Yamaha

I don’t know if you are familiar with Yamaha. Some people are and some are not. Since this is marching season, it reminded me of a story about Yamaha. About 3 years ago, we accompanied our good friends and traveling buddies to watch the high school marching band at the Area competition at the Waco ISD stadium.

It was a nice, warm, sunny day. We had watched several 2-A bands’ programs and were awaiting our results. During the next session and before 2-A results were given, several 3-A bands performed.

Throughout the day, we had discussed the other bands’ uniforms and how they identified their school. We could identify most of the 2-A bands because we were familiar with the school colors. Besides, we had seen many of them perform at the regional contest the week before. Some had mascots on them and others had their high school initials emblazoned on the front. We commented on the flag routines, marching formations, and their overall programs. Chattering would be an appropriate word to use to describe our conversations. We were oblivious to most of the crowd around us.

One particular 3-A band in the next session was entering the field from the left. Their flag corps set up across the field. The flag uniforms were eye-catching and the flags were spectacular. The band members had simple, black uniforms without a mascot or the school’s initials on them. They were all aligned perfectly. The percussion section clicked a very nice cadence that each band member stepped to in unison.

As the drummers came in front of us, our friend asked, “Wonder where they’re from? They are a good band.”

Her husband quipped, “They’re from Yamaha. It says so right there on the bass drum" to which she asked " Wonder where that is?” A dead silence came over our little group immediately before a huge outburst of laughter.

You see, Yamaha is the brand of the drum. . . not the name of a town. Obviously she was not familiar with Yamaha, but now she is.