Dear High School Football Fans

My sentiments, added emojis, and photo—but not my words…

Signed, Band Mom

🚌 A Friendly Seasonal PSA 🚌

🏈 Dear High School Football Fans,

Another season of Friday night lights is upon us. We’re all looking forward to seeing our kids play and perform. We know you’re so excited to see the football team take the field. As marching band fans, we’re excited to see our team take the field, too.

🥁 We’re all here for the same reason: to cheer on our kids and and support our schools and communities. We understand that you’re probably not in the stadium to see the marching band. But when they’re on the field for their halftime show, we ask that you kindly show respect for the band fan sitting next to you and let them listen.

🎵 Music is an auditory experience. They’re probably trying to hear their son or granddaughter or niece or friend play. Talking while that happens is like standing directly and intentionally in the line of vision of a football parent while their child is making a game-winning play.

👏🏻 On the other hand, please DO cheer for the band: clap and yell when they take the field and between songs in their show and after a soloist finishes playing and pretty much anytime they do a formation that looks particularly tricky. These are the band’s equivalent of touchdowns.

💖 Football players work incredibly hard; so do our band kids. They march and practice and play and learn drill and give up summer free time in 90-degree heat to get their “game” ready, too. There’s no “marching band madness” coverage to balance out “football frenzy” on the 11 o’clock news, and the local newspaper probably didn’t give a run-down of their show and who’s on their roster and what they’re expecting from the season. The halftime show IS their big moment.

💯 And all those formations the football team puts together on the field? The marching band has them, too. But instead of trying to make them work with eleven team members at one time, the band has to do it with 50 or 100 or more players all at once. This sounds tricky because it is.

At most high schools, members of the football team are lauded and applauded and respected and admired, which is great for them. But at a lot of those same schools, members of the marching band are made fun of. They do marching band anyway because they love it and want to be part of something bigger than themselves. The halftime show is their chance, for a few minutes, to be encouraged and cheered on.

And one more thing: if you see a marching band member after the game, tell them, “Great show tonight.”

🥰 Appreciatively,
Marching Band Fans Everywhere

(Written by Elizabeth Spencer/Guilty Chocoholic Mama)

Do I look awake? I don’t feel awake.

First, it’s a gray rainy day so my natural light is…meh.

Second, I’ve been up since 4:30am when I rolled over and had to pee…and then couldn’t stop thinking about Owen and his new high school schedule. Let’s just say his love of all things band is throwing a wrench in things and I’m going to have to be up early to get him to school 4x/week by 7:20(ish) unless he wants to walk .7 miles to school.

Third, it’s a Monday.

Fourth, thank heavens for makeup that will last all day.

And just like that we have a high schooler.

Owen volunteered to play in the jazz band before his promotion ceremony!

I love that he was able to walk with his good friend Lucas…

And Anna (as school board president) was able to give him his diploma!

And then it was off to our celebratory dinner at The Chocolate Sanctuary because it’s closing soon! Of course I forgot to get a photo of our whole group but I did get a picture of my chocolate strawberry martini!

NIMCon Solo Ensemble

Northern Illinois Music Conference

Thankfully it wasn’t too far to Highland Park Middle School—and they looked pretty alert for 8am.

Lucas and Owen
Our actual view during their piece. LOL — They earned a 2.

Between performances we just hung around the library/cafeteria area with Lucas’ parents. It’s a really nice school.

Owen’s big ensemble did The Entertainer and it was really good!

They earned a 1!

After the performance, the judge gives them a few tips and suggestions and has them practice some bars again to see the difference. It’s really neat.

First non-snowday snowday!

So… eLearning. That’s what day the kids get now if we get bad weather. Bummer for them now…but one less day they have to go in June.

Katie (and Owen) had all their work done by 11:30!

We took the kids out for lunch because the weather wasn’t that bad…but it was starting to get slippery by the time lunch was over. And then I came back home to my book and my chair and my dogs.