July 14, 2005

The Downhill Side of Summer

Summer is funny the way it sends signals that it is over, long before the weather actually turns. There are the gradually waning days, the lunchboxes appearing in the grocery store, the petering out of blooming herbs, and the sudden realization that planning a weekend summer getaway can't happen because there are only so many summer weekends left, and they are all already planned. There's another one here where I live: the marching band. My house is a half a block away from a high school, which is not as bad as it sounds or as people made it out to be when I bought the place. Many of the kids live in the neighborhood. Some stop to pet my dogs on their way by, and the blue-haired drama kids know that this is a house that will buy those bags of M&Ms to support their production of Grease. The week after the fourth of July is when band camp starts. In the beginning, it is the endless noodling of the drummers, as they sit around waiting for something to happen. Then the drummers move into something more regular, practicing rhythmic sets. And finally, they work out their marching cadences. Band geek that I am, I occasionally catch myself listening to see if they are doing one of the well-known DCI cadences. I barely even remember them anymore, though we used to check out other bands and rate them by who they chose to emulate ("Aw man, those losers are doing the Suncoast Sound cadence? They should have gone for Bridgemen!"). When the cadences stop, as they are bound to over the next week, then the full band, baton team and all, starts marching around the neighborhood, practicing their eight-to-five and parade rows. Suddenly, it's fall, even though it doesn't feel like fall. Football, mascots, textbooks, notebook paper, the screech of bus wheels at 7 am, the roaring off of student drivers at 2:45. For now, though, I hear the drummers, trying to get it together as a team before they practice the year's marching cadence. There's still time, there's still summer.

Posted by binky at July 14, 2005 09:11 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Music


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