Silliness

            I am going to do the begging at the beginning of this epistle instead of the end so that those of you who only read half of stuff won’t be let off the hook.  The Houston Band Foundation (us) established a scholarship to be given to a graduating senior each year at the band banquet.  We raised $20,000 bucks and put it in a brokerage account with the hope of generating $1,000 a year for the scholarship.  We were in good shape until the stock market backed up and now that scholarship is going to be $54.17.  I would like all of you to make a donation to this cause using the PayPal button attached to this blog (look for it – it’s there).  And now….

Silliness

            I often said, and truly believed, that we could have been much better than we were if silliness did not break out all the time.  Some of those sillinesses (?)  were small things.  Like when Lara Pitts and Rachel Lin used to make rude hand gestures behind my back to see whom I would catch first.  Or when Erica Lewis showed up for a contest wearing a fake cast on her arm (she was the drum major).  Other silly episodes involved larger groups of people.  Here are a few:

            We went to Union City for All West tryouts one year and went up early because snow was forecast.  At about midnight it started to snow and I let all the kids come out to play in it.  A game of Red Rover broke out in the area next to the hotel.  This game of Red Rover was our only one in the snow, but Red Rover was to become a band staple for years to come.  We had a bus break down in South Alabama on our way to Disney one year at about 2:00 in the morning leading to a game of 50 on 50 Red Rover.   My most vivid memory of Red Rover, however, comes courtesy of William Ingram.  We were playing while waiting on a bus to pick us up.  Those of you who do not know William can hardly appreciate his lack of athletic ability so, when someone called “Send William right over!”, it quickly got my attention.  What took place was the most laid back and somewhat dignified ‘Sending” in the history of Red Rover!  Not a run as much as a “toddle right over”.  Still makes me smile.

            Matt Tubinis was in charge of arranging a Games Night for summer entertainment one year (summer of 2002 or 2003?).  One of his games was a greased pig catching contest.  The twist was that the greased pig was Mike Mueller in a speedo covered in Wesson Oil.  It is possible to have something be both hilarious and totally disgusting at the same time.  I have no memory of what the prize was for catching Mike.  Maybe catching Mike is a prize in itself.

            One year at All West, all of the kids were sitting on the second floor landing in the Convention Center hotel eating pizza and goofing off.  Cell phones weren’t exactly new but texting was a big deal.  This particular year, Thomas Carpenter had not made All West and, being the manly stud he was, everyone was missing him desperately at the clinic.  Somebody got everyone together for a mass texting.  The thought was to have a group of about 50 folks text Thomas a short but disgusting phrase (moist mayonnaise) repeatedly and at exactly the same time.  According to Thomas, his phone exploded.

            We were marching at the Contest of Champions one year when I became aware of the seniors trying to establish a new tradition.  They marched finals “commando” style.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, they were NAKED under their uniform.  No undergarments.  I can’t imagine the level of uncomfortable not to mention the possibility of having suspenders give out and flashing 20,000 folks.  The worst part is knowing that someone else was issued those pants the next year.  Yuch…..

            When we would travel to out of town competitions, my loading crew would inevitably “find” things others had lost.  They “found” signs from most of the bands we competed against.  They “found” a stadium flag from Vanderbilt and from the Liberty Bowl.  They even once “found” a track hurdle that said McGavick.  I stayed out of the finding business until one day in Jackson, TN.  Lara Pitts was one of our drum majors that year and, as they were closing the back of the truck, I noticed we had “found” an 8 foot by 4 foot sign that said “Pitts For Mayor”.  This sign got “unfound” in a big, screaming hurry.

            Zombie Apocalypse night one summer…. Every gift on Senior Night hidden in a brown paper bag with the words “don’t open in public” scrawled on the outside……  The ubiquitous (look it up) Rooster Cheer…..  Dancing after contests at the equipment truck (win or lose)…..  Senior Pranks that didn’t go wrong  (Yanni, Jonathan, Christie)….. The list is too long for it to be covered in one sitting.  On reflection, I would like to amend my statement in the first paragraph that we would have been better if less silly.  Maybe we would have been more competitive but from a “who we were” standpoint, I like us just fine!