One January afternoon the cousins were sitting around the fi replace
with blocks and puzzles. Emmy was reading in the big green chair.
Boppa was reading in the bright red chair. The parlor had a warm
cookie smell. Judah started pestering Boppa to tell how he got bald.
Maggie joined in. “I like the time you were in the marching band
and the wind blew your hair off ,” she coaxed.
“Oh, that story isn’t real, Maggie,” confessed Bops. “I’ll tell you the
real marching band story.”
Maggie asked doubtfully, “But will this one really be real?”
“Of course it will!” exclaimed Boppa.
This one time our marching band was chosen to play in Pasadena,
California for the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl Parade. We weren’t
supposed to chew gum in the marching band, but I knew how to do it
so that nobody could tell. I played the glockenspiel, which fi t over my
shoulders with straps. The cymbal player marched right behind me.
Chewing gum helped my ears feel better when the cymbals crashed
so close.
Well, we were playing a Sousa march. We turned sharply, and my
gum fl ew out of my mouth. Before I thought about what I was doing,
I leaned over to rescue it, almost losing one of my mallets. As I stood
back up the cymbal player clashed his cymbals, skimming right along
the top of my head. They skimmed off all of my hair, along with my tall
marching hat! From that day on I have been as bald as I am today. I never
got to play in the band again, because I got kicked off for chewing gum.
“What is a glow-cans-peel, Boppa?” asked Louise.
“That is an instrument like a xylophone,” Boppa replied.
Judah was thoughtful. “Boppa, was that the day you started getting
deaf?”
Just then Yaya came in with a fresh plate of chocolate chip cookies.
Boppa and the Rose Bowl Parade