Road Trip....

In the mid-1960s most of us kids from McLeod Lake never used to join the Band. We considered ourselves ‘renegades’, the last of the holdouts. All the other older boys in Intermediates and Seniors joined the Band, except us ‘renegades’. And when they were on the road, we had the whole school to ourselves. Both dorms, to just a few of us. I remember our dorms being somewhat deserted with the exception of maybe a dozen of us kids from McLeod Lake. Us Intermediate boys were even allowed to watch TV in the senior dorm with Mr Lundy.

At Lejac, there were two TVs, one in the Rec Room on the main floor and the other in the Senior Dorm. Intermediate boys were sometimes allowed into the Senior Dorm evenings to watch Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday or Ed Sullivan on Sundays. Or even Red Skeleton.

The following year, in 1967-68, Mr. Kenny talked to each of us separately. Mr. Kenny had just come in that year in the fall of 1967 as the new Intermediate dorm supervisor. He slept in a small room in the corner of the Intermediate dorm. He asked each of us (the renegades) to come to his room one night one by one and had a bit of a chat with us individually. It was a bit funny because I felt like I was going to the Principal’s Office to be given a lecture.

Us kids from McLeod Lake always did things differently than all the other boys at residential school. We liked to be different. And not joining the Band in the early and mid-60s for us was the coolest thing to do.

That all changed that year after Mr. Kenny spoke to us, we all joined the Band. They put me on fife and I still remember our first ‘road trip’. First of all we all had to learn a couple songs and in this case there was no marching. We were invited to a school Concert at Burns Lake 40 miles west of Lejac. And all we had to do was stand there in our uniforms, on stage, and play two songs. That was easy especially for us new kids who were never in the Band before. There was also a new change that year. Instead of the standard ‘red and whites’ we wore our Boy Scout uniforms. That was Mr. Kenny’s idea, to change the Band uniform to Boy Scout uniforms instead of the traditional red and white cadet uniform the Band was known for.

That following spring we went to Smithers and played at the arena in between periods at a hockey game there. We were all billeted out to families in Smithers. And we were outfitted with special rubber soles which fit over our black shoes so we didn’t slip and fall on the ice. We practiced on our own home ice before going to Smithers so we knew what it would be like marching on ice.

(There was a guy there who played for one of the teams at Smithers and was later drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL.)

Lejac School Band started in about 1960. It was in the beginning an all-boys band wearing their traditional red and white cadet uniforms and black shoes. The band typically had over 30 boys playing drums, fifes, cymbals and glockenspiel. Later, in about 1968 brass instruments were introduced to the ranks including trumpets, trombone, French horn, clarinet and saxophone.

Practice was after school beginning in January. The boys had to learn over 10 different songs to be performed while marching and doing formations. Everything was based on drill and precision. Once the snow went each year the boys spent hours outside practicing marching techniques and their formations. Then starting in the spring, the band would travel to northern towns and cities to perform, to such places like Smithers, Burns Lake, Fort St. James, Vanderhoof, Stony Creek and Prince George.

Then....in 1969....the BC government introduced the All-Native Tattoo, a province-wide annual event featuring marching bands from all the Indian residential schools in British Columbia. It was a chance for every residential school in the province to come together each June and show their stuff. First year was Kamloops....in ’69....then Chilliwack in 1970 and of course the famous 1971 province-wide tour of British Columbia celebrating BC’s 100th Birthday. With some 300 students from all the residential schools performing at all the major cities from Prince George to the Okanagan, Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.

The 1971 Tattoo featured bands from Kamloops, Nanaimo, Sechelt, Mission City, Williams Lake, Lejac, and dance troops from the Queen Charlottes and Terrace. Kuper Island were at Kamloops in 1969 but never showed in ’71.