Thursday, March 15, 2007 Older Editions

The Back Page: The band plays on: All Girl Band marches through the '50s

By Bill Dalton

When I read Maureen (Darby) Fredrickson's e-mail, I laughed out loud.

In the early '50s, Maureen Darby was a member of the All Girl Band. She says, "One fine Saturday, as we were marching down the field, I was distracted by my boyfriend Bob Fredrickson sitting on the football bench at the 50-yard line. I continued playing my drum very fast, my head slowly turning to the right as I kept going, trying to get him to look at me. I had my shoulders back, knees high, and smashed full force into the goalpost. One of the metal turners on the bottom of the drum got me square, full force in my right side. I tried to regain my balance, arms acting like windmills, drumsticks flailing, but went right through the line ahead of me, the momentum making me charge through the baton girls. The wonderful music coming from the band suddenly changed to something like the 1812 Overture, as girls playing trumpets, clarinets, saxophones and the big tuba laughed into their instruments."

Maureen added, "Bob didn't even notice that!"

Miriam Sweeney (later McArdle) recruited Maureen for the band when Maureen was in the sixth grade at Indian Ridge School on Cuba Street. She says, "Each room had one teacher and two grades. There were very few students. I mention this as I was not chosen for any special ability. There was very little to choose from." When she entered junior high, her drum teacher was Mr. Husband, and she learned on the wooden tables at Stowe School. Maureen says, "Give me a couple of No. 2 pencils and I can still do those three tap steps that Miss Sweeney made us play so fast! I can still hear them in my head - drup dup dup, drup, dup, dup. One of the tapsteps required the drummer to hit the sticks against the other. That was really something! Anyway, I thought so."

Maureen tell another interesting story. An older male teacher, nearing retirement, mentioned to 25 students in his class that girls in the band should wear "constraining garments" while marching. Hmmm, in those days such an inappropriate comment was laughable and probably became a school joke for awhile. I suspect that, in the delicately sensitive times in which we now live, such a comment would cause a furor.

Maureen grew up at 76 Essex St. She was originally in the class of '53, but for financial reasons had to quit school to work for a year. She graduated with the class of '54. (I said she should be proud of herself.) In spite of her goalpost escapade, she was voted most athletic girl in her class. She married her boyfriend Bob Fredrickson and they lived at 16 Arundel St. for over 40 years before he passed away. ("God, I miss him," she says.) Maureen now lives at Coachman's Ridge (across from the YMCA).

Joan (Silva) Patrakis (mentioned in previous columns) was in the All Girl Band for four years, graduating from Punchard in 1955. Her band career was varied.

"I joined as a drummer, but never made the ranks. When the band needed help in the woodwind section, I volunteered to play the clarinet - much to my family's regret! They had to endure my squeaky practices," she said. "By mid-November it could be pretty chilly standing in the middle of the football field with your legs exposed to the elements. Sometimes I'd be shivering so much I couldn't get my mouth around the mouthpiece to play a note! I switched over to the color guard and carried the state flag."

Joan's memory of Miss Sweeney was the same as many folks who have sent e-mails: "She was a fashion plate. She was blond and thin and was always dressed as though she just stepped out of Vogue magazine. At football games she would wear a dress or suit with matching hat and purse and high heels. She was like a mother hen, constantly reminding us to 'Stand tall, eyes straight ahead.'"

Joan says that the half-time performances made the band unique: "Every week we had a new formation. For example, we'd form a 'P' for Punchard High School, and in that formation would play the Punchard song ("Cheer cheer for old Punchard High...") or we would form some other symbol that corresponded to the music we played. In the stands we played the Punchard song (actually, the Notre Dame fight song) every time the boys scored a touchdown." [Your columnist feels obligated to mention that, as young boys, we sang the first lines as, "Cheer cheer for old Punchard High; You drink the whiskey; I'll drink the rye."]

Margaret (Campbell) Thomson, nicknamed "Sis," was in the band from 1950 to 1956, the year she graduated. Sis has the nickname because her little brother John (who was in my class and is now a firefighter) couldn't pronounce her real name when he was small. Sis believes that Punchard had the only all girl's band in the country. She adds, "We also had the fastest step in marching. We marched twice as fast to the beat than other bands."

Last week, I mentioned that Andover women made the band uniforms. In Sis' time, Mrs. Dwyer and Mrs. Madden made all the uniforms. She says, "We'd go down to their houses on Pearson Street and be measured, and a couple of weeks later the uniforms would be done. They were dresses, so needless to say we were pretty darn cold at the later games in the season."

I asked her what she played in the band, and she responded, "Are you ready for this? I played the snare drum in the band. Go figure. Barbara Foley from Essex Street was the head majorette. Delight Wilson, Linda Fisher and Ann Dolan were some of the majorettes."

Sis married Sonny Thomson, a classmate, and they lived on Stevens Street for 34 years, moving to Manchester a few years ago. Their daughter Heather, Andover High class of '82, was one of the best athletes in the school's history, winning the Eugene Lovely and Ken McKiniry Award as best all-around athlete in her class. She made the Massachusetts All-Scholastic softball team and set a scoring record on a basketball team that went to the state finals. Her younger brother Andy was an outstanding long jumper in track and graduated in 1984. Both Heather and Andy work at Phillips Academy.

Kathy (Gaudette) Heseltine, who's my cousin, was in the color guard from 1959 to 1962. In her senior year she was its head. Kathy says, "It was a hard job at times for the girls, especially keeping pace marching in parades while carrying large flags. The color guard consisted of six girls. Two carried rifles, three carried flags, American, state and town, and the head color guard carried a sword. I remember hearing we were the only all girl's band in New England, and my friend, Pat Roberge, who played trumpet, thought possibly in the entire country (not sure of that fact). Mr Grigole was the band director then. We won many parade and band competitions and were in numerous parades and music festivals. Although we were an excellent band, I sometimes thought the fact that we all wore majorette uniforms was a definite plus during competitions, especially with all male judges! We were a unique and quite attractive sight while marching."

Kathy says the tradition of marching through the center of town after winning big football games, which had started in the early '40s, continued during her years at high school. (The games were still at the Playstead.) "We marched down Main Street to celebrate our win so all the townspeople could join in our joy. Afterwards, we would hang out at your dad's drugstore [Dalton's] for a cool drink or ice cream at the soda fountain. Good times were had by all during the late '50s and early '60s. Life was so simple then."

Andover Townsman columnist Bill Dalton can be reached at billdalton@andovertownie.com.