Christmas tree, O Christmas tree: Part 3

Forward, march!

When Rachel reached high school, she decided to join the Southlake Carroll Dragon Marching Band, a decision I heartily endorsed.

I remembered the rigid social hierarchy that rules every high school, and I worried about how my smart, beautiful but terribly shy daughter would adapt. I believed being part of an institution like the marching band – with its prominent role in the centerpiece of most high schools, Friday night football – would be just the ticket to give her a sense of belonging that I had never felt in high school.

So she became a member of the Dragon Band’s clarinet section, where she met Katie, who became her very best friend. She marched all four years and had a grand time, particularly in the stands with her band mates during football games. She never was an enthusiastic marcher.

As a freshman, she marched all the way to Southlake’s seventh state football championship. That same season, she performed with the band during one of the Metroplex’s most legendary football contests – the matchup between Carroll and the Euless Trinity Trojans during the second round of the 2006 playoffs.

That game, between two reigning state champions (one in Division I and the other in Division II), was played before a record-setting crowd at Texas Stadium. Those lucky enough to fight their way through the traffic jams that choked access to the stadium saw a stem-winder of a game, one of the best most of us had ever seen. It ended when the trailing Dragons blew up a fake Trojan punt in the closing minutes and went on to score.

A year or two later, Rachel was in a theater class when the teacher asked her students if they had ever performed before an audience before, for any reason. A number of students, including Rachel, raised their hands.

“An audience of more than 25?” the teacher asked. A few hands went down.

“How about an audience of more than 100?” Now only a few hands stayed in the air.

“More than a 1,000?” Every hand came down save Rachel’s.

“And how many people have you performed before, Miss Gunnels? And where?” the skeptical teacher asked.

“More than 45,000,” my darling daughter answered with a grin. “At Texas Stadium. With the band.”

 I think we got this ornament at a fund-raising table during a Christmas band concert. It depicts a musician in the band’s old uniform. The band got fancy new unis when Rachel was a senior, an upgrade applauded by most. But I always liked the more traditional -- OK, more old-fashioned -- ones better.