The drum line stood beneath a canopy of trees and rattled through rolls of sextuplets, with reddened shoulders glistening. As the sun blistered the parking lot, rows of trumpet, tuba and mellophone players marched back and forth, wiping sweat from their foreheads at the end of each passage of music.
Temperatures here in Daphne, Alabama, had climbed past 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), and the humidity made it feel at least 10 degrees F hotter. Yet even as a record-breaking heat wave seared most of the American South last week, members of the Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps chose to push on, not wanting to miss a moment of the intensive camp they had been waiting all year for.
"The heat has gotten me once or twice this season,” said Gracie Binns, an 18-year-old member of the color guard. "It’s kind of worn me down already.” But, she added, "I like the challenge of it.”