Corner Column

By Phil Major
publisher@wood.cm
Posted 11/4/21

Community.

The word has been bouncing around inside my head like an ear worm for a few weeks.

I think it began at the session held by the Mineola Memorial Library, visiting memories of the …

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Corner Column

Posted

Community.

The word has been bouncing around inside my head like an ear worm for a few weeks.

I think it began at the session held by the Mineola Memorial Library, visiting memories of the McFarland School, which educated Mineola’s black community for decades until the mid-1960s.

Though the turn out was only one couple, the things they remembered primarily – though not all – spoke to the incredible strength of community. That message was reinforced later that day with the Flint and Steel Coalition meeting and a review of the work this group is doing to help build community, especially for disenfranchised youth.

It was held, and not a coincidence, at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church where I returned last Sunday for their 150th anniversary celebration. What a testament to community that this congregation has stood in faith for a century and a half, building and supporting this community.

The day before, we had been in Golden for the annual Sweet Potato Festival and saw a tiny community come out of the woodwork to gather and to celebrate.

However, the overarching community theme has been brought home by the Mineola High School marching band.

Director Chris Brannan and his dedicated staff and students came up with a marching show for this year’s state contest called “Hometown.”

If you haven’t seen it, you simply must find a video and take it all in. It will take several viewings. Like a good movie, you will notice something different each time. It brings home the theme of community in a way that seems to resonate with everyone who experiences it.

And talk about ear worms. A couple of 1960s hits keep rattling around, “Let the Sunshine In” by the Fifth Dimension and “Happy Together” by the Turtles.

Side note, I did get to see former Turtles Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan perform the song years later as the Fluorescent Leech and Eddie, warming up for Alice Cooper, but that’s enough said about that.

That a high school marching band halftime show would connect with people on such a visceral level has been amazing to witness.

Sure, anyone who grew up in Mineola can form a link to the imagery, from the giant photos of iconic downtown buildings to the reproduction gazebo, but this should strike a chord, so to speak, with anyone who grew up in a small town or who has lived in a small town.

I’m talking goose-bump level emotions.

By the time you read this, the results of the state marching band championship will have been announced (sometime very late Wednesday).

Though I fully expect the Sound of the Swarm to be in the running for their third consecutive championship, whether they do or not, they have already become champions of this community. Not just for the their amazing talent, execution of a complicated show and hard work and dedication to make this all happen, but for what they have brought to the community.

The last year and a half has been difficult beyond belief. We needed this reminder that community still matters, and that coming together as a community is far more important than whatever differences have divided us – in these trying times as well as those past.