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Even at that age, I was impressed with how sensible they were.
I wore mine from the fall of 1971 through the spring of 1974. I'm thinking that the picture of me was taken in the early fall of 1973.

When I was first issued mine (in the fall of 1971) I was extremely distressed, as it was tiny (obviously a "girl's" size...but my Mom soon realized that the uniform had been (for some girl, previously) been all taken in. and - once she let it out - it fit perfectly. I wore the same one for all three years. The quality of the wool was so high that my Mom was completely/100% able to iron out all the creases from having been taken in (zero evidence).

At football games (at that time, only chrome-plated G-bugle corps "competed' outdoors) we had an overlay (maroon "K" and some ornamentation) with epaulettes, white snap-on spats (with under-foot elastic), white gloves, and (again, white and maroon) hats.

As the coat and trousers were black (wool - which kept us warm in the bleachers) They ended up being nice concert "tuxedos" for most of our playing.

At regional and all-state events we were (at least, in my view) the only ones who weren't sitting up there in clown costumes - ie, bright versions of green, red, yellow, purple, blue, etc.)

Davids' and Carol's trousers were obviously not let out far enough (probably their Mom wasn't a seamstress) but mine fit nicely - as did those whose mothers sewed.

I'm guessing that their current ages are c. 70 and 74. Carol married the (recently deceased) amazing 36K sousaphone player (in our band, who I've mentioned to many times).

David (retired elementary school teacher - who grew weary of Memphis chaos) moved to a small town embedded in the Colorado Rockies, is a classical/folk/jazz/soul/eclectic DJ, lives above the station in rented rooms, and also (I'm thinking...??) works at a guitar store... https://spinitron.com/KVNF/dj/142199/Co ... vid?page=1 (Their family actually moved from Idaho to Memphis in the 1960's.)

David and Carol (concert version)



bloke (football game version...a scan of one of those popular-for-a-few-years "fingerprint-proof" prints...thus the dots being picked up by the scanner) Note that a sousaphone wood case (though I was interrupted by my sister when sliding it in) fit in the trunk of the '71 Catalina. Yes...One trouser-leg was barely hiked up, but - that was me wrestling with the sousaphone case, and not my Mom's fault.

Your dims didn't change through 2-1/2 years of high school?
You must've been pretty darn tall as an 8th grader . . .

tokuno wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:00 pm Your dims didn't change through 2-1/2 years of high school?
You must've been pretty darn tall as an 8th grader . . .

I wore that uniform grades 10 through 12.
I'm thinking I only grew about an inch over those 3 years, but I grew another inch or so over the next 2 or 3 years after high school.

I think I was about 6' 1-1/2", eventually.
I haven't checked in a long time, but - since I'm old - I would guess that I'm about 6 ft tall, now.

I remember being averse to having my picture made, but - obviously, when my much older sister (now, an active octogenarian) walked out there to take my picture - I allowed her to do so, while wearing that. ... I sort of liked those uniforms, as I've openly expressed.

Even though the cummerbunds were maroon, that's still a pretty understated color, yes?

another memory just triggered:
I'm thinking that my only dress shoes were brown. (My mom would have bought me black ones, but I realized they were saving up to sell their house and get out of town - they moved to the Ozarks a few short years later, so I didn't ever ask them for any money.. not for clothes, not for school stuff, not for college expenses, not to buy a car, not to buy my guitars, not to go on band trips, nor to buy my tuba). Today it seems like it's okay to wear brown shoes with a black suit ...(whatever on that). If you look at those shoes and notice that they're not really shiny, I believe what I did was put on my brown shoes and I had a pair of rubber overshoes (I'm thinking they were handed down from my brother, who is older than my sister) which had the design of penny loafers on them, and I wore those over my brown dress shoes with either version of the uniform.

What do you folks think of that gigantic fur tree next door?
I believe that was originally something called a living Christmas tree, which was planted in the ground after the Christmas season was over. You don't normally see fur trees around here...

something else:
They didn't change to marching mellophones when wearing the marching uniform. We didn't have any. By 1970, Olds/Reynolds had introduced the compact (and they were atrociously BAD) F mellophone, but our school system barely had money to maintain the old used instruments with which we were supplied. I know it's starting to sound like the "5-mile walk to school in the snow" thing, but there was no air-conditioning other than in the principal's office and the only toilet paper was (reportedly) in the girl's restrooms. At least there was none in the boys restrooms. School started the Monday after Labor Day, and we looked forward to October. Just about the time it would have become hot again, we are out - just before Memorial Day. (If holidays were on weekends, that's when they were celebrated... No fall break, no spring break, I'm thinking we might have possibly had the days between Christmas and New Years off - but not the 24th if it was a weekday, we also were off for Good Friday, and it was actually called Good Friday by the school system.)

tokuno wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:00 pm Your dims didn't change through 2-1/2 years of high school?
You must've been pretty darn tall as an 8th grader . . .

I wore the same uniform from grades 10-12. Long story short, the directors didn’t see a need to get returning members refitted, as it was 2 new directors that year and things were chaotic.

First game, was getting into my marching bibs and they came up to just below my knee. I apparently had a growth spurt. Going back to what Bloke mentioned, a few of the band mom volunteers did seamstress work and were quick to get them operational before the game.

That is one thing I notice more and more now, is that within a school, several people’s parents offer skills and many are willing to volunteer their time to help make their kids’ organizations better.

In the 10th grade, I found a spare locker in which I stored my ROTC uniform, so I never washed it or dry cleaned it one time that year, as I put it on between classes just before ROTC class and took it off and hung it back in the locker right after ROTC.

I don't think I could have done that with the band uniform, because we sort of perspired in those things in September
(but no, if it rained we certainly didn't go to the games).

I grew up in New York on Long Island, where marching band was nowhere NEAR as popular as concert band. I wore a marching uniform a grand total of 1 time....my freshman year....for 1 parade. After that, we switched to t-shirts and windbreakers.

Apparently things haven't changed.



I attended Newfield. The band director leading the band in this video (far right) is Harold Goldstein. We grew up together. Funny to see him leading the band. From what I've heard he's done a great job.

In college, I attended what at one time was a conservatory. So, I didn't wear a uniform there either.....unless you consider a tux a uniform.

We weren't fond of marching at all and neither was the band director... as it should be with all sensible people.

Even before my first summer of high school marching band camp (and we actually camped in tents in a state park near Hardy, Arkansas) there was a parade in downtown Memphis that must have been a Flag Day parade, because Memorial Day would have been too soon after school was out.
I believe there was a $100 prize for the best band in the parade
(1971, adjusted for inflation, about $900 today).

Our uniforms were all in storage, so we all wore blue jeans, white tennis shoes, and spent 25 cents each on large Captain America shield iron-ons for the fronts of our white t-shirts (which, of course, each of us already owned).

We practiced a little marching ditty in the church parking lot next door to the high school - memorizing a portion of probably a very early patriotic Bill Moffatt "Sound Power Series" patriotic thing. I think it was a cut time thing which was a version of the song "My County 'tis of Thee/God save the Queen".

We took the prize.

I had played commencement at the end of 9th grade, but that was the first time I had marched with the high school band.
...That commencement music was not easy. We played the Triumphal March from the movie "Quo Vadis" (Miklós Rózsa). It was not a watered-down/graded version.

... anyway:
yeah: t-shirts and jeans for marching

Ha, as I get home at 930 from picking my girls up at band camp! I was just watching thinking: "Thank God I'm an orchestra director!"

Our hm high school just replaced their 20+ year old marching pants (bibbers)... they are going to replace the jackets in s few yards when we can raise the money.

These have a fantastic feature... snap hems . You don't have to either sew new hems or, if you are hopeless with a needle like me and my wife... take them to a tailor/seamstress.. you just fold them up inside and snap them in place..

Plus they are machine washable! No more paying for the dry cleaner.

That’s why all the kids these days are fat!

March them in 90+ degree weather wearing wool suits.

Lazy fat bastards…..

Three Valves wrote: Sat Aug 02, 2025 11:00 am That’s why all the kids these days are fat!

March them in 90+ degree weather wearing wool suits.

Lazy fat bastards…..

At the State Park in Black Rock, Arkansas - which was probably 10° cooler than Memphis - we had a field marked off with that white powder stuff, and we worked on our halftime show after breakfast and before lunch. It wasn't hot.
After lunch, we worked on marching - as if in a parade - for a while, and those curvy and hilly roads in the State Park taught us to keep our lines straight no matter what. Back then, there were far more parades, and marching band contests on football fields really didn't exist.
In the afternoon in the shade, we worked on concert music and bleacher music. Bleacher music was mostly classic marches, and perhaps 30% popular music.
Immediately after dinner, the jazz band rehearsed for a couple of hours outdoors in the same shady area.
At sundown we had campfire every night and someone - or a bunch of someones - did something to entertain everyone else and make them laugh.
The band owned one huge tent and a bunch of smaller ones. On alternate years, the boys or the girls all stayed in the huge tent and the others stayed in all the small tents. We had no trouble identifying. Back when no one was obese, perhaps the differences were more noticeable, rather than everyone simply looking like some variation of a sphere.

That marching uniform is remarkably similar to the uniforms we wore at U. of Ky., dark navy blue wool with a white overlay with a block red K. The overlay a spats were covered with clear plastic, as were the military officer hats we wore. I never understood why the Sousaphones had to wear the plume in the hat as well, since they always got bent over. I remember almost passing out when we played at Indiana U. on a 90 degree October day. We had to rehearse pre-game in full uniform, and about 4 of our 16 Sousaphone players boarded the bus that morning either hung over or on their way to it. The director decided to punish them by making the whole band high-step up and down the field at about 138 playing the Bb scale. For most of my teaching career, the marching uniforms were a combination of wool and Dacron (Dac-wool). They were no cooler on a hot day or evening, but they provided no warmth at all on a 30-degree night game in November. The first 25 years of that, the students wore the full uniform all the time, even at August games when it was 100+ degrees, and we directors wore coats and ties. I don't miss that.

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 6:06 pm........ We practiced a little marching ditty in the church parking lot next door to the high school - memorizing a portion of probably a very early patriotic Bill Moffatt "Sound Power Series" patriotic thing. I think it was a cut time thing which was a version of the song "My County 'tis of Thee/God save the Queen".

That was probably called "March America" basically the original tune converted to either 4/4 or 2/2.

Since we're posting HS band stuff- the only one I can find quickly is my senior year, when I was Drum Major. That's me at the far left- and yes, I still have most of that hair Wool uniforms, of course.

That's a gigantic band. I believe our 10 through 12 high school band only consisted of about 88 players, and the 10 through 12 high school was probably 1,750 students. (3600 7 - 12). Our band director expected us to figure a lot of stuff out on our own and called us out when we didn't. That was the way things were back then... Not a whole lot of hand holding and not a whole lot of rote teaching. He also didn't do any recruiting.
I noticed only five sousaphones in your picture, which is plenty even for a band as large as yours. We typically had two, three, or four.
The problem with four was that sometimes the fourth one was not competent. My 10th grade year there were four of us, and all four were competent. It was a pretty impressive sound coming out of those four Conn 36K fiberglass sousaphones (playing both outdoor and indoor music on them, because that's what we had).

We had wonderful marching uniforms during high school. I loved them. Our director retired the year I graduated and the new director apparently didn't like them, or figured they were too old or some such, and replaced them with some newer DCI-style garbage. I found out years later that the old uniforms were offered to the band members who had worn them previously. I sure would have liked one, even if it wouldn't quite fit me anymore.

bloke wrote: Wed Aug 06, 2025 10:47 am That's a gigantic band. I believe our 10 through 12 high school band only consisted of about 88 players, and the 10 through 12 high school was probably 1,750 students. (3600 7 - 12). Our band director expected us to figure a lot of stuff out on our own and called us out when we didn't. That was the way things were back then... Not a whole lot of hand holding and not a whole lot of rote teaching. He also didn't do any recruiting.
I noticed only five sousaphones in your picture, which is plenty even for a band as large as yours. We typically had two, three, or four.
The problem with four was that sometimes the fourth one was not competent. My 10th grade year there were four of us, and all four were competent. It was a pretty impressive sound coming out of those four Conn 36K fiberglass sousaphones (playing both outdoor and indoor music on them, because that's what we had).

At the time, Bel Air was a huge school- it drew from most of central Harford County and had something like 3200 students in two buildings. My graduating class was something like 700. Since then, the county has built three more high schools so Bel Air is not the powerhouse of talent it once was. I was there at the right time.

The sousas were King, but I don't remember what model.

Our director was Ray Dombrowski, who was as good as it gets. The band represented Maryland in the July 4, 1976 Bicentennial Parade in Philadelphia. It numbered around 230 with the band front included.

They had the schedule set up so Band was the last period of the day. That was great!

Oh, and here's "March America", though so far I haven't found a sound file:

https://www.halleonard.com/product/4505 ... ch-america

Heavy_Metal wrote: Tue Aug 05, 2025 9:47 pm

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 6:06 pm........ We practiced a little marching ditty in the church parking lot next door to the high school - memorizing a portion of probably a very early patriotic Bill Moffatt "Sound Power Series" patriotic thing. I think it was a cut time thing which was a version of the song "My County 'tis of Thee/God save the Queen".

That was probably called "March America" basically the original tune converted to either 4/4 or 2/2.

Since we're posting HS band stuff- the only one I can find quickly is my senior year, when I was Drum Major. That's me at the far left- and yes, I still have most of that hair Wool uniforms, of course.

Wow, things have changed.

prodigal wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 8:08 pm Wow, things have changed.

I'm thinking about what we did instead of trying to win marching band contests' 4-feet-tall plastic trophies in the fall...
- We had things called "jobs" that we did after school and on the weekends, so we could save up to buy ourselves cars/insurance/gasoline, because our parents neither had the money to buy us cars and nor were they dumb enough to borrow money to buy us cars...
... I threw newspapers and worked at a car wash, but when I decided that I could make a lot more money playing solo guitar gigs at cocktail parties and needed to develop a three or four set repertoire, I additionally (during the school day) figured out ways to make money other than $1.65,/hr. jobs, including buying cartons of Marlboro cigarettes every Sunday and selling a couple of cartons a week at school for five cents of cigarette, which would net a $16 profit ($20 - $4). I also sold counterfeit pep rally and assembly tickets for half price, because I managed to acquire every single color of rolls of generic "admit one* tickets which I stored in an unused locker. For the non-smokers, I sold gum and candy which I bought had a wholesale place in downtown Memphis ($1.50 round trip bus ride)... but soon I was doing both those things during the school day and playing a cocktail party most weekends: current movie themes, bossa nova, light classical, Beatles arrangements, etc... stuff that older people with money (who threw cocktail parties) liked.
- Rather than rote memorization of ten minutes of music and marching maneuvers - with a metronome blasting over a Long Ranger, we would practice on our band instruments at home fairly late (after getting our homework done) at night on scales, arpeggios, our concert music (we had several dozen marches in our cardboard march folios and probably thirty concert pieces in our big folders...(rather than just halftime show music and three pieces to take to a concert band festival), and the etudes for the February all-state auditions, as well as the other etudes in the same books - which were often more interesting than those assigned as audition etudes.
- We also went to the library, because there wasn't any such thing as Wikipedia, nor AI, nor self-writing term papers.
- We also taught ourselves how to type, because most people didn't have the fancy IBM typewriters that could pull mistakes back off of the paper, and accurate typing was important. (This pursuit is why most of my posts are way too long.)
- In the summers - around our summer mowing jobs and practicing - we played tennis just about every night, but we typically didn't start until about 8:00 when it started getting cooler, and then quit when the lights shut off at midnight, unless someone had popped the timer off of the junction box again and hotwired the lights.
... All of the shows that are on MeTV now were first run back then, but I just really don't recall watching much television.

Yeah, we worked on a very basic halftime show during a one week band camp that was actually a camp in a park (sleeping in tents) in Arkansas (but only marched in the cool of the morning, and as the day wore on we would work on concert music and the jazz band would rehearse just before dinner - and we also had a couple of hours for swimming), and we worked on it each weekday an hour before school, but there weren't any trophies for that stuff, thankfully... and no one expected us to build four or more big weird looking pieces of junk to haul out onto the marching field...and we didn't expect the percussionists to take their xylophones, marimbas, or timpani outside either.
I think I'm glad I grew up back then. There wasn't even any gunfire or much theft, and anything about crime in the news usually involved a handful or fewer of alcoholic couples and their domestic disturbances.

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 10:11 pm............Yeah, we worked on a very basic halftime show during a one week band camp that was actually a camp in a park (sleeping in tents) in Arkansas (but only marched in the cool of the morning, and as the day wore on we would work on concert music and the jazz band would rehearse just before dinner - and we also had a couple of hours for swimming), and we worked on it each weekday an hour before school, but there weren't any trophies for that stuff, thankfully... and no one expected us to build four or more big weird looking pieces of junk to haul out onto the marching field...and we didn't expect the percussionists to take their xylophones, marimbas, or timpani outside either.
I think I'm glad I grew up back then. There wasn't even any gunfire or much theft, and anything about crime in the news usually involved a handful or fewer of alcoholic couples and their domestic disturbances.

Then there were the "This one time, at band camp" stories, eh?

Heavy_Metal wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 2:47 pm

bloke wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 10:11 pm............Yeah, we worked on a very basic halftime show during a one week band camp that was actually a camp in a park (sleeping in tents) in Arkansas (but only marched in the cool of the morning, and as the day wore on we would work on concert music and the jazz band would rehearse just before dinner - and we also had a couple of hours for swimming), and we worked on it each weekday an hour before school, but there weren't any trophies for that stuff, thankfully... and no one expected us to build four or more big weird looking pieces of junk to haul out onto the marching field...and we didn't expect the percussionists to take their xylophones, marimbas, or timpani outside either.
I think I'm glad I grew up back then. There wasn't even any gunfire or much theft, and anything about crime in the news usually involved a handful or fewer of alcoholic couples and their domestic disturbances.

Then there were the "This one time, at band camp" stories, eh?

My junior year, I instigated a band-wide (80 - 90 band members) mud fight.
I started it by making one senior believe that another senior had thrown mud at him, so he then threw mud at the other guy (this was right after a torrential rain.

It was fun to watch (from the sidelines)...Some of the cute girls ran to their tents and got into their bikinis to participate. One of the band parents made a Super-8 (film) movie of it.