Seeing Bass Drummers In The Troy Flag Day Parade Brought Back Memories

I happened to see part of the 46th Annual Troy Flag Day Parade On Sunday.  I think I caught the tail end of it.  Even THAT part was exciting, especially seeing the drum section. Why?  Glad you asked...

Actually, there was an entire section of bass drum players. When I was in high school back in 19 blah blah blah, our high school band only had one bass drummer. 10 guesses who it was?  You are correct!  (I don't have any pictures of it, and if I did I still wouldn't post them on here)

But I used to carry that bass drum in the Mattituck, Long Island Junior High and High School Band with Mr. Topping as the director.  Yes, that was his name.

It was pretty cumbersome to play that instrument, plus believe it or not there is a pressure for you as the only bass drummer to be like clockwork and keep the beat. And being the second smallest in the class didn't help - it made me top heavy!  But hell, it's sure better than carrying around the instrument that I play now -the PIANO!

Today it's different. There are a whole SLEW of bass drummers in the same marching band.  I'm not sure if that's the way it is in all high schools.  Maybe someone can tell me.

The rest of the band was awesome too, don't get me wrong.  I also didn't get a chance to identify just where they were from, but you can see more shots on the Times Union.com page dedicated to it.  The parade traveled down 4th street in Troy on a really beautiful day, and according to the TU, this is the biggest Flag Day parade in the entire country.  Well, it is the home of Uncle Sam, so what better place to have it?

By the way, we have elementary schools saluting  the flag every day here at 'GNA.  It happens every weekday morning at 6am.   We feature a school every two weeks.  Tune in and  "get yourpatriotism on" with 'GNA !