Shorewood Marching Band trip to Victoria
From The Extended Group
The Shorewood Marching Band trip to Victoria was an adventure attended by XG members Brett, Lukas, and Stuart in the late spring of 2000. The school sponsored trip was somewhat groundbreaking for XG members as it was one of the first multi-day trips out of town without the guidance of parents. The trip also featured a cast of more background characters, who still played roles in the happenings of the trip.
Beginning
Brett, Lukas, and Stuart were all members of Shorewoods symphonic band under the direction of teacher Mr. Harshman. Towards the end of Freshmen year, the band would embark on its annual trip out of town to perform in the Victoria Day Parade in Canada. All symphonic band members were also conscripted into marching band, and had practiced prior to performing at football games earlier in the year, so it was a natural transition to march in street parades. With the departure date nearing, excitment was growing amongst the group members with plans to talk with cheer/drill girls, buy incense and possibly firecrackers in chinatown, and perhaps even go clubbing.
The trip began on a saturday, with instructions to meet behind the gym at 7 AM to load onto busses. Lukas and Brett sat together, while Stuart sat across the aisle. The trip north was rather uneventful except for the "senior girls" who made it their business to be loud and obnoxious in the back, while eating an inordinate amount of bean-dip. The convoy of busses crossed the Edmonds-Kingston ferry crossing and continued north on highway 101 towards Port Townsend. By the time the busses arrived in town, it was nearing mid-day and people were getting hungry, but there was no opportunity found to stop.
The First Parade
All students had to disboard the busses at a small high school in Port Townsend in order to get organized for the parade. Locker rooms were employed for changing into overblown marching band uniforms, and soon the band was organized and ready to march. The march took place uneventfully with the band having previously memorized the songs "Disco Inferno" and "Funkytown" to be played on repeat with a short break in between songs. The march was fairly long and wound down past main street towards an old church. At the end of the march, band members changed back into regular clothes and reboarded busses for the trip. Hunger was even more apparent as it was now 2-3 PM and most hadnt eaten since 6 AM that morning (Brett notably neglected to eat breakfast). It was during this leg of the trip that the "senior girls" began singing loudly and in an out-of-tune manner to Garth Brooks while Brett and Lukas cringed and looked at one another. Lukas attempted to make a joke about how one accustomed to south asian music may find their rendition enjoyable given their quarter-tone scale, but the joke was lost on Brett. It wasnt until approximately 5-6 PM that the busses rolled into the town of Port Angeles on the straight of Juan de Fuca to board the Blackball ferry bound for Victoria. It was here that the infamous "Lukas Steps on Ketchup Packet incident occurred.
