Author:
Matt Williams
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Date Posted: 22:15:42 11/05/03 Wed
In case you can't put a finger on me, I had three other brothers who also played in the band: Mark (French Horn - '72), Gary (Cornet - '74), Scott (Saxophone - '75) and me (Trombone - '76).
I marched my freshman year for the Brigham Young University band. Band trips (on the house!) that year included a basketball trip to Fort Collins, CO (Colorado State) and Laramie, WY (Univ of Wyoming) (okay, nothing to exciting about that trip, really!!), and football trips San Diego (BYU v. San Diego State) and Orlando ([the] Tangerine Bowl - BYU v. Oklahoma State).
On the two football trips, we were able to spend a day in the two Disney parks ("-Land" and "-World"). Being in band got me from coast to coast in the two Disney parks in about 3 months!! While in Florida, we were able to arrange a behind the scenes tour of NASA and the VAB (we rode to the top!) and were introduced to a new, upcoming technology - sending information through glass wire by pulses of light - new, at least to me, at the time - 1976).
My band director that year was only a part-time staff member, who was replaced at the end of the year by full-time faculty. My director had a BRILLIANT mind! Within a couple of weeks of hearing a song on the radio, he'd have full orchestration and a marching routine worked up. We marched to medleys of theme songs from the current police shows (SWAT, Policewoman, Rockford Files, etc.) and disco tunes (Boogie Fever, That's the Way (I Like It), etc.).
After my freshman year, I left for a 2-year Mormon mission in Germany. Upon my return, I didn't have much desire to march under the new faculty direction - band seemed too vanilla and stale compared to my freshman year. So my days of playing in organized musical groups was over.
Coincidentally, the year after my director was let go in favor of a faculty member, he and a friend formed a company to help computerize marching band half-time routines. A local city asked them to write some word processing software for use within that city. That venture turned into WordPerfect (perhaps many of you used that program in your college days). Financially, his being let go was nearly infinitely beneficial compared to being a band director.
It's good to see pics of a number of ya'll. Am I the only one who doesn't look any different? ;^)
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