Confessions Of An Unreformed Band Geek
 |
| [Raise your hand if this has happened to you...] |
It helped that my particular class was ... well, fun. My best friend was a fellow band geek. Some of my most amusing high school friends were super-nerds like me that happened to be there as well. And by all means, there were more "One time, at band camp..." stories than I care to admit. (Not to mention band bus stories, band trip stories, and the every-popular early morning band stories.)
Of all the various areas of participation, marching band is easily the most grueling. The weeks of band camp before school started, the early mornings, the memorization, the pages of field formations -- it's a lot to take in and can take a surprisingly large toll on a person. There's more coordination required to roll step backwards while staying in a straight line and playing anything on key than someone who hasn't been through it can ever imagine. (Not to mention the fact that you're doing it for an audience and have to trust that the people behind you are watching out for you as well.)
But when it all comes together, it can be absolutely spectacular. Marching band is a team sport to beat 'em all; even a football team only has eleven on the field at once -- have you ever tried to coordinate forty or a hundred and forty high schoolers? It's a sight to behold.
Now, as it happens, today is the Festival of Bands, one of the largest local band competitions/fundraisers. Starting bright and early in the morning, there's a parade in downtown Sioux Falls (the kind of parade that takes almost three hours), followed by field shows at Howard Wood Field (another local landmark). For many of the area bands, this is their largest -- and most regularly-attended -- competition for the year.
I haven't been there in about a decade; not coincidentally, that was the last time I competed. Said high school best friend [who I just now decided to refer to as Fuddy here] decided it was time to check it out again and as soon as we knew the weather would cooperate, we were off.
Let me tell you -- you can take the geek out of the band, but you can't take the band out of the geek.
It was a blast. Perhaps we were a little rough on a few bands (sure, they're high schoolers, but we've been there and they should know better) but we had more fun judging their marching styles and formations than two adults should. It helped a bit that our alma mater is actually competitive (they've had a bit of a roller coaster ride with the last, oh, six directors or so) and doing rather well; for once, we could put them ahead of other schools in the same division for more reasons than simple favoritism.
And on top of that ... we encountered O.
For those of you who weren't in band at LHS between 1999 and 2002, O is the former director. He managed to take our band from "eh" to "hey, they could do something!" from my freshman to senior years. Sadly, he was only there those four years; the following director was good with concert band but not so great with marching, and it took a couple directors after that before they were back on track. (Seriously, six directors from 1998 till now. Turnover's a bit steep.)
This was O's first return to the Festival as well; he just changed schools himself after eight years in the Minneapolis area. And Fuddy and I happened to be in the right place at the right time.
He remembered us. How could he not? Ten years has passed, but our class was ... well, they stuck with you. What followed were a few minutes of truly unexpected reminiscing.
Made my day.
Sorry to say his current band beat out LHS, although it was fairly close. (I'd say LHS's colorguard was better, though.) All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.
I'm fully aware of just how geeky that makes me. But you know what? I don't care.
Life is good.
Comments