Accent on Living
THE back-to-school days are here again, and educators throughout the land are pondering many grave new questions.
Notable among the summer’s developments was the striking expansion of opportunities for drum majorettes. It seems only yesterday when two or three of these prancing youngsters sufficed for the ceremonies beginning the Indianapolis 500 or the laying of a cornerstone for Burdock’s new shopping center in Nirvana Heights. Knee action and the Big Smile were everything in those days, and the girl who could stamp high and hard enough over a parade route and keep time with the bass drum could afford to bluff it with the baton twirling. As the numbers of drum majorettes increased, competition stiffened among them, and the repertoire took on a more professional quality. The well-educated girl of today can toss her baton higher than the television camera will follow, and she will execute a few cartwheels before catching it and resuming her wriggles. Achievements of this order are more than mere back-yard stuff to be worked up after school. Only the expert can qualify. An ineptly flung baton — what a death to die, beaned by a drum majorette! — is out of the question for today’s conditions, and much training and classwork are needed before the girls take the field.
But the summer months have moved the baton twirlers into a new dimension: aquatics. The girls have taken to the water. They float. A few lines from a Boston Herald story hailing a water-ski show called Boat-O-Rama show us what lies ahead:
“Highlights of the water ski acts will include ballet numbers, military, pyramids and mixed doubles.
“The ballet features six girls in white bathing suits with orange ballerina skirts and matching mitts and crown.
“The colorful military act consists of four girls attired in patriotic red, white and blue majorette costumes complete with hat and boots in a baton twirling routine on water skis.
“To appeal to the children, the ski team will simulate an Indian fight in complete Indian dress and tomahawks.
“On Friday night only, the group will show a new South Seas act featuring five men on skis carrying lighted torches.”
Implications of these novelties for the public schools are obvious. Plant and equipment must be added to meet the new needs. Credits for baton twirling should be comparable to those given for such courses as bait casting, social dancing, neighboriiness, etc. The schools of education and their courses for teachers must take the lead.
Summer developments among the marching bands have been less spectacular, but one change announced for Nirvana High’s bandsmen may be taken as typical of a trend toward a more impressive uniform for such units, the traditional purple-andorange of the Nirvana band has hitherto been embellished only by a modest half-inch trouser stripe of yellow cloth. The new stripe will be of one-inch braid, yellow with a purple soutache and contrasting edge of white.
No school has attempted, so far, to put its marching band on water skis, but equipment manufacturers are understood to be negotiating with educators in many waterfront locations. Making batons, crowns, and tomahawks that will float presents no great difficulty, but it is feared that replacement costs may be severe, especially for some of the heavier brasses, during the early training period, while the band is getting its sea legs.
CHARLES W. MORTON