Going to School in Black and White by Cindy Waszak Geary

Author:Cindy Waszak Geary
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: personal memoir;desgregation;segregation;Durham;North Carolina;1970's;race relations;civil rights;education;dual narrative;Hillside High School;Whitted Elementary School;Whitted Junior High;Rogers Herr Middle School
Publisher: Torchflame Books
Published: 2017-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Cindy Waszak, Senior Portrait.

7— Finally at Hillside: It’s All About the Band

Seven

Finally at Hillside: It’s All About the Band

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My struggles for independence from my parents continued, but my transition from junior high to high school was made easier for one essential reason: the marching band. This was no ordinary group of musicians. The Hillside Marching Hornets were the most talented, baddest band in the land. I knew they were world famous (at least to us), and no other high school in the area had the reputation or following of the Hillside band. As a young black Durhamite, I used to look forward to seeing three things during the holiday parades: Hillside High Band, North Carolina Central University band and Santa Claus. My affection for Santa Claus soon faded, but my love of the bands never wavered.

The majorettes leading the band seemed to me to be the prettiest girls, with beautiful long brown legs. They could twirl and catch their batons and dance in perfect coordination with the cadence of the drummers. Then the band would play a familiar tune, belted out with confidence. How I loved Hillside’s band! I began to dream that I, too, one day, could be in that band.

One of the reasons I persevered with the French horn in the eighth grade was that I thought it might help me get into the marching band at Hillside. But I had two problems. One was that I could not see myself playing and lugging around the French horn in the marching band, especially given the complex dance routines the band was known for. And second, I really wanted to be a majorette.

But therein lay two more problems: First, I did not know how to twirl a baton. Second, that year the band director, Mr. Edgerton, required that anyone who tried out for the majorette squad had to play an instrument at least her first year—sophomore year—in the marching band. He also had a large squad of seniors, so he was not selecting any sophomores that year to be a majorette. What was an aspiring majorette to do?

My quick solution was to take flute lessons. I picked the flute, not because I thought that it was the easiest instrument, but because it was the lightest. So, while my classmates were planning to try out for Hillside’s band using instruments they’d been playing for at least two years, I started taking lessons on a completely new instrument that I had to master in a few weeks.

I convinced my parents to buy me a second-hand flute. Then I coaxed some of my peers to show me what they knew. I bought a beginner’s book, and basically taught myself how to play the flute in the last few weeks of the ninth grade and before summer band tryouts. I could read sheet music and learned just enough to play the major notes and chords, and somehow convinced myself that I played well enough to sit for auditions. Luckily they were group auditions, which went well enough for me to gain a spot in the marching band.

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