Jon Madsen
Being in the front row of the Tiger Marching Pride as we marched in the 1993 Rose Bowl parade was a fun experience. We were positioned in the parade behind a float pulled by large elephants. As we were marching, I noticed an extremely large pile of elephant dung up ahead in our path. We were playing a song, so the drum majors (who were dressed in all white tuxedos) were marching backwards conducting the band. Hence, they could not see the elephant-originated surprise that we were fast approaching. Because we were playing the song, I conspicuously swung my trombone slide to one side over and over as I played, in an attempt to communicate to the drum major in front of me (either Michael Schnepf a fellow member of our class of '93, or Alan Peterson, a Junior, I can't remember, of the two, who was marching directly in front of me) that he should veer to his right. The drum major noticed what I was doing and at first he was confused. Then, just as he figured out that I was trying to communicate to him that he should move over, he marched backward through the largest pile of crap that I have ever seen. I proceeded to side-step around the unseemly pile and the rest of the line behind me followed suit, so that the only person who physically encountered the dung-heap was the drum major. I still have a vivid memory of the whole experience, and most pointedly, I remember the bottoms of the pant-legs of that pure white tuxedo worn by the drum major being stained the most nasty green imaginable. In hindsight, I think it would have made much more sense for the parade organizers to order the parade so that the Tigers marched ahead of the elephants!
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