Travis Jr Hi band. I played alto saxophone and sat right beside Melinda B_ who also played alto sax. I remember marching with the band down Polk Street one year. That same year we had a competition in the WT football stadium… good times. Anyway, I’ve had a song from that era in my head for years. I know I could pick up a sax and play that song today if I had to. I think it was the Travis School Song, or maybe it was the Travis Sports Fight Song, I still don’t know but let me tell you a journey I went on to try to find out.
I contacted Melinda and told her my recurring song dilemma and asked if she would help me out, she agreed. I got an audio mike and recorded the little diddly and emailed it to her. She opened it up and listened to it a number of times but couldn't remember the song.
Melinda’s sharp. She couldn’t help me out but suggested I send the recording to the current Travis administration to see it they could help. Brilliant! So, I contacted Travis. I talked to the lady vice principle
who said she would try to help. I explained to her that I was a former Travis
pupil from ’65 -’67, and I had a Palo Duro web site that I wanted to add some
Travis content to. I asked her how I could get in touch with the band director;
she gave me his email address. Later, I
attached my recording, explained the situation and sent it to him. He listened
and replied that he had no earthly idea what the song was. He did attach a
written version of the school and fight song, which was cool, so I thanked him
and moved on.
Days later the lady principle emailed me saying that she had
heard that the band director couldn’t help.
She had visited my web site and wanted to help with that Travis contribution. She knew where the school library stored
copies of all the old school newspapers. She copied the ’65 -’67 versions, attached
and sent them to me. So wow, I didn’t figure out the song but gained copies of
the school newspaper from that era which was a total surprise and welcomed
addition to the web site. The song still crops up from time to time 😊
PS – I’ve got time, so let me tell you about that WT football stadium competition...
WT football stadium competition
It was fall and football season. I was in the band but I
played football too. We’d practice band in the morning and I’d practice
football in the afternoon, quite a stretch. The band needed a bass saxophone that
year so I agreed to play it instead of my alto. Altos are a high pitch
instrument and of course bass is low. I could really belt out some low notes
from my newly acquired sax. In a classroom during band hour you pretty much
have to know your music. The music is printed
large and on a stand in front of you, so it’s fairly easy to just follow along
with the conductor who’s close by. Out on the marching field it’s a little
different. You’ve still got the music in front of you but it’s printed very
small, flapping in the wind, on a perch inches from your nose. The conductor is
nowhere around and there’s no one around you listening to you, so why bother to
know the music. Besides marching and knowing the music, you’ve also got to know
your march formation routing. The whole band is making patterns on the field
and you’ve got to know where you’re at and where you’re marching to. So we
practice, practice, practice. I got the marching down. I’m not going to
embarrass myself by wondering off on a tangent away from my formation. But
knowing the music… well something had to slide.
The WT competition rolls around. We don our marching
uniforms, bus to Canyon, unload, everyone is excited. For most of us it’s the
first time we’d been on the grass of a college stadium. We assembled on the
field like we’d practiced and began our routine… piece of cake. I was inspired
by the setting we were in and I wanted to contribute to the effort. For some
reason, at the beginning of our march I got the notion that I knew this music,
I was good at playing by ear, so I thought – why not, just improvise and belt
it out. Throughout the performance I impressed myself when listening to my loud
low notes reverberate through the stadium. I was pretty proud of myself.
Later, before entering the bus on the way home, the band
director approached me and said we had been marked down because the bass sax
player didn’t know his music. He
indicated that we might have won had we not been marked down, and why didn’t I
just march and not play.
Bummer, big regret.
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