As Homecoming Reunion Weekend approaches, Harold Hilburn '38 looks forward to joining the alumni band reunion and reminiscing about his days at Elon more than 65 years ago. Details...
As a member of the alumni band reunion at Homecoming festivities, Harold Hilburn ’38 doesn’t expect to have to fight his way out of this Saturday’s Elon-Appalachian State football game at Rhodes Stadium. But the former Elon band member vividly recalls a tussle on the field at Catawba College in Salisbury in 1937, after Elon upset the heavily favored Indians.
“At the final whistle, (the Elon band) paraded out onto the field, playing the Elon song,” says Hilburn, who is now 86 and lives in Winston-Salem. “It looked as if the entire Catawba student body descended upon us. I was knocked to the ground and I looked back to see our three majorettes on the ground wrestling with Catawba girls, and the band was involved in a grand melee.” Later, Hilburn remembers the Elon band reassembling and marching down Salisbury’s main street, playing “Here’s to Dear Old Elon.”
Hilburn continues his love of music today, 69 years after enrolling at Elon on a music scholarship in the fall of 1934. This weekend, he will join approximately 20 other marching band alumni for a reunion, as well as the opportunity to play with The Fire of the Carolinas, Elon’s new marching band, during the football game. Although macular degeneration has recently robbed him of much of his eyesight, he has learned to play the clarinet, baritone and trombone in the last three years. He is a singer and writer and is in the process of publishing a novel he wrote three years ago following the death of his second wife. Active in the arts, Hilburn played a substantial role in the establishment of the Arts Council in Albemarle, N.C. He and his third wife, Martha Bond Hilburn, will celebrate their first anniversary Dec. 28.
Hilburn says the ‘30s were tough, but the times helped develop a close bond between classmates.
“I recognize that my time at Elon is among my fondest memories,” Hilburn says. “Those were Depression years and most of us could not afford to get away from campus very often. A lot of students stayed on campus, leaving only at Christmas and Easter, and this brought us closer together.”
He recalls Elon’s small class size and excellent professors, as well as the special talents of music department chair Dwight Steere. “He is the only choral director I have known who could direct Handel’s ‘Messiah’ without a copy of the score,” Hilburn says. He also remembers touring North Carolina and Virginia during spring break with the Elon a cappella choir.
“Sometimes after an evening concert, our bus would take us on to the next gig,” Hilburn says. “Some snitch told Dr. Steere that some boys and girls were getting rather cozy, so about every hour, we had to change our seating arrangements,” he recalls with a laugh.
A former Phi Psi Cli editor, Hilburn is looking forward to this weekend’s band reunion, but he doesn’t expect to see many of his classmates. “I think most of them are probably playing in a celestial band by now! But I was part of a great generation and fortunate enough to have gone to a great college.”