THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511190231
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Ever since World War II, townsfolk around Elizabeth City have been blowing their horns about the high school band.
Few communities come close to the fervor that this normally muted little city shows for its marching musicians. Membership in the nationally known organization is coveted, perhaps more than any of the other traditional social distinctions.
``There's a bonding and a special kind of grace that we seemed to get from the training,'' said George Bright, an Elizabeth City real estate official who was one of the drum majors in the 1950s when the band began to grow toward the present average of 100 members.
``Many times we had to appear in auditoriums with 5,000 people watching us, and and to this day I'm grateful for the poise we learned then,'' said Bright.
A meeting of the Band Alumni Association board of directors last week to plan the 1995 band reunion next Friday and Saturday had all the table-pounding and strategic mapping of a Joint Chiefs of Staff session.
``Months of preparation and hundreds of people-hours have gone into the planning of this very special event,'' said Diane Scott Flowers, in charge of the reunion.
Hundreds of former band members and their friends are expected to attend the gathering at Northeastern High School on Oak Stump Road.
The opening event of the reunion will be an informal session at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the school cafeteria, former majorette Flowers said.
The main reunion dinner and dance will follow Saturday evening, Flowers said.
When the reunion committee met at the Main Street home of Deborah Bulliner, a former French horn player with the band, there were moans of dismay when glittering uniforms of 40 years ago were brought out for display.
The golden garb that once fit a majorette seemed to have cruelly shrunk with the passing years.
Special honor at this year's reunion will go to Scott Callaway, who directed the old Elizabeth City High School band through the formative years that followed World War II.
Callaway at 79 is still an enduring symbol of the band, although he retired in 1983.
``We're all proud to have known Scott Callaway and been in some small way a part of his musical life,'' said Gloria J. Berry, a clarinet player from the class of '56.
The present-day Northeastern High School band, under Director Wayne James, will serenade Callaway at the reunion.
In 1949, Calloway became one of the first paid directors hired by the Elizabeth City High School band. At that time the late Miles Clark, an oil company executive who lived in Elizabeth City, had been the band's unsung benefactor.
Through the years, Clark spent thousands of dollars buying uniforms and instruments for the band and listening to Callaway's suggestions for improving the musical organization. Soon the band was touring the nation, winning competitions and starring in parades.
Even the drivers of the school buses that carried the band on tours were outfitted like major generals.
Clark, who died in 1965, is still called ``Mr. Miles'' by middle-age band alumni. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Scott Callaway, who directed the Elizabeth City High School band
through the formative years that followed World War II, tries on an
old uniform hat to the delight of other former band members. The
group is planning a reunion for Friday and Saturday.
by CNB