The time was the early 1950’s.  This was the LJ Bell Marching
Band; please don’t confuse it with the Rockingham High
School Marching Band.  However, we did have the same
director and teacher, Mrs. Theo Smith.  She may have had
some other band classes in town such as the Great Falls
Elementary School, but I was not aware of this.  You had to be
a rising fifth-grader to start band at LJ Bell.  Also, you had to
spend part of your summer between the fourth and fifth
grades to learn how to play your instrument in what was called
“Band Camp.”  You spent a least a month lugging your
instrument (in my case a cornet) from your home to school
and back each day.  We learned on the stage of the school
auditorium and on the concrete open-air balcony attached to
the rear of the auditorium.  It was hot during the summer back
then just like it is today; so we usually used the balcony unless
it was raining.  We always practiced during the morning before
it got too hot.  We had metal folding chairs inside on the stage,
and they transported quite well to the balcony.

During the school year, we had a period for band practice
every day.  I think it was about forty-five minutes, but it could
have been longer.  There were at least forty of us, maybe as
many as fifty counting both the fifth and sixth grade.  The High
School had band uniforms provided by the taxpayers.  They
were black pants with an orange strip down the middle on
each side; plus an orange coat with a streamer under the arm
and attached to the shoulder area.  The coat had four big front
pockets with many brass buttons.  On top of that they had a
garrison hat that was also orange with a black bill.  Now it just
wasn’t fair that the High School should have so much and we
had so little (ever heard that before?).  But we were not going
to be defeated.  We improvised.  We had white pants with a
white shirt covered with a black pullover sweater with a big
orange “R” in the middle.  The “R” was just like what the High
School varsity football players received each year when they
“lettered” (meaning they made a significant contribution to
the football program).  Unlike the High School, we didn’t have
the taxpayers footing the bill.  Mrs. Smith arranged for one of
the department stores downtown to provide this for us at a
reasonable price.

Did you every wonder why a marching band always has the
trombones in the first row?  Yes, that’s correct.  They could
interfere with the people in the row in front of them.  When a
trombonist wants to get a low note, he or she needs to extend
that slide as far as they can.  It wouldn’t be much fun being in
front of them when they are doing that.  I’m sure the
majorettes keep that in mind and stay well ahead of the band.  
You know, I can’t remember for the life of me whether the LJ
Bell band had any majorettes or not.  We sure had some
mighty pretty girls in our school back then; so we certainly
could have had some.  I think I would have remembered that;
so we must not have had any.  We did have a drum major, but I
don’t remember who he was.  He was our leader both in
marching as well as in playing music, as his baton would direct
the beat of the base drum that determined our cadence.  In
music there is an upbeat and a downbeat.  His baton went up
for the upbeat and down for the downbeat.  This is the same
sort of thing an orchestra conductor does with his little baton;
there is a different pattern for 2-4, 3-4, 4-4 or 2-2 time.  A 3-4
pattern is a waltz.  A lively march would usually be in 2-2 or
“cut” time.  We played several of the John Philip Sousa
marches, but I don’t remember which ones.  We marched to
downtown Rockingham twice a year.  Once was for the
Christmas parade, and I don’t have the faintest idea what the
other occasion was.  We also went to two or three home RHS
football games where we marched onto and off the field.  We
were not allowed to play with the High School band except
when they played the national anthem.  We also went to some
of the RHS junior varsity football games where we were the
only band there.  When we marched, Mrs. Smith followed us in
the last row with her white band director’s uniform, the same
one she used with the High School band.

Now Mrs. Smith went beyond the call of duty working with the
elementary school band.  When we moved to Gastonia, you had
to be in the tenth grade to play in the marching band.  Their
elementary and junior high school band programs were almost
non-existent compared to Rockingham’s.  There were some
better perks for the Rockingham High School Band.   For one
thing, their Band Camp was at Camp Singletary near White
Lake.  Also one year the High School Band made a trip to New
York City.  My older brother and sister were able to take
advantage of that.  I think they were marching in a July 4th
Parade there, but I’m not that sure of the occasion.  That
summer, I was in the mountains spending some time with my
maternal grandparents, and that is why I know it was in the
summertime.

Another negative thing about the Gastonia band program I’ll
mention just to show you how much better the situation was in
Rockingham.  The Gastonia High School Band was composed
of sophomores, juniors and seniors.  Each year the
upperclassmen imposed an initiation rite upon the new male
sophomores.  When they went on a football trip each year, the
upperclassmen would overwhelm the tenth grade males,
remove their pants, and relocate their pants to another
location.  My initiation came on a trip to a football game in
Asheville.  This was the fall of 1957.  We were traveling in two
buses.  We had stopped at Lake Lure.  About six or seven
upperclassmen overwhelmed me and attempted to remove my
pants.  I threatened each and every one of them with
decapitation, but they continued anyhow.  They took my pants
to the other bus, and I had to walk from my bus to the second
bus to retrieve them.  At least I had a long white dress shirt,
and a decent pair of under shorts.  Somehow they were able to
stage this when the Band director was not around.  They only
did this to the boys.  I was mad, but what can you do?  These
were your buddies and friends.  In fact, one of my tormentors
was the grandson of a previous Governor of North Carolina.  
You can’t tell the teachers on them like you could in grade
school.  Just be glad you are from Rockingham.  There are all
sorts of weird things out there lurking for you, once you get
away from the friendly confines of Rockingham.

Now, a little bit more on Mrs. Theo Smith.  She was thirty-
something at this time.  She had a son, Ken, who was a
drummer; I think he was in the seventh grade.  He would come
down to help his mother when we needed him.  Mrs. Smith
was a world-class teacher.  There was a fad back then where
young boys were wearing bright red dress pants.  I begged my
mother for some red pants.  She told me she would buy them
for me if I could make an “A” in band.  It took me a while, but I
finally got my red pants by the end of the year.  Next year, the
fad was gone.  I forgot what happened to the red pants.  
Several years after we moved to Gastonia, we learned of Mrs.
Smith untimely death from cancer.  We all still loved Mrs.
Smith, and we were devastated when the news finally reached
us.  I can still remember her out on that balcony asking us why
we didn’t see that flat on the “B” note.