I guess it started with all the recent events in our nation’s capital. Then it continued with my thoughts about patriotism, which reminded me that in high school our mascot was the Patriots. What it all added up to was remembering a key event of my youth…
I was fifteen years old and a high school sophomore. That year our new band teacher, John Bringetto, suggested that I try out for the Blue Saints Honor Jazz Band on baritone sax. I got in and at the first rehearsal learned that I was now a member of an Explorer Scout post — whatever that meant!
Well, I learned a lot more about Explorer Scouts the following spring, when the Blue Saints were invited to be the “house band” for the second National Explorer Presidents’ Congress in Washington, D.C.
This was in the early 70’s, before answering machines, video players, and personal computers. The Explorers organization flew us to Washington D.C., which was my first experience of the East Coast and my first time in an airplane. They put us up — all expenses paid — in the luxurious Sheraton Park Hotel and we divided our time between occasionally entertaining the Explorer Presidents’ Congress and visits to Capitol Hill and the National Mall.
I was so young and naïve then. I remember trying to wrap my mind around the contrast in scenery, starting with the beautiful hotel grounds, moving through the slums (something I had never seen before), and arriving at the Capitol where everything was perfection. I distinctly remember rows of daffodils planted with military precision, in graduated — from pale to vivid — shades of yellow.
Another never-to-be-forgotten memory was going into a restaurant and ordering a muffin. At least, that’s what I thought I said. The waitress, who was black, brought me a bowl of some sort of oatmeal porridge type of hot cereal. I remember looking at her and realizing that — despite both of us being American and English-speaking and dark-skinned — we did not speak the same language. California was a long way from Washington D.C.
One final thought: I do have some (pretty bad) photos of band members hanging out on the steps of the Capitol Building (I think it’s the East Front) and I was surprised to see all sorts of cars parked right there on the street in front of the Capitol. Things have changed so much, haven’t they?