First Parade

In the picture below, one of my oldest friends, Abbie, and I are preparing to twirl in our first of many annual Tobacco Festivals. Though I can hardly remember the events of that day, pictures and scrapbooks remind me of the feeling I experienced in marching through my first parade.

Every attraction, float, and group participating in the annual march was scheduled to meet at Pennington Middle School about one hour before the parade began. The Lee County Little Majorettes met in the middle of the courtyard in front of the school, all in our red uniforms, half of our hair pulled back in a red scrunchy, and little batons on hand that were no more than a foot long.

After a few minutes, it was time to position ourselves in our standard “shortest to tallest” line-up and prepare to march through the parade. “Everybody line up! Get ready! Hands on your hips!” our baton teacher called. Before we knew it we were making our way out of the courtyard and onto the main road.

We marched forward in two lines with our hands glued to our hips with batons clutched tightly in our right hand. We had planned earlier in the week to begin twirling when we reached the first group of spectators. We hadn't been walking but for a few seconds before we saw a group of people up ahead. “Okay girls! Clocks! Now Up Verticals! Down Verticals! Can opener!” Every basic trick that our instructor shouted out to perform, we immediately obeyed and performed each twirl several times before the next trick was called out. We were too small to execute a routine while marching at the same time. In future Tobacco Festival parades, I wouldn't be just twirling basic tricks, I would be high-step marching through town to the up beat tunes of a marching band and twirling routines I never would have dreamed I could perform.
I remember seeing the Lee High Marching Band that day. I had always thought they were amazing, the way the drum line sounded and how professional they looked walking through the parade all perfectly instep. I had always been disappointed that they didn’t have a majorette line. Little did I know I would be a part of that same band eleven years later as one of the four very first majorettes Lee High had since 1995 and discovering my true passion in life.