This is your brain on Marching Band

She might as well have passed me the crack pipe and said, here try some of this….

My secretary, office manager, assistant, and now hated enemy came in yesterday and started talking about marching band, and her son, and band camp, and oh by the way, did I know anyone who would be available to coach the drum line this summer.

So how do you light this thing?....

Trying to remain nonchalant, I asked her about how many kids were in the group, what instruments did they use last year, who coached them last year, how good were they, all the while pretending to search my memory for a good coach.

So after you get it lit then what do you do?....

Let me give a little background. I was a percussion major in college. I dreamed of being a high school band director. I lived and breathed marching band. I think that a good marching band show is the greatest of all performing arts. I went back to my high school from 1995-1999. I took a drum line of six kids and molded them into a winning unit. I loved it. I still do. In 1998, the old band director left, and a new one came in. The new one practically ran the program into the ground. She is one of the reasons why I left. The other being that I was ruining my marriage over my involvement with the organization.

But I am a recovering addict…are you sure that a little puff won’t hurt?....

Since she brought this to me, I have thought of little else. I truly am an addict. The school that we talked about is the other local high school in my town. This is where the band director at my school went after she wrecked the program at my old HS. This is a public school. I have sworn that I would never work at a public school because of the state of discipline there. I did a job in a Jr. High school in this town and had a run in with the principal that almost lead to physical violence. I lost so much respect for him that day that I swore my children would NEVER go to a school where he was an administrator. Guess where he works now?

I am in a quartet that could be District Champs in a few years, I am in a chorus that will be vying to be International Champs in a few years, I have a son that has a learning disability and needs me every night to help him with his work. I have a marriage that is on solid ground. I have a company that I may be running one day soon. I have responsibilities at Church. I coach track. I help with athletic fund raisers. I was going to stay away from the whole marching band thing till my son hit high school, three years hence.

But they have 15 kids, plus the kids in the pit. They have new equipment. I know the director, and she knows me, and will let me do things my way.

I was born to do this.

I might even get paid this time.



Let me see how you smoke that thing again…..
And by the way, I hate you.


Peace