnt tell you how many times I got my butt slapped with a terrible towel.
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Post by brassgirl1023 on Jul 10, 2007 1:14:11 GMT -5
^*stare* anywho... I'm a freshman, so I haven't marched in any parades... but from what I'm hearing from you guys I'm guessing interesting things will happen during my first parade...
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Post by charli07 on Jul 10, 2007 23:01:32 GMT -5
we usually get "where is the football team"...or something along those lines...nothing exciting...until you reach the spot in the parade with the band parents....lol
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Post by callaflute on Jul 12, 2007 13:23:59 GMT -5
When I marched in the international Lions Club parade in Detroit, the parade had one of its "stop and go" moments when the Alabama band was stuck in the middle of an intersection. I was on the outside of our block, and despite the fact that we were at attention, the police officer holding traffic for the intersection kept trying to talk to me. For about three minutes the officer led a one-sided conversation with me. I heard everything from the fact that he was enjoying the parade to that his youngest son, out of four, was planning on joining band when he was old enough and that he wanted to play "one of those spiraly things" (a tuba). Finally, after he called my piccolo "a baby flute", I couldn't help it. I had to correct him!
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Post by moe on Jul 12, 2007 14:04:26 GMT -5
hahah i love these!! I don't remember anything like them that are this interesting lol. 'cept my dad was video taping us in Florida, walking backwards...keep in mind hes a bigger guy with out grace......anyways, he was walking backwards and tripped over a bush. *facepalm* i was so embarassed. when we got back to the bus, everyone was like "moe, was that your dad that fell on his ___?" (potty mouths, shame on them =P)
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Post by emello3 on Jul 17, 2007 12:14:17 GMT -5
oh dear... how I hate clueless tromone man!! Obviously 75% of the people watching the parade wouldnt know what a mellophone is, and if he had called it a trumpet or baritone I would have perfectly understood... But how many people dont know what a trombone is?
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