Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

GHS Band Banquet Is Held

Banquets, by and large, are stuffy affairs where those in attendance sit around, eat and listen to a speaker.

Once the keynote speaker is done, any awards to be presented are then handed out with the audience dismissed.

This ain't the way it's done when the Gurdon High School Marching Go-Devil Band puts on its annual banquet.

When the Devil's band puts on the feedbag anything can happen. The band held its annual banquet Monday, April 22, getting things started with its "rock" band on stage entertaining the audience.

Band Director Alan Wimberly, in charge of the show, is more like one of the students than orchestrator of a banquet. The affair was loose and freewheeling where fun and audience participation were encouraged.

There was a distinct Polynesian theme to the banquet with tiny paper umbrellas placed upon the tables and leis presented to the band members.

Poi, though, was not on the menu for the evening, though ham, turkey and dressing and cherry cheesecake were.

Though there are many "serious" award categories, the band members get to have fun with the Student Choice Awards.

As the name implies, the students in the band choose the winners of these awards in such categories as: most prepared, most beautiful, most handsome, most loquacious, band flirt, most likely to be a band director, most likely to be president of the USA and most likely to be a stand-up comedian.

Wimberly pointed out those named for these awards had the honor fitting their personality.

On the serious side, though, the awards presented included the First State Bank Musician Award, going to Keith Reed for the middle school winner, and Candace Bell for high school.

Connie Smith was the Cabe Middle School student winner of the International Paper Band Leadership Award, while Kelly Runyan captured the honor for GHS.

John Moseley earned the Big Star Jazz Award, and no one was surprised when the smallest trophy, though biggest honor, went to Andrew Wilson, who was presented with the John Phillip Sousa Award.

Delton Simpson was named recipient of the Band Wall of fame Service Award for the work he has done with the band and community.

The Wall of Fame Alumnus Award for 2000 went to Dr. Wayne E. Taylor Jr., now living in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Taylor was unable to attend the banquet.

Taylor joined the Gurdon band program when he was in the seventh grade in 1956. The band hall was a one-room wooden frame structure, situated in the middle of the old campus on Third Street.

On rainy days, he wrote, students had to run through the mud and gravel to get to the front door.

The building had no air conditioning, so in August and September, he said, it was a toss-up which was worse  practicing inside or being out in the sun.

A trumpet player in the band, Taylor made second chair as a freshman. He was behind future band director Johnny Prothro, who he called a mentor and friend.

Taylor made first chair in his junior year, after Prothro graduated, but resigned this position so he could keep playing his horn in the field during games.

During his career, Taylor earned several first and second place medals in competitions.

Taylor also routinely made all-region bands, but was never able to crack the all-state barrier, missing the honor by a single point in his senior year.

However, he did earn the first John Phillip Sousa Award to be given out by GHS.

His band career came to an end in 1963 when he graduated as GHS valedictorian, though Taylor does play occasionally at family gatherings and holidays.

With the encouragement of the Cabe family and some luck, he said, Taylor entered Southern Methodist University in Dallas the fall of 1963.

The first few months in the big city gave Taylor a serious case of culture shock as the biggest city he'd visited till then was on the senior trip to New Orleans.

This was a time the Beatles were playing in concert in Dallas, Don Meredith led the Dallas Cowboys and President John Kennedy was assassinated.

"It has now been over 37 years since I left GHS and the band," he wrote. "During that time I have never been separated from the love of music I gained during those six years."

His three children were also involved in music during their years in school.