Photo courtesy of Dotty. This is a rare image of Dotty with the tribe of 'sqwistpe'
Dorothy CrochetDotty as she is known, is in her 80's and has been with the band since she was a girl. She takes the band very seriously and has always tried to learn a new instrument each year. Although due to her lack of memory recently she has lost a few instruments whilst marching. Her preferred instrument is the whistle, which she will speak about at length, telling anyone who will listen stories about how this particular instrument is important in all forms of music and communication.
I did interview Dorothy, but as expected not a lot of her answers made sense. She doesn’t remember much and also tends to forget the question I have just asked - so it is a little difficult. I then asked the other members of the CMB about her and I got the feeling that they hadn’t realised anything was wrong. I sense that her decline has been slow over the years and they just simply haven’t noticed.
They do all seem very protective of her and she is in fact the member of the group who keeps them in line during the gigs, she keeps things running to time and I have to admit they would be lost without her – perhaps on some level they have noticed but refuse to accept the harsh reality.
Excerpt taken from Godfrey Yammertein's 'A profile of a Great British Marching Band', published March 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment