Edinburgh: The Longest Day Ever!
Brooke Privett
Today started at 5:15 a.m. with no breakfast and pouring rain!!! We had a 6:00 a.m. rehearsal on the castle esplanade in ponchos and then we headed off to the military barracks for the rehearsal for the finale with the whole cast which was neat. But first, we had breakfast, so I was happy. During the finale we stand behind the Norwegian military band and can’t see the conductor because every one of them are six feet tall or more! They made fun of us and squatted down as they played! Oh, every one of those guys are blonde haired and blue-eyed, so I’m in love!
After the rehearsal I saw my watch and said “It just isn’t right to have had two full rehearsals before 10:00 a.m.” We then rehearsed our show and it was finally time for lunch! Now for the best part: There is a Tattoo souvenir shop at the barracks, so I took some time to look around. I found the program for the show, which is a huge book, and flipped through it. As I turned to the Golden Eagles page, I almost hit the floor! Since I don’t have a picture of it yet, I’ll describe it: The top half of the page is a little blurb about the band. For the bottom half there is a general picture of the band taken from our Greater St. Louis pictures and then, get this, there is about a 5x7" cut out picture of someone playing super imposed on top of the band’s picture, and that some one is ME!!!! It is ridiculous, but Mom and Dad are going to love it! I will definitely be purchasing that program.
As we were about to leave the barracks, the producer of the Tattoo, Major General Ewan Lauden, who I met back in the spring when he visited Southeast, came up to me and said, “Hey Brooke! (Which I was impressed he remembered my name!) I heard you specifically on some notes.” I cringed because that isn’t necessarily a compliment in the marching band world, because you want to blend in, so my response was “Oh, sorry.” He said “Why be sorry, you were amazing!!” So that was quite the ego booster! Haha!
We left the barracks and headed back to the dorms where Mr. Bernhardt told us to take a nap. We then had dinner and then headed back up to the castle for a band rehearsal and then a full cast rehearsal. The rain decided to show up while we were trying to rehearse the finale, so the rehearsal was cut short. We all got drenched, but I must say I got it the worst. I had on a weather proof track suit, and one of my friends only had a t-shirt, so I let her borrow my poncho. My suit was no match for the downpour, and I got soaked.
Oh, keep my trumpet case in your prayers! It’s primarily foam and I found it on the opposite side of the bleachers from where I left it. Some witnesses said they saw it floating down a creek that the rain had created. When I got to it, a sousaphone case had stopped it, but water was splashing into it like crazy! Every bit of my music is ruined. I came back to the dorm and fired up my hair dryer, in hopes of salvaging some things. Pointless! We have another long day of rehearsals tomorrow (hopefully it won’t rain,) so good night!