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May 28 strip:
http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/

Did anyone else ever HAVE to wear a tall marching band hat when playing a Sousaphone? My high school band did not allow any optional headwear, and it was very uncomfortable!

At my school the sousaphones wore berets, while everybody else had to wear the silly hats.

David Richoux wrote:Did anyone else ever HAVE to wear a tall marching band hat when playing a Sousaphone? My high school band did not allow any optional headwear, and it was very uncomfortable!

"What do you THINK you should do?"

We had the stupidest uniforms in the history of parades. Our hats were these idiotic cowboyish "Aussie" hats with a plume. Something like this below, but very rigid and in black felt. And to answer the question, no. We had to wear the standard headgear despite the fact that it was impossible to fit both your head and the hat in the space a sousy allowed.

I'd share a picture of our uniforms, but I'm pretty sure all of those are shoved in a box in a storage unit. Trust me, they were bad.

Hats were NOT allowed in the sousaphone section...I've seen berets as well...

By the way, funny comic

9th Grade - Black Beret
10th grade - New Uniforms - Short band hat, no plume
11th & 12th grade different school, Tuba's bare headed,
rest of the band had tall black bearskins with Orange plume

David Richoux wrote:Did anyone else ever HAVE to wear a tall marching band hat when playing a Sousaphone? My high school band did not allow any optional headwear, and it was very uncomfortable!

Yup -- plume and all! (this was 1969-73, by the way) Not a good thing. On balance, though, sharp turns and 3/4 spins gave us "opportunities" to knock everybody else's hats off ...

My school's no-hats for souzies, also. Although, that's only an unsaid rule; I just don't like wearing a hat.

military cap's for all with a short plume.

no exceptions. only the very big headed had trouble with them under a sousaphone.

In high school we didn't wear hats, which was unfortunate seeing as how we had "pimp hats"...hahaha They were actually kinda cool. After I left, the sousas got to wear black, leather Kangol hats like Samuel L. Jackson wears.

The first two years of college we wore purple berets....not cool at all, plus they were 100% wool along with the uniforms and that doesn't work here in AR in the summer...too dang hot! We got new uniforms after than and we wore visors for a year, then last year due to a miscommunication we didn't wear hats but I think we're gonna get black flat bill UCA hats...much better (and cooler) than berets...haha

David Richoux wrote:Did anyone else ever HAVE to wear a tall marching band hat when playing a Sousaphone? My high school band did not allow any optional headwear, and it was very uncomfortable!

Oh dear....hobby horse time.

In high school (1961-5) I played Sousaphone and wore the standard high hat with plume.

Because we configured and wore the Sousaphones correctly (according to Bill Bell's diagrams), this was no problem at all. Some people (but not all) had to take off the hats to put the Sousaphones on.

Oh yeah....no plastic was involved - all solid brass.

In college, I wore a straw "boater" on the football field, and a beret on the hockey rink - but so did everyone else in the band.

sloan wrote:

David Richoux wrote:Did anyone else ever HAVE to wear a tall marching band hat when playing a Sousaphone? My high school band did not allow any optional headwear, and it was very uncomfortable!

In high school (1961-5) I played Sousaphone and wore the standard high hat with plume.

Oh yeah....no plastic was involved - all solid brass.

We appear to be the same age. At least we spent the same years in high school. We wore the old style uniforms that looked like police uniforms, except in red. Barney Fife style hats, so no problems with the sousaphone. Which was 28 lbs of solid, well dented up, silver plated brass. Don't remember the brand. Didn't matter to me back in those days. It was what we had. Both of them. Our whole band was smaller than some modern sousaphone sections.

My high school didn't have enough berets for the tuba section so we have gone 2 years without them. (we have 13 tuba players) i hope they buy some for us because we just look plain out there.

HS (74-76): Band wore tall shakos with plumes; sousaphones wore berets.
College (77): Ditto.
OMTMB: Sousaphone player wears tie dye. That's me.

David Richoux wrote:Did anyone else ever HAVE to wear a tall marching band hat when playing a Sousaphone? My high school band did not allow any optional headwear, and it was very uncomfortable!

Yes! Ours were modelled as smaller versions of the British bearskin tall hats. After fighting it for years, our band director finally gave in and let the souzy guys wear floppy hats in the school colors.

When I went to grad school, they were wearing the usual corp hats, and I showed how the corners of the hats were actually scuffing the souzys, and convinced the band director also to let us souzy guys wear the same floppy hats in the university colors.

Great cartoon! The day it came out, it went straight to the refrigerator magnet!