And well, look at that, Monday it is. And a pretty blustery one at that! I hope everyone's weekend went well-we had a roller coaster of ups and downs on the home front, but I suppose that just serves as a reminder that we're alive, so I won't waste your day with the complaints. Instead, let's skip to the good stuff.
Confession time. Back in high school (was that really 12 years ago??) I was a bit of an ecclectic kid. Jack (or Jill) of all trades, master of none. I did it all. I was part of the newspaper club (ahh, look at that, even back then I was long-winded!), the cross country and track team (but...I did it for a boy. My 5k time back in high school? 33 minutes. My 5k time now? 22 minutes. Some things DO get better with age!) Drama Club, Dance Class, Debate Team, Theatre Guild, SADD, Adopt a Sixth Grade and...Marching Band. Yeaps. I played the French Horn in the band, which transitioned to Mellophone in the Marching Band, and then after a few years of that I moved on to Color Guard (flags, sabres, dancing and spandex). Actually, the colorguard was really more up my alley, as dancing was my favorite, but seeing as I'm a bit of a jumping jack, I had to try both.
I was never one of those stereotypical "band geeks"....I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my life. Quite honestly, I think the social aspect was the best part! (Aside from the dancing...I always loved that). I made some great friends (still have some of those to this day!), had some awesome trips (Phoenix, AZ....can't beat that for a "school trip"...marching in the Fiesta Bowl parade!), and some great memories from it. But...I still can't read music (I know, I know. Don't ask.) I still trip over my own feet. And who in the heck knows why I thought a good time on a Saturday night meant freezing my tooshhee off at a field show (who makes spandex uniforms for October??)
Nonetheless, some old habits die hard.
So, on Saturday, the hubs and I travelled back a bit in time for me to attend a good ole field band show- his son, Brennan, plays snare for the Jamestown marching band and they were playing in competition at Victor High School. There were about 7 bands scheduled to perform - a decent 90 minutes of entertainment! We weren't up high enough to get alot of the cool shapes, but here's a few from Jamestown's repertoire:
The whole band during one of their slides (a ten minute show can use about a hundred of these formations).
Confession time. Back in high school (was that really 12 years ago??) I was a bit of an ecclectic kid. Jack (or Jill) of all trades, master of none. I did it all. I was part of the newspaper club (ahh, look at that, even back then I was long-winded!), the cross country and track team (but...I did it for a boy. My 5k time back in high school? 33 minutes. My 5k time now? 22 minutes. Some things DO get better with age!) Drama Club, Dance Class, Debate Team, Theatre Guild, SADD, Adopt a Sixth Grade and...Marching Band. Yeaps. I played the French Horn in the band, which transitioned to Mellophone in the Marching Band, and then after a few years of that I moved on to Color Guard (flags, sabres, dancing and spandex). Actually, the colorguard was really more up my alley, as dancing was my favorite, but seeing as I'm a bit of a jumping jack, I had to try both.
I was never one of those stereotypical "band geeks"....I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my life. Quite honestly, I think the social aspect was the best part! (Aside from the dancing...I always loved that). I made some great friends (still have some of those to this day!), had some awesome trips (Phoenix, AZ....can't beat that for a "school trip"...marching in the Fiesta Bowl parade!), and some great memories from it. But...I still can't read music (I know, I know. Don't ask.) I still trip over my own feet. And who in the heck knows why I thought a good time on a Saturday night meant freezing my tooshhee off at a field show (who makes spandex uniforms for October??)
Nonetheless, some old habits die hard.
So, on Saturday, the hubs and I travelled back a bit in time for me to attend a good ole field band show- his son, Brennan, plays snare for the Jamestown marching band and they were playing in competition at Victor High School. There were about 7 bands scheduled to perform - a decent 90 minutes of entertainment! We weren't up high enough to get alot of the cool shapes, but here's a few from Jamestown's repertoire:
Stand, plant and play. Brennan (Greg's son) is the far left snare.
If you aren't of the "band know", snare is one of the most prestigious percussion instruments.
For him to make snare as a freshman was pretty legit!
I got a few more snaps in, but most were blurry-it was rainy out, so the conditions weren't the best, and they move so darn fast it was hard to get a stand still good shot!
The hubs and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the bands play, and Jamestown kicked a little band tail (86/100 score)! Our next stop is the Carrier Dome, which is an indoor show in Syracuse. Back in the day, there was a whole political thing going on with some of the bands in that show...it;s funy what you remember, isn;t it?
Anyways, I decided to educate the hubs with my band knowlege during the show - I gave him the 411 on the whole deal, and probably bored the $hit out of him with my side notes on the guard formations, sabre and rifle analysis :-P Old habits die hard. I also got to see some of the instructors from Victor who used to teach at Webster when I was in the band, so it was a nice little blast from the past. Ahhh, high school. Don't miss it, but sure had fun!
Were you ever in the band? Ever play an instrument? Any juicy stories or memories?
No comments:
Post a Comment