Bible Verse of the Day

Monday, October 15, 2007

Marathon Marching Day is Past

This is a long and windy post, but there's some good stuff at the end...

We finally got the last of the mess made by the electricians at work cleaned up today. It always seems to be that when you have a problem that seems unsolvable, you figure it out finally and it ends up being something stupidly simple, usually because someone didn't document something they should have. Anyway, we got things running a their normal speed again and are just waiting to hear from the affected people later today.

This was a very busy weekend (so what else is new, right?) with band activities. Friday night we had concessions again. I was supposed to leave by 5:00 on Friday, but we were still trying to figure out the problem from Thursday. Thursday night I spend until 10:30 working with the vendor to try to find a solution. Anyway, I was only a few minutes late to concessions, but we had just enough to avoid a late-fine. Then we got up early on Saturday for all the marching contests and football game. The first contest show looked a whole lot better than the previous week's competition and I think everyone was pleased with it. We didn't get to stay for results because we had to get back to the band hall for lunch and getting ready for the next festival.

The second show, we thought wasn't as good as the first one, at least those that got to watch it from the stands thought so. I was watching from the end-zone because I had to go look for one of our kids who had problems from the heat and the nurse who was with him, but I couldn't find them, so I went back to the stadium and only got as far as the end zone. I can tell you that our color guard has never looked better than they did Saturday afternoon. And after some of the maneuvers the crowd was cheering. We stayed for a couple of bands afterwards and then had to leave for the mall for supper and then on to the football game. The head band director stayed behind with the drum majors for the retreat. That's when they give out the awards.

I was standing next to the first assistant band director in line at one of the food court places when he got the phone call from the head band director with the results. We took outstanding brass, outstanding woodwinds, and first place! They're finally getting it together! Of course word spread like wildfire through the food court. What we didn't know until the head band director got to the stadium and called the color guard aside that we learned that they took third place in color guards. This was only four girls. Most bands have upwards of 10-30 people in their guards.

Of course they had to march the show one more time at the football game, but the band director actually cut loose a little bit and had some fun with the kids. I decided his good twin showed up because he's been tough this year. They performed flawlessly as usual. We had to watch from the visitor side this time. Interesting...I just realized I saw the band from three different sides in one day. That must be a record. I do know that everyone was exhausted by the end of the day, band members, chaperones, and especially the roadies. They had to move a lot of equipment all day long and a lot of the on-field props are extremely heavy. They all did a great job, though.

Of course Sunday was another story altogether. I sang in the small ensemble, but didn't have to play an instrument. DH did, though. He played a Kyrie on soprano saxophone that was just beautiful. The song that we sang was called "Prayer for the Children" by Kurt Bestor. He wrote it as a response to the breakout of civil war in the Yugoslavia region where he had traveled for quite some time. Since Sunday was Children's Sabbath, our choir director found it and had a septet sing it. We sang the SATB version, but you can get an idea of how it sounds here. We had only practiced it on Wednesday and then a couple of times before the first service. By the time I finished singing it at both services, I was almost in tears. I know there were people in the congregation that were in tears, not only for the beauty of the music, but for the words that spoke to so many.

After that draining event, we had instrumental rehearsal and snack supper. I was fading fast by last night, but I did manage to find enough time to finish a layout I started earlier in the week and scan some photos from my Aunt Kathryn's collection. Here's the layout:

Credits are at 123-scrap.com

This photo was from her wedding day in 1944. She was 19 and he was 25, about to ship out in the Navy. She's my favorite aunt and he's my favorite uncle. He died in 1989 from pancreatic cancer, but he had been a war hero in WWII. He was at Pearl Harbor and Midway, yes in the famous battles. He flew off the USS Enterprise and was the recipient of the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross. Unfortunately, I never got to hear his stories because he didn't talk about them. All I know about his career is what I've been told by my aunt and cousins. I do have some wonderful photos of him in uniform, though. I'll post more later. But wasn't she a looker!

Kathryn and Earl
June 10, 1944
Athens, Georgia

1 comment:

Suzanne said...

Oh WOW Karen! That is an amazing photo and wonderful layout! After your busy weekend, it must have felt great to unwind and be creative. :-) TFS!