Dan Tontz
The East High Band consisted of 114 students playing their musical instruments. Most of them had been playing for several years in intermediate school bands and taking private lessons.
Our band director was Kenneth Thompson (right), father of Jane Thompson (class of ’60). He was well respected and he even signed my yearbook. One of his sayings was this: “In music it is most important to start together and to end together. ” We did that…most of the time.
Mr. Thompson loved John Phillip Sousa marches. He must have because we played so many of them during marching band season. Those songs were easy to play. That was good because we needed the time to concentrate on the marching formations.
The band performed at various events including band concerts, football games, regional contests with other schools, and school assemblies.
I have some wonderful memories of the East High School band:
- The infamous Christmas parade in downtown Wichita. The band marched in freezing temperatures. It was so cold that some of our instruments froze up and we could not play.
- Riding with band members in the school bus after playing at football games away from East High. A lot of things happened at the back of the bus!!
- At a music contest with other schools, I was playing a solo when I forgot the notes to the music. So I just ad-libbed with a jazzy riff. The contest judge noticed and mentioned it in his evaluation rating. He knocked me down to a B+.
Years after he retired, Mr. Thompson was a resident at the Larksfield Retirement Center. When I went there to see my father, I always looked forward to visiting with Mr. Thompson. He always had lots of interesting stories to tell.
It was great times with the East High School Band.
