All-girls' band on the march 50 years (Ontario)
Catherine
All-girls' band on the march 50 years
Anniversary brings 300 to Seaforth to honour marching band
By Susan Hundertmark
Wednesday June 13, 2007
Reliving some of the best moments of their high school days, former members of the
Seaforth and District All-Girls’ Marching Band were able to parade with the current
band through the streets of Seaforth on Saturday.
During the band’s 50th anniversary celebration at Seaforth Public School, close to
300 people, including alumni from as far back as the first all-girls’ band attended
the festivities at Seaforth Public School.
While much of the reminiscing was of the way the band froze during Santa Claus
parades and boiled during summer parades, a lot of memories were shared about the
original band leader, the late George Hildebrand, who led the band from 1957-78.
Bonnie (McLeod) McTaggart, of Eden Mills, played the baritone bugle in the first band
and returned to Seaforth for the reunion.
“I was in Grade 11 and George stopped me in the hall and asked me to come out for
band. I think he wanted someone tall for the back row,” she laughed.
“I thought I might as well try. He said, ‘Just come to practice and you’ll pick it
up,’” said McTaggart who was in the band from 1957-59.
She and former member Eileen (Smith) Ross, who played bugle from 1958-62, wore the
original uniforms of black skirts, white blouses, black capes with mandarin collars,
black pillbox hats and white wool jackets with the Seaforth District High School
crest.
“It was pretty wonderful,” said Ross of her days in the band.
“We practised in the lunch room in the basement of the old part of the school. There
were low ceilings and it was pretty loud,” she remembered.
“George was fun as the director but he was strict too to keep you in tune and in
line,” said Ross.
One of highlights for Ross was marching behind Tommy Hunter in the London, Ont. Santa
Claus parade.
“At that age, that was a pretty big thing,” she said.
From 1961 to 65, Janet Papple and Darlene (Sills) Smyth were in the band, both
playing snare drum.
“I started on the bass drum and cymbals. You took what positions were available - if
it came open, you took it,” said Papple referring to the immense popularity of the
band.
Smyth played lead drum and had to count down the band when it was about to begin.
“I can still remember the look George gave the band when he blew the whistle. We were
always marching. Not very often did we stand still,” she said.
Both agreed that their highest moment in the band was one time performing at the
International Plowing Match.
“We were all in tears when we finished. We did so well,” said Papple.
“The tears were streaming down our faces. We had practised hard for that and really
worked on it,” agreed Smyth.
Sisters Mary Anne (Kunz) McGrath and Terry (Kunz) Hepburn came from London to the
reunion because of all the fun they remembered from their band days from 1967-69.
“Every Friday night was band practice. George would march us in the parking lot and
if we were sounding good, he’d say, ‘Let’s take it downtown’ and away we’d go. We’d
have to watch and be careful at the lights,” said McGrath.
Hepburn said a trip to Frankenmuth was the band’s big trip during her era.
“Many a bake sale sponsored that trip,” she remembered.
But they always marched in the London Santa Claus parade.
“The pinwheel was our signature move,” she said, adding that as a gymnastic coach in
London, she’s adopted the pinwheel as her team’s signature move as well.
Hepburn said she played the trumpet but never learned to read music.
“We learned by ear. We were never taught,” she said.
McGrath, a flag carrier in the band, remembered Hildebrand’s high standards.
“He always said, ‘Lift those knees.’ And, if you didn’t while you were marching, he
would make you,” she said, adding that he did so with patience.
“He was very generous with us. You wanted to do well for him for some reason,” she
said.
Lori (Sauvage) Bailey, of Waterloo and Tracy (Baker) Mallen, of Tottenham, both
played glockenspiel from 1972-77.
“We had a blast in the band. It was the most fun of anything we did in high school,”
said Mallen.
Both started out on the trumpet and hated it and begged to trade for the
glockenspiel.
“I could not get one note out of that trumpet. I would just fake it,” said Mallen.
“We were taking the piano so we had a musical background,” said Bailey.
She remembered hitting the bars of the glockenspiel so hard during parades that they
popped off.
“We carried screwdrivers and extra bars in our socks,” she said.
Mallen remembers breaking the mallets all the time as well.
“Ours was the first band to go to Fort Myers, Florida,” said Bailey.
Mary (Searle) Pennington, of Goderich, who played trumpet between 1973 and 76 in the
band was also part of the group who played at the Edison Festival of Lights in
Florida and remembered playing for U.S. President Gerald Ford.
“I remember him being up high somewhere,” she said.
She also remembered playing on a “humungous football field.”
“We were like a needle in a haystack - such a small band compred to the others,” she
said.
At that time, the band wore a plaid skirt, green blazer and a green beret with a
feather out the side.
“I remember a dog at the place where I was being billeted got at my hat and destroyed
the feather. I was lucky the chaperone had extras,” said Pennington.
Hildebrand’s wife Hazel spent the winter putting together two scrapbooks of clippings
she’d saved about the band.
Band executive member Penny Breen said organizers also went to some trouble finding
artifacts, such as old uniforms, high school yearbooks, video footage of past
performances, clippings and trophies.
Calling the band “a cornerstone organization” representing Seaforth and area on
national and international stages, Huron-Bruce MP Paul Steckle praised the band’s 50
years in a letter read at the reunion.
“The Seaforth and District All-Girls Marching Band has cultivated self-esteem,
self-discipline, teamwork, leadership and a sisterhood, characteristics that will
serve members, past and present, well as they apply them throughout their lives,”
said the letter.
Huron East Deputy-Mayor Bernie MacLellan said the municipality is proud of the band.
“Fifty years is a milestone to be proud of. I’m trying to think of a musical group
around that long and the only band I can come up with is the Rolling Stones,” he
said.
Charlie Kalbfleisch, band leader since 1978 until present, said he was thrilled to
see band members from the 1970s and 1980s and was looking forward to the band’s
future.
“We have to keep fundraising all the time to keep going but we have a very good
executive - they keep us running,” he said.