Crazy Band Olympics

working on the t-shirt.

First "performance" on the football field.

The percussion section tosses their chicken.
(See Josh?)

M. C. Escher

Last Thursday was the end of two weeks of band camp, longer for the new marchers. Families were invited to come and watch the marching band perform on the football field at 6pm. Kelly met me there, and Steph, Kimmi and Alli came too. It was fun having them be with us. It was hot, but really fun to see the progress the band has made in such a short time. Mr. Nash has three helpers this year from JMU, helping with the winds, the percussion and the flags. Their main halftime performance this year will be music influenced by the art of M.C. Escher. What a unique theme. They highlighted two of his most famous works, "House of Stairs" and "Drawing Hands". Josh is a great marcher, and seemed to know what to do all the time.

Then we all went inside for a big potluck dinner. I brought pasta salad, that I ran home and made after work. It is great having fresh veggies from the garden to add at the last minute. There were a few other pasta salads. Those people were smart enough to remember serving spoons. For mine, people had to use their little plastic spoons. So....I got to bring quite a bit home. It was eaten all up pretty fast here at home.

After the dinner, Steph and the girls went home. Kelly had appointments so he left, too. I stayed for the Parents Meeting. Then....I was told we are going outside for the Band Olympics. I guess it is quite the tradition. After several weeks of hard work in the hot sun, the kids look forward to this Band Olympics and just have a blast. So...Linda Miller and I went out and sat on a blanket I had in the car. The band all were on the practice field in their sections: Winds, percussion, brass, flags, etc. They started out the night with the popular "Frozen T-Shirt Contest". Now, I've heard of a Wet T-Shirt Contest, but wasn't familiar with the frozen variety. It was hysterical. I guess T-shirts are wadded in a ball and put in a bowl of water and then frozen solid. Then dumped from the bowl and given to each section. The section that broke their shirt free from the ice first and had their section leader put it on, would win. Wow...what determination. The brass section even had someone drive a car onto the field and tried to use the exhaust pipe to melt it a little. No luck. Someone in another section found a baseball bat and was beating the ice ball to death. Someone else found a hammer....same thing. One section was standing in a circle, each pulling a little part of the shirt once most the ice broke away, and yelling and grunting LOUDLY each time. No luck, though. So...then they would take the shirt and beat it against the ground mercilessly. I couldn't believe how long it took, and how seriously these groups wanted to win. Finally, the brass section broke through and Eliza Wright (their section leader) put on the shirt and yelled for victory.....that was, until someone reminded her that one of the guys put the shirt down his pants to try and melt it. She screamed and that shirt was off in less than two seconds. Hilarious.

They also had contests of putting together a fake Christmas tree the fastest. And....a local favorite.....the Raw Chicken Toss. Yeah, that's what I said.
Wow. We never got to do this stuff at West High. (Well, we did crazy things....but usually our parents weren't watching)