March 29, 2024

The First Carver HS Band

Carver HS Band
Photo Courtesy of Harold Herndon
Posted for The Slackwater Center
 
The SlackWater Center at St. Mary’s College is a consortium of students, faculty, and community members documenting and interpreting the region’s changing landscapes. Oral histories are at the core of the Center, which also students also explore the region through historical documents, images, literature, and scientific and environmental evidence. Some of this work is published in the print journal SlackWater, some of which is online and some published here.
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Harold Herndon, as told to John P. Cook

Part one:

I came to St. Mary’s County in 1960, to start instrumental music in the public school system.  I went to Carver, which was a high school at that time, that, as you know, was segregated.  Carver was the high school for the black kids, and Great Mills was the high school for the white kids.  Great Mills did have a band teacher, at that time, and… I went [to Carver] to start a music program.

[When I got to Carver, I found that] nobody had any musical instruments, and, well, nothing.  Ground zero.  All they had was an idea, and that was it, and I was to make it happen.

In terms of getting instruments, it was very difficult.  Many of the instruments we had came from families who had moved here, who had somewhere before been involved in music.  Somebody pulls something out of their attic, and, you know, the pads are dried up and falling out, or [the instrument] has got holes and a leak, so I ended up learning how to repair instruments, too.  The board bought a few basic instruments, but the quality of what we got was not even close compared to what Great Mills got, and the same thing with band uniforms.  The band uniforms that we had at Carver, a man named John Lancaster, was very instrumental, as a parent, in getting other parents organized and helping me to raise money to buy the band uniforms.

I remember taking those kids within that short period of time from folks not even knowing instruments—not a clue, not a clue—to getting to a point where they were winning awards.

I really enjoyed playing my instrument, so if I got an opportunity to go and play, go out of town and play the bands, I’d go.  I loved music, and I still love it, as far as that goes. All these people I knew, musicians I had met over the years in college, I used to play with in all kinds of bands.  I used to travel and I ended up being in a lot of back-up bands.

Next week, in the second half of Mr. Herndon’s interview with John P. Cook, he talks about his group, The Impacts, and where they played, including the military bases around the region.

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