Holiday tuneup

Parade kicks off season for city, provides practice for Pasadena-bound band

RALEIGH -- Most of the 20 marching bands performing in the Raleigh Christmas Parade on Saturday morning arrived on school buses.

But Broughton High School's band members chose a different mode of transportation -- their feet.

Broughton's band hoofed the half-mile from the school on St. Mary's Street to the start of the parade on Hillsborough Street.

Band members wore their purple and white uniforms and carried their instruments -- no exceptions, even for the tuba players and drummers.

Then they marched and performed along the 1.2-mile parade route, not once, but twice.

It wasn't out of vanity. The band needed the walk to get in shape.

Next month, Broughton's band heads to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., where the route is six miles long.

The band has been walking around the school's track, said band director Jeffrey Richardson. But Saturday was the first time they'd walked and performed for that long with their gear.

"The purpose was to get used to walking and carrying all this garbage with us," said Richardson, who hustled alongside the band with a whistle around his neck.

A crowd at least six people deep lined the streets for the 63rd annual Raleigh Christmas parade as the wind whipped around the downtown buildings. The spectators didn't seem to notice that Broughton came through twice. They clapped their gloved hands together and cheered for one of Raleigh's oldest schools both times.

After the Broughton marchers made their way through the parade once, Chelsea Senter, a sophomore flag girl, said her hands were so cold she feared she would drop her flag.

But Senter and several other flag girls, dressed in one-sleeved, bare-shoulder tops in 55-degree weather, agreed it wasn't so bad. They kept warm as they scurried to the beginning of the route to do it again.

For their encore performance, they followed Santa, the show stopper.

"I feel tired, but pretty good," said sophomore Elizabeth Curry after the band's second parade loop. That coming from a piccolo player.

Richardson reported no problems, except for one band member who wanted to use the bathroom. Richardson denied the request.

There are no bathroom breaks in Pasadena, he said.

"Now I'm going to be nice and let them ride home," Richardson said, as he pointed his pack to five school buses parked a half-block from the end of the parade route. School buses never looked so good to these folks.

Band members tore off their marching shakos to reveal sweat-soaked hair and climbed aboard.

Then they sat down for the first time in three hours.