Think back to your high school years. (Unless of course you graduated in the seventies which probably means you don't have the ability.) Were you involved in sports, band, debate, BETA? If so, picture this: The organization you were a part of is holding a reunion for all the students who participated in the activity since its inception fifty years ago - you're going, aren't you?
That's exactly what occured in Hodgenville, Ky August 16th. The occasion was a celebration commemorating the 50th year of the LaRue County High School Band. Had you been there you would have thought you were attending the reunion of a tight-knit family; not one involving non-blood-related people. The bond that brought nearly 300 (out of 700 total) alumni to a steaming hot football field on a Saturday afternoon was almost as adhesive as blood though: music and the men who taught it ...and the excellence borne of discipline that each student took from the experience
The 'Band of Hawks' was first organized by my dad, Gene Hoggard all those years ago, and he created something very special. With what Fogelburg described as 'a thundering velvet hand', Dad built an organization that still inspires awe within music circles throughout the Bluegrass state. For fifty years now, Dad's band has retained its reputation for excellence because each of his five successors have always had the luxury of building on what came before, and what came before has always been exceptional.
In LaRue County, Ky they will not tolerate a mediocre band because an influential portion of the county's population are band alumni. They know bad music when they hear it because bad music was always what the other schools made - not them. They have been taught excellence for fifty years and nothing less will ever do there in that rural patch of central Kentucky.
Last Saturday, alumni came from far-away states as well as three streets over to reconnect with a the men of their youth that had a direct and positive influence over their adult lives. But none of six band directors who have wielded the conductor's baton in LaRue County drew as many former students as the first one. The vast preponderance of students in attendance on Saturday were those who were in school during the years 1955 through 1974 - Dad's tenure.
Many of them took me aside to make sure I realized how fortunate they felt to have been associated with Gene Hoggard, but they were preaching to the choir. My sister, brother I, and our Mom always realized that we weren't the only elements of the Hoggard family and we shared Dad willingly. If you were in the band, you were considered family with all of the accompanying benefits including getting Dad's size twelve shoe rammed up your butt if you got out of line.
Fate smiled on LaRue County when Mom and Dad found their way to Hodgenville the year I was born. The extraordinary turn-out for the reunion was a testament to that fact and I am very proud to be Gene Hoggard's 'number two' son.
8:13:04 AM 
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