Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Band Practice Memory!

Yes, it is true, I was in band. However, band was freakin awesome when we were in school!! We basically got to miss about twice as many days of school as normal kids. Plus, most of the girls were either in band, flag corp or majorettes!!! Not a bad thing!!

So, we would have band practice after school everyday to get ready for our field competitions. Our band director Mr. Shayman was a trip. He was a short jewish man with a quick temper. He was about as good a director as you could have. We were like one big family and he thought of us as his kids. When he did get mad, though, he would sometimes blow a gasket, turn red as a beat and scream and cuss!

Well, one day there was a director from the University of Miami to watch us perform and critic us. In class Mr. Shayman made it clear that he did not want anyone leaving after school. We were to stay around till practice started. He told us "if you leave you will be kicked out of band. Especially Wayne, Walt and Colon!

Normally we would leave as soon as the bell rang and run to the junior high then make it back just in time for practice. However, since Shayman was so serious this time we decided we might as well do it again. We would leave and be back before he ever knew we were gone anyways. what could it hurt?

The bell rang and we sprinted to my buddy Walt's awesome blue Toyota station wagon. He fired it up and we skedaddled to the junior high so Colon could see his girlfriend. Once we got there Colon got out to talk to his girlfriend, Walt got out to do whatever Walt does, and I sat in the car. Finding myself bored I began to play with the shifter and whatever I could find. Finally the time came and we had just enough time to make it back. Walt and Colon jumped back in the car. Walt turned the key to fire it up and nothing! The engine wouldn't even turn over. We began to ask everyone we could find for jumper cables till we finally found someone. With just a little time to spare we hooked up the cables and still NOTHING! We all began to panic and freak out. There was no way we could make it in time now. We began to wonder what life was goin to be like with us three dead. We were certain Shayman would kill us!

I believe we decided to run a couple blocks to my Mom's office. Maybe she could give us some insight as to what to do. We decided there that we could just wait till the next day and tell Shayman it was an emergency and then we got in a fender bender or something. However, Walt decided for some reason to bring his horn with him. It was a school issued horn and was not suppose to leave campus. Basically, we had to take it back or we would be in trouble for sure. We decided that if we drove in the back way and parked in the teacher parking lot we could sneak our way to the band room without being seen. We went back to the car to see if there was any way we could fix it. When we got there and inspected it I found that "someone" had shifted it into neutral and that's why it wouldn't start!!

We began our journey to the band room trying to be as unseen as possible. When we reached the band room Walt put his horn up and we were fixing to leave when a runner (junior high helper) came in. He said he had seen us and came to check it out. He told us nobody else had seen us and he promised to not say a word. We thanked him and beat it to the car. Once we got to the car and got gone we were relieve to say the least. As we drove back to Mom's office Colon decided to chime in with "I don't think we will be in that much trouble cause I left Shayman a note to explain it!" Mine and Walt's heart both stopped beating! We were back to being dead men walking!

The next day when we faced our fears Shayman must have been in a good mood. He decided to let us off by apologizing in person to the band, drill team, majorettes, the director from Miami! He also give us about an hour of his deepest thoughts of the situation. He called us every name I could think of and a few I hadn't heard of but use to this day! We promised we learned our lesson and by golly we did!! Till the next practice!!!