Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Stereotypical Band Tour Mayhem!

Sara and Ronda...
We wear short shorts
​I was in the 9th grade. In our day, 9th grade was still part of the Junior High, not high school. Sara and I were attached at the hip. Oh my gosh, the stories I could share of our hijinks in the band room! I'm laughing to myself just thinking of them right now. And that is sort of where this takes place ... although technically it wasn't the band room, but rather the band BUS!

The Fremont bands were on a grade school tour. Yeah, we're big league. Some musicians go on nationwide tours to big arenas - we did a tour of the local grade schools. The idea was to go have the different bands play (as I recall it was just Concert and Jazz bands) for the grade schools and let the kids see what they could do if they joined band. We played our most fun songs to seem like the band geek life is super cool and appealing. And come on - Sara and I had a freaking blast with band in junior high. It was probably the only positive thing, other than listening to Richard Burton read Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner in Mrs. Johnson's English class!

Amanda, Sara, Ronda, Lindsay
It seemed to be a full day tour we were on. We'd go set up in the gymnasiums with Concert Band playing first, then Jazz band. I was in both - so I pulled double duty and had to manage not one, but TWO cummerbunds all day! Red was for Concert band, while the black and white checkered one was for Jazz. For the sake of too much information, which actually DOES matter, I was the first chair flute player in Concert band (and there were only 3 of us anyway and we were freaking awesome. Shout out to Amanda and Lindsay!!) and the piano player in Jazz band. I was kind of a big deal. (Actually, I DID get the 3 year contribution award when we finished our time at Fremont band, so there!)

Midway through the day we stopped for a lunch break. This is when the accidental hijinks began. Our lunch, if I remember correctly, was over off of Stephens and Garden Valley - where Chubby's was - and McDonald's. During lunch, Andy got me a plastic ring from a little machine. Isn't that romantic!?! Ha! Somehow during this whole mid-day nonsense Sara acquired a Twix bar. These two things led to the big rebellious moment in my life that I swear was totally unintentional. I'm just really strong!

Before Phantom of the Opera
Practicing my Jazz band solo!

We were back on our bus - a full bus of band kids that just loaded up on fries and caffeine and candy. Yeah, every bus driver's dream, right?!? Sara and I were in the back third of the bus. And we had a third person in our seat. I think it was Lindsay but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway... quiet little Ted was up in the front of the bus, and this is the day Sara decided he was kind of cute and she wanted to talk to him. Being the brilliant one that I am, I crafted a plan. I grabbed part of her Twix bar and used the ring Andy gave me to carve "Ted, Sara says Hi" in the chocolate. Clearly we couldn't wait until we got to Rose school to give it to him. No! I thought I gently tossed it up toward him.

I was so wrong.

Smack!! The tiny, 1 inch long piece of Twix bar hit the front window of the bus. The bus driver was a little over dramatic and freaked out. It's not like somebody shot through the window. A scrawny armed little girl tossed a piece of chocolate just a little harder than she thought.

Now those of you familiar with Roseburg will know these locations I'm describing - the rest of you? I'm sorry - but know that it is only a couple of blocks from the time we got on the bus until this next section.

The driver immediately pulls over into the Indian Lanes bowling alley parking lot. (Oh my gosh I am already cracking up to myself again just picturing this!) Seriously, this is ME we are talking about. I'm not a rule breaker!!! "WHO THREW THAT??" she yelled as she got off of the seat and looked back at all of us. Before we could even answer, Mr. P was stepping into the bus. He was following in his truck with all of our larger instruments.

Rumor was if you got in trouble during the tour or kicked off the bus, you were immediately sent back to school. Remember how I joked I was "kind of a big deal"? Well .... are you really going to send 1/3 of your flute section home? Or your piano player for Jazz band? No, you're not!

Immediately Mr. P was looking at Mac like he was the trouble maker and said, "Hurry up, get off the bus." Mac was shocked and looked at him all confused. It was at this point that I was able to grab my flute, music and get unstuck from our threesome in the seat. "Hold on, Mr. P! I'm coming!" I said, and this is when Mr. P now looked confused.

I tried so hard not to laugh, but come on. This is funny. I mean I was getting kicked off of the freaking band bus for trying to be a match maker for my best friend! I got in Mr P's truck and we pulled away behind the school bus. It was silent for maybe less than a minute. We were both trying so hard not to laugh. He finally asked what the heck happened and I told him. He clearly saw the humor in it as well!

We arrived at Rose to do our last concert, and I think it ended up being the most fun because we had just had that silly incident happen. My fingers hurt so bad by the end of that. Imagine being the piano play for Great Balls of Fire, and playing it over and over all day long. It burned so good!

At the end of the year I had Mr P sign my yearbook ... and of course he wrote to not get kicked off the band bus again!


Aww, those were the days!



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