COBB COUNTY: ‘It’s something you remember all your life’

On Jan. 20, 1965, in 38-degree snowy weather, the Dalton High School Catamount band paraded four miles along Pennsylvania Avenue for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration, which drew a record 1.5 million people.

Four members of that band know what’s ahead for members of the South Cobb High School Blue Eagle marching band. The Cobb County band will play in President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural parade Jan. 20, an event expected to draw 3 million to 5 million people.

“They are in for a real treat,” said Cheryl Gosa of Atlanta. “I tell people about it all the time.” Gosa was 13 and played clarinet in the 1965 inaugural parade. The Dalton band included eighth-graders.

One of her clearest memories is when the band passed the reviewing stand and she looked to her left to see President and Lady Bird Johnson behind a bulletproof shield.

Charles Bowen of Acworth was 15, played the saxophone and shook Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s hand.

Lee Pence of Kennesaw was 13, stood 6 feet 1 1/2 inches tall and weighed 200 pounds. He had trouble finding size 13 band shoes and towered above the other flute players.

Pence said he, too, stole a glance at the president as he marched by the reviewing stand, even though band members weren’t supposed to.

Paula Wilkins Driggers of Marietta —- then 14, trombone —- did not, however, see the president. “I can remember not wanting to wear my glasses for vanity reasons, and I didn’t see the president,” she said. “That’s the funny thing. After all that, I didn’t see the president.”

The Dalton band marched in a uniform of red blazers, black slacks, white shirts, ties, white shoes and black bowlers. That alone drew media attention because other bands looked more traditional. The band had a white sousaphone, unique for the time, that drew national television mention by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.

“Oh, man, it was great,” Pence said. “Our band’s reputation overnight went on to acclaim.”

The four musicians can’t remember what songs they played in the parade. South Cobb will play Hoagie Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind” and John Williams’ “Summon the Heroes,” written for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

South Cobb has raised $145,000 plus in-kind contributions to send 95 band members to the inauguration. In 1965, the city of Dalton pulled together to raise $6,784 to send 94 band members. Band parents were asked to contribute another $18.50 for meals.

“I met people from all over the country. It’s probably the first time I met anybody who lived outside Georgia,” said Pence, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who is now a financial adviser. “It’s like one big happy party.”

For Gosa, that happy party includes two distinct memories. One is walking 20 blocks to see the movie “Goldfinger.” The other is staying at the hotel with a friend who had a broken leg when the rest of the band went ice-skating.

“Two 13-year-olds stayed at the hotel alone and watched ‘Hullabaloo’ on television,” said Gosa, a Presbyterian minister and media consultant who now sells real estate. “Petula Clark sang ‘Downtown,’ my favorite song.”

For Bowen, it was his moment in history. “I don’t remember feeling tired. The adrenaline was flowing. It was kind of building up to the time we got to the reviewing stand, seeing all those important people and thinking what an awesome experience this is.”

“Just to say you are a part of history, not a lot of people have that special experience,” said Bowen, a department chairman in Kennesaw State University’s college of education.

His advice to the South Cobb band members: “Look forward to the wonderful memories. Do all you can to preserve them. Take photographs. Keep a journal.”

Each inaugural parade is a reminder. “I see them and say, ‘Hey, I did that. I’m a big deal, too.’ It’s something you remember all your life. It’s something no one can take away from them,” Pence said.

Gosa, who went on to play in the University of Georgia Redcoat Band, wants the South Cobb students to have a good time, collect everything to do with the inauguration and put it away in a box like a time capsule.

Forty-four years later, her memorabilia-filled scrapbook, band letter sweater and medals prompted the four bandmates to relive history.

“I knew it was special,” Bowen said of his march in history.

“As you get a little bit older, you appreciate the moment even more.”