Thursday, March 8, 2007 Older Editions

The Back Page: On the march - The early years of Andover's All Girl Band

By Bill Dalton

In 1948, Barbara Fowler led the All Girl Band at Punchard High School into a "spiral" in front of hundreds of people. She and the band had practiced difficult formations for weeks. It was Barbara's fifth year as a majorette, but her first as the head majorette. She was a junior. The difficulty of the spiral formation occurs at the transition point when she was to lead the band out of the spiral. As the maneuver began, she prayed, "Please help me get out this."

When Barbara was in sixth grade at Shawsheen School, she was recruited to be a majorette by the band's founder and director, Miss Miriam Sweeney. Miriam Sweeney, who would soon be Mrs. McCardle, went to all the grade schools around town looking for girls to join the band as musicians or majorettes. The All Girl Band of that era included more than 60 girls from the junior high and Punchard. They'd practice two hours every day, and their main responsibility was to perform at the Punchard football games.

For a person who didn't experience living in a small town then, it might be hard to imagine the importance of Saturday afternoon football games. Television hadn't yet devoured America's culture, and being part of the "community" had more significance. There were only four or five home games a year. The biggest games were against archrivals Tenney High (Methuen) and Johnson (North Andover). An otherwise bad season could be a success by beating both Tenney and Johnson, especially Johnson, which was the Thanksgiving game. The first game was important also, as it gave the local spectators a chance to size-up the quality of the local team.

The All Girl Band was important to the town. It would march onto the field prior to a game, led by the six- to nine-girl color guard. Next to the flag carriers, the girls in the first years of the band's history carried swords. Perhaps for safety sake, this was later changed to wooden rifles.

Next to the American flag was the Commonweath's; sometime after the first few years of the band's history, a flag for Punchard High School, (or perhaps the town flag) was added. As the American Flag passed, everyone in the bleachers stood and men removed their hats, placing them over their hearts. When the band was at midfield, it turned and faced the home field bleachers. The head majorette would be the only member of the band with her back to the bleachers as she "conducted" the band during the national anthem. Miss Sweeney taught each head majorette to look like she knew what she was doing as she conducted.

At home game halftimes, the All Girl Band would again come on the field. Families and friends of band members watched proudly as the girls marched and played, and others in the stands simply appreciated the huge amount of training, work and talent that was necessary for the band to perform so well. The girls were beautiful in their magnificent uniforms. Many of the boys, not all of who were music aficionados, would stay in the bleachers to watch the girls rather than visit the refreshment stand.

Hours of practice paid off when Barbara successfully led the band out of the spiral. It was one of the best moments of her young life. When I spoke with her, I asked her how it felt to drop a baton thrown high in the air. She said it was just part of being a majorette, and if you dropped the baton you picked it up and continued on. Barbara said, "Miss Sweeney was strict but good. She was a wonderful person, and we all liked her."

Barbara led the band again in her senior year, graduating from Punchard in 1950. She mentioned some of her friends who were long term band members. They included the Sunderland sisters - Carol, Betty and Nancy - Ellie Bateson, Patty Hamblet and Barb Hamilton. Eventually, Barbara Fowler married and had three children, all of whom graduated from Andover High in the 1970's, Jay, Lisa, and Buffy Pennick. Barbara Fowler Pennick now lives in Hyannisport.

The 1948 band wore uniforms that were in their ninth year of service, made the year the All Girl Band started. However, in 1949, they had new uniforms purchased by the Andover Boosters. The new uniforms were made to match exactly the old uniforms, which were designed by Miss Sweeney in 1939.

Joan Petrakis, who (coincidentally) has written a brief history of the All Girl Band that will soon be in the newsletter published by the Andover Historical Society, told me that the first year of the band's existence was 1940. I recently received a letter from Barbara (Monro) Caldwell, who now lives in South Carolina. She wrote about the early years of the band. She played cornet and was in the class of 1946. One of Barbara's seven sisters, Gladys, was in the band during its first years.

Barbara stated that Miss Sweeney (the music director of the school) not only the founded the band, she created it and its appearance. "Miriam designed the uniform and accessories (shoes, hat, etc). My mother and my sister Bess made a sample of this into a uniform 'pattern' with many changes of fabric, making note of washability, comfort and, of course, cost," said Barbara.

The uniforms and hats were powder blue, with brass buttons on the blouse and white saddle shoes with white socks. Miss Sweeney insisted that the shoes be kept "spanking white." There was white braiding and a white plume on every uniform. The head majorette's uniform was white with gold braiding and plume. As a final touch, on the sidelines, Miss Sweeney wore a matching powder blue suit.

Once the uniforms were designed and sewn, mostly by the girls in the band or their mothers, much more work was necessary. Mrs.Caldwell said, "Miss Sweeney arranged donation drives for instruments, money, time and volunteers of all categories. She had Mr. Giblin (Lowell High) and Frank Consentino for brass, reeds and drums. Miss Sweeney handled the flag bearers and baton twirlers. She ran off copies of marching routines and music that she derived from college routines. Each member paid 50 cents per lesson to the instructors. Classes were held after school in the junior high building. Marching practice was on the football field after all other functions."

I lived close enough to the Playstead to appreciate how late the girls practiced; it was often until it was so dark I couldn't understand how they could see.

Barbara mentioned several of the early band members who served with her sister Gladys, including Connie Swenson, Kay Valentine, Kathleen Pattullo, Florence Nicoll, Ruth Nicoll, Gladys Martinson, Ruth Maylum, Glenna Markert, Everilda Collins, Lois Henderson, Helen Locke, Ruth Cashman, Mina Manthorne and Rita Downs. The first head majorette was Janet Guild.

"This was a very cohesive group of young women in a totally new environment. Of this group, at least 10 went on to join the armed services - WAC, WAVES - during World War II," said Barbara.

In addition to football games, the All Girl Band marched in the Memorial Day parade and appeared in many other events. There are several pictures showing their involvement in the town's tercentennial celebration in 1946.

Barbara Fowler Pennick says the most exciting time for her was following a home-field football victory when the band would march from the Playstead through the center of town. Main Street would temporarily shut down while the town celebrated.

I will have a second column on the All Girl Band next week. If you have additional information, please contact me.

Townsman columnist Bill Dalton's e-mail address is billdalton@

andovertownie.com.