Date: Fri 29-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

NHS-Band-muster

Full Text:

Mustering The Marchers: Full Band And Color Guard Gathers At Fairfield Hills

(with photos)

BY DOROTHY EVANS

Freshmen, watch the upperclassmen! Everyone, get set in your sections! Hut!

Finally! After two days of threatened rain and canceled practices, the sun

came out for good on Friday, August 22.

That meant it was time to muster the full Newtown High School Marching Band

and Color Guard for its first Band Camp. The freshmen had met earlier in the

week, but this would be the first time all the classes would be marching

together.

The practice session was held on the Fairfield Hills campus in the parking lot

and fields adjacent to Watertown Hall - "Band Central" was Band Director Jack

Zamary's affectionate term for the old brick building.

Watertown Hall is located just to the left of the campus entrance off Mile

Hill Road, and that is the place where the approximately 250 band members will

be holding their practice sessions until the field at Newtown High School is

completed.

Last Friday's Band Camp was The Day for students to show up with their

instruments to register and receive information about schedules and uniforms,

and to buy NHS band paraphernalia or marching shoes.

It was also a day for parents and siblings to feel a little sentimental about

a freshman's first day or a senior's last year on the band.

"Aren't they beautiful?" a mother told her small son as they stood together

watching the band march in formation down the road.

"I can't wait to see them in uniform during the [Labor Day] parade. They

always look great," another parent said.

Her friend answered with a story of her own.

"My daughter Christine is afraid I'll embarrass her from the sidelines during

the parade by telling her to stand up straight or something. `Don't you dare

call out my name,' she tells me."