Originality

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”  -  Oscar Wilde

            Some folks I have taught stand out from the others.  Their differences, quirks, idiosyncrasies, and even “weirdnesses” always came off to me as bravery.  Don’t get me wrong, there are those who are weird “strange” as opposed to “unconventional”.  You should always run from the “strange” ones as fast as you can.  For instance, talking to your flute is okay.  If your flute talks back, seek help.  I do, however, think we should celebrate the unconventional and, with that in mind….

            Sabina and Hannah Lin do not, on the surface, seem to be cruel and mean.  They always smiled, were helpful, and were well liked by all they met.  They also spent a great deal of their time torturing Ted Liang.  Ted, like the two girls, was happy, helpful and extremely intelligent.  He also had a few quirks (sorry Ted but no other word for it).  He would violently flinch when surprised by 4 foot tall Hannah.  He could be made to respond with an assortment of odd noises (hoots, whoops, squeaks, etc…) when certain things were said to him.  He was like a human “Bop It” toy.  Sabina, Hannah, and Jenny McDuffie would show him off to any who needed amusing.  I have it on the highest authority that Ted has outgrown all of this and has completed a doctorate in physics at Stanford.  For all of the uber smart stuff he does with the rest of his life, I hope he can appreciate the joy he brought to many of us by just being Ted.

            I already mentioned Renee Reyle in an earlier post where I recounted her semi-streaking during a rock-a-thon event.  For those who know Renee, it is probably not a surprise to find out this was not her only “near naked” experience.  One day, after a particularly hot and brutal rehearsal on the parking lot, a freshman boy was standing outside the instrument room in the old band room.  He was holding his trumpet and staring at the door.  Band had been over for a while when I asked him what he was doing there.  He said he needed to put his trumpet away.  I told him that going into the storage room was a good start and he said, “but I can’t go in there until…. Well, I just can’t go in there.”  I said, “Come on, son”, opened the door and led him in.  Lying on the tile floor, wearing only a sports bra and shorts, was Renee.  When I asked her what in the world she was doing, she said, as matter of factly as possible, that it was really hot and she was simply cooling off.  Education for freshmen boys comes in many ways.

            Renee, partly by virtue of being a drummer, had always come across as a tomboy.  She was drum captain her senior year and I was more than a little surprised when she told me she was entering the Senior Miss pageant.  I had never seen her dressed like a girl and was concerned.  She handled that part like a pro.  When it came time for talent, Renee walked out with a pair of drumsticks to an awaiting snare drum on a stand.  The next 5 minutes were AMAZING.  She played, juggled, flipped sticks, and entertained better than anyone else that night.  Unconventional – Yes.  Still, it was 100% Renee Reyle.

            The absolute queen of “being who you are” was a young lady I met on my first day working in the band room at Houston.  She walked in with some of her friends and just started quoting from the movie “Heathers”.  I mean the entire movie.  It didn’t make any difference that I had not seen “Heathers” or even knew it existed.  It amused her and that was enough.  Jennifer Jones went on to become my guard captain as well as Homecoming Queen her senior year.  She was tall and imposing and liked to make others uncomfortable with a sort of superior “death stare”.  One day, I was reading the newspaper on a Sunday morning and almost snorted my fruit loops.  There, on the back cover of the sports section, was a Splash Casino ad with three young ladies in bikinis.  One of them was Jennifer.  I would have assumed that you needed to be 18 years old for that sort of thing.  When I asked Jennifer about how old you had to be, she just grinned and said, “I lied”. 

Quite a few years after Jennifer graduated, I was having a marching rehearsal on the parking lot.  280 kids are in the middle of a tune when I notice a disruption.  Walking across the parking lot from the back left corner to the 50 yard line, front and center, was Jennifer Jones.  She had on really high heels, a red pencil skirt, was all done up real “purty” and was taking her own sweet time as she walked.  By the time she got to the front, the entire band had stopped.  All the guy’s tongues were hanging out (not from exhaustion) and it was very quiet.  She shakes her hair out, looks up at me and says, “Hey old man, you have time for a visit?”

            Sure I did.