The band played on through the downpour The band played on through the downpour (January 06, 2006)

by Jeb Bing

It was dŽjˆ vu for local Realtor Shelley Cartier, but a wet and soggy one as she watched her son Carter and the Foothill High marching band parade down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard in last Monday's Tournament of Roses parade, just as she did in 1979. At the time, Cartier was a freshman at Foothill, and it was quite an honor to be part of the band's first trip to the Rose Bowl parade, which is by invitation only. Cartier played the piccolo, which is one of the lighter instruments in the marching band, which made a difference in the six-mile-long march, playing all the time with no breaks. Her only complaint: Foothill's wool uniforms and hats make the typically 70-80 degree Pasadena days seem more like 100, so band members made a quick and welcome change into lighter clothes at the end of the parade.

For her son Carter, 16, a junior, this year's parade was different. He got off the band bus just off the Ventura Freeway to take up Foothill's position No. 83, about three-fourths down the parade route. Besides gusting winds in the 40 mph range and a wind chill factor of 40 degrees, the beating rainstorm drenched everything and everybody as Foothill's turn finally came 2-1/2 hours later. Where his mother found the band uniforms too hot, Carter found that the wool absorbed all the water it could, making his heavier and heavier as he marched along. Adding insult to injury, his crash cymbals sprayed water in his face every time he crashed them. His friend and bandmate Tyler Couto, also 16 and a junior, carried and played the snare drum, which quickly became soaked and sometimes gave out a dull thud because of all the water. Upfront, Drum Major Sarah Peterson tossed her wet baton repeatedly and drew loud applause for her precise steps and baton catches in the sometimes blinding rainstorm. The only mishap was at the back of the band where a banner holder slipped in a pool of water and fell down, quickly recovering to finish the parade.

Under the direction of Bob Moorefield and Ed Cloyd, the Foothill band won loud praise for its music and marching precision from the Tournament of Roses parade audience, which still packed the curbs and bleachers despite the weather. It was Foothill's fifth invitation to march in the parade, the most for any Northern California high school. To make the most of the weekend, Moorefield also accepted an invitation to join the afternoon Disneyland parade last Sunday. Although the park canceled its parade because of heavy rains, Moorefield and the band marched through the park anyway, getting a taste of the rainstorm that would be even fiercer the following day.

Along with the band, the more than 100 parents, faculty and band boosters also got drenched, both at Disneyland and in the special set of bleachers they filled at $40 a seat at the end of Colorado Boulevard where the parade started. Although told to be in their seats by 7 a.m. on that dark, rainy morning, Shelley Cartier, her husband Stefan and the others waited until 9:30 before the Foothill band rounded the corner and they stood to applaud the performance with hands poking out of rain-soaked ponchos. Waterlogged, but apparently none the worse for wear, as band boosters reported in their newsletter this week, this year's Rose parade--with its first such drenching in 50 years--will go down in history as one of those "Survivor"-type challenges that everyone will always remember but, hopefully, never have to repeat.

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