Twirlers !

Cheers of glory ..

C'mon, you know this one, sing along -

Cheers of glory for Belleville High
You bring the whiskey, I'll bring the rye
When we yell, we yell like hell
For the glory of Belleville Hi -i - igh.
We never stagger, we never fall
We sober up on wood alcohol
When we yell, we yell like hell
For the glory of Belleville Hi -i - igh.

It's a Saturday afternoon in October. Bright, clear blue sky, a chill in the air, Autumn colors everywhere, from all over town, we're headed to the stadium. Where else would you be going on a perfect Autumn day? There's a big game today and those gorgeous twirlers will be center-field at half-time. Prancing in time to a march tempo, with their whirling batons they would execute fancy figure 8s, complicated hand to hand maneuvers, daring tosses high into the air and spectacular combinations which would take your breath away, partly because of their eye-catching skill and partly because of those delightful uniforms with their delicious short skirts; beautiful ! The uniforms were a brilliant Belleville gold trimmed in blue with an alternate version that was Belleville blue nicely accented with gold. Were we proud of our girls ? .. you better believe it !

Photo courtesy of Carol Colehamer Wallasky

Photo courtesy of Carol Colehamer Wallasky

It's half-time. There's a tense, nail-biting game in progress on the gridiron, but now it's time for the highlight of the day. Thundering drum beats, loud and bold, draws your attention, then flashing, tasseled, white boots and fast spinning batons glistening in sunlight rivets your focus on our high-stepping beauties, the prettiest girls you can imagine, not just any girls, but Jersey girls .. better yet, Jersey girls from Belleville ! It doesn't get better than that. They strut and spin and dance with a military precision that would be the envy of the Marine Corp.

Majorette Barbara Bailey

Co-Captain Phyllis Clemente

Co-Captain Elaine Lanfrank

If you were there, you know that you didn't take your eyes off of these girls when they were on the field. Barbara, our proud and pretty Majorette lead the way with elegant plumes and gold braids, epaulets and trim on her shimmering white uniform, ably assisted by her co-captains, Elaine and Phyllis. There were more than two dozen baton spinning twirlers in our varsity squad, ten of whom were from the illustrious Class of '62 including;

Carol Colehamer
Mary Jane Richter
Gay Anderton
Barbara Kraly
Judith Van Demark
Barbara Underwood
Grace Hucko
Phyllis Clemente
Elaine Lanfrank
Barbara Bailey

It was not only in the stadium where we would see the girls. They could be seen leading the marching band on parade days. Sometimes a two-mile march, sometimes in freezing cold, they would perform before the reviewing stand, while fatigued and shivering, flawless baton twirling maneuvers. Good soldiers they were.

School concerts would find them performing on stage in the auditorium. In senior year they executed their art with brilliant routines, first to "March Foundation" and then to a neat swing number, "Riffin' the Blues." We enjoyed that, the more often we could watch them, the better we liked it.

Anyone out there think that twirling is easy ? .. huh ?? .. try this one -

Got that down pat ? .. o.k. but remember, you are doing this while executing dance steps in perfect unison with every other twirler on the field. Got it ? .. but wait, you are wearing a very short skirt, the temperature is 20*F, your fingers and toes are numb with cold, but you mustn't drop the baton. Everything under control ??

Thank you, girls. It was great ! We wouldn't mind if you did it again at the reunion :)

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