I was sick for my first homecoming parade, but my friends told me what happened at it. We have to walk to the local movie theater which is the starting point. It is a nice walk through the park. Well, one of my friends got all the way there before she realized she had left her trumpet at the band room. Off she and one of the leaders went, running full speed to get the trumpet because we open the parade and we were not going to have her miss it. Next year, people kept going up to her before we left, asking if she had all of her things: gloves, gauntlets, shako, trumpet.

During a marching show before I went to my high school, one of the trombones got his water key stuck on the plume of the person in front of his. When he pushed the slide out, the plume came right out. They all knew the block had been designed too close together. The BD chewed him out so badly at the end of the game even though he kept marching. We have had kids lose shoes and slides in the middle of performance and he didn't yell at them if they kept marching, so we don't know why he was yelling.

During the pre-festival concert, during the march in symphonic metamorphosis, my trombone friend somehow shot his slide off during the last movement. There was a large clang on the recording. We get back to school the next day and we listen to the recording. When the march comes up, we all turn and look at him as he breaks out into laughter. We were on risers, so it was even louder. The BD tells us we need to get towls so the mutes don't clang again during a show. We all ask each other, "How will that stop a trombone slide?"