summertime, parades, etc

this next saturday, our town has a parade and there are activities all week. the high school band marches in it, in shorts and t shirts, and our middle school band marches too. every year I am surprised when the middle school is practicing. I think to myself, oh, there’s the high school band! and it is the middle school. They are SO good. our band directors are geniuses. It is amazing what they can do each year.

So again this year, I am surprised by hearing the middle school. And I heard them last week, they just didn’t sound this good yet. You hear them and think, they are so good. Then the high school comes and outdoes them tremendously. Area high schools are jealous of what our middle school band can accomplish!

Last fall, our middle school band went 400 miles to the biggest city in our state to be the demonstration band for a workshop at the university. Attending a nearby town’s band perform the director said to our director, how does your band compare. Our director said not at all. The guy said, oh, they will be ok. Our director said, no, I mean, we are so much better. And they were. Our kids dressed up and played like miniature professionals. We attended one workshop performance. All the directors were amazed and were talking about it all weekend. Did you see that middle school? blah, blah, blah. very impressive. And from such a small town…. and from so far away….

We live in an area where there are no big cities. All small towns. The very largest is about 24,000 ppl and that is not our town. We are literally in the middle of nowhere… and on the way to nowhere, but we are happy here. I like it. You can be yourself here and there is no fast lane.

Dau was at a parade in a nearby town last weekend, and she said their high school stunk. not very nice, I know, but they don’t do so well. That director said to me one time, how does he get 7th and 8th graders to march like that and I can’t even get high school kids to do it? That director is very strong on woodwinds, which are all well and fine, but brass and drums are the strength of a marching band. You need the woodwinds too, but they don’t have the power of the brass and drums. I love drum and bugle corps because of that. They are so cool!

Anyway, I just wanted to jot that down, cuz I am so proud of our kids, our directors, etc. I just wish ppl could hear them and be amazed.

This fall our high school is going to play Chuck Mangioni style pieces. They always give us a preview at their last spring concert before school gets out. They play along and suddenly, the brass stands up and just blasts out. It was so cool!

faith hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.