High School band camp was an hour away from home at a college. A week away from mom and dad .... Well, I'll leave those stories for later.
Thursday night at band camp week was kangaroo court for the Freshmen. As a freshmen, we had to march to the auditorium only to find Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors seated and yelling "We want blood, Freshmen Blood." Boy, I was in for it, right.
Some Senior officers were in "grad gowns" and acted like judges. They kind of monitored my progress (marching, music memory etc...) the whole week. A few of them knew me personally. They basically told the crowd that I was kind of shy, but also a ham. Spotlight shining on me, I couldn't see out into the theater. I was petrified. Well my punishment for the next day was to dress in costume and be Mother Nature. They gave me a crown of flowers, bouquet and a light blue maternity shirt as a dress. I had to spend all day Friday in this costume.
Friday comes along, and our band camp location was also a NFL training camp for the Cincinnati Bengals. Sometimes, we would mingle during luch in the cafeteria. Some Bengals looked at me funny. Boy was I embarrassed. Even the lunch lady was laughing. We had to take orders from the upperclassmen and most of them gave me a tub of margarine and told me to act out the Fleischman's commercial. So I spent all day saying "It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature."
The whole thing drew a lot of attention, and I wasn't the shy guy that day. Other guys had to be cheerleaders, ballerinas. The girls would dress up as a construction worker, football player etc....
By Friday night we were welcomed into the band in an emotional way that I might save for later. I've rambled on.
Come around my Senior year, the band puts on a slideshow and there I am in my Mother Nature outfit and my hairy legs. Embarassed all over again. Band is like an extended family, and I've had some great memories of Marching Band.
