Returned

It wasn't long after I got home from work that Megan walked through the door. She is home from UNI from now until January 10 - roughly, 25 days - for her winter break. She resumes classes on Monday, January 11, 2016, and in a bizarre scheduling decision, it is a week prior to the U of I returns to classes - no comment about when ISU returns to classes. It is really awesome to have her back at home. We ate chicken cordon blue, baked potato, and corn for supper.

After supper, we left for Alex's band concert at West High. For unexplained reasons, Alex only played a percussion part during one of four songs. As I watched him play bass drum on a march, I was taken back in my mind to third period band when, as a seventh grader at Harding Junior High (now Harding Middle School) in Cedar Rapids, I was playing bass drum on "The Bugler's March" and, for the life of me, I couldn't keep up with the conductor's tempo. The conductor, Max Northrup, smelled like cigarettes when he left the podium and came back to take over playing bass drum for me. He quipped, "You're like a cat's tail - always behind." After 30+ years - seventh grade was 1984 - that incident and that song - "Bugler's March" - are probably forever etched in my memory. It's funny how certain events in life never leave my mind. When I was cleaning the den and my collection of drum music, I don't recall seeing that piece of music. A quick online search yielded no promising results. At least, for today, I have my memories.

I will wrap up this post by saying that I had to work damn hard to be a good drummer. At the time, there was band in third period & fourth period. Unless you were totally awesome, you entered seventh grade with third period and then, as an 8th grader, you were generally moved up to fourth period. I began 8th grade in third period band. I don't know why, but Tim DeKlerk threw peanuts at Mr. Northrup and got kicked out of band, which opened a spot for me to move to fourth period at the end of the first semester. It was a big deal, to me, because my parents had promised that if I was in fourth period band, they would buy me a set of drums. Of course, I held them to that. The set of drums they purchased for me is the only set of drums I've ever owned and are downstairs in the basement, in the furnace storage room, awaiting the next time I have the opportunity to jam with other musicians.

I am hopeful that happens prior to the end of 2016.