That title can have a lot of connotations. But for me it will always be marching band. I was in it, then I grew up and became a band mom, and then the mother of a man in the US Navy Fleet Band (who, in one incarnation, was also assistant band director in an Arizona high school). Band was one of the most meaningful experiences of my youth. (I wrote about it some here and here, so please forgive me for covering some of this ground again.)
I wrote about it here, too, when I told my high school band director how much my band experience had changed my life. Later I followed up on that love note to Mr. Selleck in some social media commentary:
Kim [Selleck], I was reading one of my blog posts I wrote about band, and being a band mom. It started out about my hearing, which is terrible (I have hearing aids) and when I started having problems and got a hearing test, as I stepped out of the testing booth, the technician's first words were "Are you a musician?" Hahahaha.
But I realized I should update you from that note I sent more than a decade ago. My son ended up 1) finishing his masters in 2017, and 2) joining the US Navy Fleet Band back in 2018. (Also got married, and they have a 4.5yo.) They're currently in Japan. And the US Navy takes very good care of its musicians' ears, I'm pleased to report. (The US Air Force, back in the day, did not take care of my dad's ears, which were ruined in the cockpit.) Anyway, I just thought you might enjoy this update. All the best to you this morning!
And she did respond, I'm happy to report.
It was all that drumming (and often cymbals)—which I adored at the time—that ruined my ears, that gave me the "Are you a musician?" question fifty years later. It was twenty-three years in the loud cockpit that made my father profoundly deaf. (And one wonders why the US Air Force didn't provide hearing aids in his old age. Hearing aids are truly a marvel of science.)
Now Sybil is getting into it too. Rhythm, that is. A couple years ago, I stumbled on a "tongue drum," fell in love with it, and immediately sent Sybil one as a gift. I sent her drumsticks one year (because she wanted her own, not Daddy's). One of her Lovevery packages was music-themed recently, which included some rhythm instruments. Now I've been seeing that there was a drumming section of instruction in her class this year.
I hope she notices her daddy's tuba-playing earplugs! But I will write it up for her, too, in one of the many postcards I sent her every month. (I number them. We're up to 290. It's sort of like blogging, only unplanned and unedited. Ha.)
I can't wait to see what happens next.
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