My wife told me something interesting this morning.
Last night, at the Event, another woman with whom my wife was walking commented with some vexation that she hadn't known that she would not be able to order up candygrams for her daughter at this particular event. At others, you can; go to a table, pick one from their stack, give your child's school and name, and they'll deliver it after the performance. Its usually a small stuffed animal, sometimes a candy bar, and the kids really like them.
When the woman said that, another woman turned, and in a querulous tone, said 'Then you should get in the habit of reading all of the band booster emails and going to the band booster meeting!"
Oh, god, how many different way is that a piss-me-off statement? This many: when my wife told me, I immediately said 'Sounds like YOU need to bite me, lady!'
Information like that does get out, but the band and the color guard have never figured out how to disseminate information. You have to hunt for it. Sometimes info is in an email from one source, sometimes the other, sometimes both, when it's sometimes its the same, but sometimes not. Sometimes the difference matters, and sometimes it doesn't. You get them from the booster group mailbox, people in the booster group, people in color guard, people who just thought they'd respond. It feeds my spam filter all the time. And they take this stuff Seriously. Personally, I think that band booster stuff is a path to brain death, unless you're a True Believer in the Wonderfulness of Band. And I'll cut off the snarky comment that occurs to me. As it happens, this woman's kid was in color guard, not band, which is Just As Goddamn Freaking Good As Band.... Not that it irritates me, because admitting that would be drinking the kool-aid, just a bit. Well, perhaps just a sip, thanks.
Because the woman who'd expressed dismay is a nice person, like my wife, and because you're supposed to Set A Good Example for your Children, she just nodded and smiled.
And, I hope, at least thought ..''Bitch!'
2 comments:
Wow.
There's a separation between band boosters and color guard boosters now? That's crazy.
When I was in marching band, apparently 1100 years ago, we had one parent-booster group for the lot of us... and really didn't care what their kids played or twirled, so long as they had the food ready to eat after a competetion. :)
We called all of them our "Band Moms" and "Band Dads", and they'd do just about anything to help us through the show.
I remember one Band Mom handing over the socks she was wearing because someone forgot and wore non-white, a marching faux pas. And you could always count on the Band Dads to help with loading and unloading the truck - or getting the rifles, batons, flags, sabers, and percussion instruments to the pit.
It's hard for me to conceive an arbitrary line between supporting one section from the organization. That would be like the clarinets having their own thing and the tubas having their own thing, too.
I might expect it from the trumpets... but the guard?!??
If it helps, color guard is organizationally separate here from Band. Practice is usually separate; they have separate leaders, all that. They only come together for large practices, and for performances. It sounds like for you, CG was considered part of the band. Which raises an interesting scenario -
Oh, you're in Band? What do you play?
Um...flag.
It seems pretty clear to me that, locally, there's a feeling of BAND...and those other guys. I think the distinction is mostly in the minds of the parents -as I mentioned, I've drunk a little of that Kool-Aid, too - and a bit in the minds of the kids.
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