This was my first chance back to march with the alumni band since 2000. I felt honored to march under David Henry – the band director I marched under in High School. I was in his final class before retirement. It was good to march in the Vermilion High School Marching Band Festival again.

The craziest thing was when we were during the pre-show getting ready to play the Star Spangled Banner with all the assembled bands, Dick Goddard started singing the Star Spangled Banner himself. Now we just stood at attention while this was going on and listened through his rendition. He had sounded drunk or heavily medicated during his performance. I can’t say that authoritatively though.

At the end of his “singing,” Mr. Joseph Price the current band director who was leading his last festival as the band director before retirement started off all the bands playing the star-spangled banner. Out of all the Band Festivals I’ve marched in Vermilion (10 I think in total) this year was the strangest.