Editor's Roundup
USDA people in the news

      “I’m a ‘Band Wally’ at heart and I love a parade, so the weather wasn’t bothering me at all!”

      Kelly Harmon was using a phrase that describes those who join a marching band in high school or college because they really want to be in the band, as opposed to those who join to avoid work in some other academic class. Her enthusiasm for marching bands and parades paid off--since she was part of this year’s presidential inauguration parade in Washington, DC on January 20.

      Harmon, a computer specialist with the Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md., plays the tenor saxophone for the Baltimore Ravens professional football team’s marching band. That band was selected to participate in the presidential inauguration parade.

      The band opted to play a version of “America” for the inauguration parade. “No, not 'I Like To Be In America’ from 'West Side Story’,” she clarified, “but rather 'America’ as in 'Oh Beautiful For Spacious Skies’.”

      Harmon recounted that at 9 a.m. on a damp, frigid cold, rainy January 20 inauguration day, the 300 band members who participated met at the Ravens’ football stadium, did an hour warmup of their selection, boarded a bus and were driven to the Pentagon parking lot, were searched and patted down for security reasons, and then were driven to an enclosed area on Washington’s Mall, which served as the staging area for the parade.

      “Once we’d been cleared for security, we weren’t allowed to have any pre-parade contact with the public,” she explained. “For awhile we were inside a nice heated tent on the Mall, where we indulged in hot chocolate and clam chowder.”

      Then at 3:30 p.m. band members left the comfort of the tent and took their place in the parade formation. “They put the largest groups at the end of the parade,” Harmon noted. “We were second in size only to the marching band from Ohio State University--so that band was at the end, we were second to the end, and we were just behind a 'Precision Lawn Chair Team’ from Denver, dressed in Hawaiian shirts and no doubt freezing.”

      What almost become an issue, Harmon advised, was the effect of the weather on their instruments. “As a saxophone player, I blew my notes on a wooden reed, not a metal mouthpiece, so my lips didn’t get particularly cold,” she explained. “But, even though I wore gloves, my fingers did get cold because they had to be spread out to reach all 15 keys on my sax.”

      And, she added, while the freezing rain was challenging enough, they worried about the possibility of sleet. “Sleet could have filled up the 'bell,’ or the u-shaped part of my sax,” she explained. “That could have blocked the sound and/or caused the keypads to either not close properly or, if closed, freeze shut.”

      “That could have led to a really 'interesting’ rendition of 'America’,” she quipped.

      At about 6 p.m. Harmon and her bandmates arrived in front of the presidential reviewing stand. “Although by that time it was nearly pitch black outside,” she said, “big lights surrounding the reviewing stand made it like daylight as we marched by.”

      And, as you marched by, playing your saxophone, did you sneak a peak over at the reviewing stand?

      “Well,” she recounted, “there was a sign in front of the reviewing stand which read 'Eyes Left.’ Now, some might have interpreted that as applying only to the drum majors--but we interpreted it as applying to all of us, so we all looked over there as we marched by.”

      And how did you keep from tripping up, if you weren’t looking straight ahead?

      “Oh, we spend a lot of time practicing '8 to 5,’ which means that you take 8 steps to march 5 yards,” she explained. “So that wasn’t a worry.”

      One block beyond the reviewing stand the band members broke formation, walked up a hill, and boarded their waiting bus. “We were all soaked--but satisfied with our performance,” Harmon affirmed.

      “But our focus right at that moment was getting those wet uniforms off. You may not realize,” she laughed, “that suffocating, wet wool can be very--shall I say--‘overbearing’.”