Picto Diary - 26 October 2019 - PCHS Marching Band

Image: Deux Magots Walkers. TWO3 observes PCHS band practice at Dozier Field. Park City, UT. 26 October 2019.
Anticipating performance at next PCHS (10 - 0) playoff game.

I love marching bands.
I was a trombonist in Provo High School's marching band in 1961 and 1962. Mr. Brady was our band director.

I remember only a few of my high school teachers vividly. Mr. Brady was one. He was taciturn, serious... not much of a sense of humor. But, he was competent in directing a high school band and I could sense his love and passion for what he did.

In those days, the trombones made up the first row of the marching band. The trombonist on the right front corner of the band formation was the person off of whom the rest of the band aligned. That person was me. At the time, I felt honored to have this slot, chosen from six or seven other trombonists.

Traditionally, the best marching bands come from the Big Ten football conference. This has changed over the years. The SEC and the Southwest conferences have terrific marching bands these days.

I have two friends, who at different times, marched in the Purdue University (Big Ten) marching band. Each has affirmed to me that being in the Purdue Marching Band was the best experience of their life. They liked the discipline, the camaraderie, the training and the musicianship. One said, while a lot of my class mates were out carousing, getting liquored up, or on drugs, we in the band had no time for any of that stuff.

Park City High School Marching Band, the band practicing in this image, has an excellent reputation. This summer they travelled to Normandy to take part in the D Day commemoration.

Park City High School has a 10-0 record as it enters the playoffs for football State Championship. These kids here are, no doubt, getting ready for a half time performance of an upcoming game.

The combination of the high standard marching band and the excellent football team almost makes a local want to get out and support them. I think the next game is at Dozier Field. I might just go! To see the marching band, that is!

Above: Breastworks atop Echo Cliffs. Echo Canyon, UT. 26 October 2019.

Out and about in the F350.

TIMDT and Mwah (sic) stopped here on the way up to Evanston for lunch at Don Pedros (yes, steak tacos!). I took a pair of binoculars this time to try to pin point the location of at least part of the breastworks. The breastworks were installed in 1857 by Lot Smith's Mormon Militia in anticipation of the June 1858 arrival of US troops into Salt Lake City sent by President Buchanan to get Brigham Young into line. Below these breastworks was an stone dam on the Echo Canyon Creek, also made by the Mormon Militia, to ensure that the US troops, led by General Albert Sidney Johnson, would, in bypassing the artificial lake, pass close by, below the breastworks and the militia members who manned them. One of the Mormon Militia was Andrew Hunter Scott. My great great Grandfather.

We returned to Park City via WY/UT SR 150, the Mirror Lake Highway. An intent to do the Mirror Lake circumferance hike was thwarted on account of six inches snow accumulation on the lake trail. There weren't many traveling the Mirror Lake Highway today. The road is due to be closed in a week or so. Notwithstanding, the Uinta peaks were covered with snow, the sky was sunny, the air was brisk. It was a stunning landscape view not often seen from a car/truck. If you want to check out the scenery during the depths of winter, get a snowmobile!

Above: Jordanelle Reservoir. Provo Peak (left) and Mount Timpanogas (right) frame the notch that is Provo Canyon, leading to Utah Valley. 26 October 2019.

Out and about on the Duc.