Authentically Mine – Musings of a Restless Mind

I am the proud parent of a high school band kid. I am also one of those parents who does a lot to support the band. Getting to help such a great organization and hang out behind-the-scenes with awesome kids and dedicated parents is a fun, exhausting, occasionally frustrating, and always incredibly rewarding way to be active in my kid’s story while writing my own.

But it goes farther than that. I also have the opportunity to have positive connections, however fleeting, with several hundred kids. It’s a gift to get to know these awesome humans, each writing their own story. Many kids give me a friendly hello and greet me by name. Some even give me hugs and fill me in on what’s going on in their lives. It’s truly an honor to know that I am a positive influence for these kids and perhaps make someone’s long bandy day just a little brighter.

Then there’s the comradery that develops among the backstage pass groupies, especially the roadies with whom I am privileged to get to share the adventures of marching season. It takes a special person to spend so much time wedged into a seat on a school bus!

I wear a few different hats as a groupie and roadie:

• Booster club officer
• Chaperone
• Plumer
• Photographer

Groupie with Inside Intel

Being a booster club officer is an interesting experience. It’s really eye-opening to have a backstage pass and see what it takes to make band possible for several hundred teenagers. This behind-the-scenes work is super important. The dedicated volunteers who serve on the board make magic happen so that the directors can focus on the kids.

Roadie with Extra Hats

I’ve already touched on the experience that is chaperoning. It takes dedication to spend so much time (and at times sacrifice so much sleep) going where the band goes when the band goes. A typical road football game is a 7-hour commitment. Between football games and marching contests, we spend a lot of time together! But we love it and eagerly do it year after year.

As a bus lead, I always enjoy friendly conversations with the bus drivers. It’s fun to get to know them, and it helps make a long contest day a bit more pleasant for everyone. I am also responsible for keeping an eye on The Chat and making sure that the kids on my bus are on-task and ready to go when it’s go-time.

Wardrobe Specialist Plumer

One of my favorite chaperone jobs is being a plumer. The plumes are the feathers that stick out of the top of the kids’ hats. At football games, I get to be the one to send off the kids whom I plume with a warm smile and well wishes. I look every kid in the eye, smile, greet them by name if I know it, and tell them to have a good run. After halftime, I pick up where I left off and ask them how they did.

At contests, I’m usually pluming the kids on the bus, sometimes while rolling down the highway. Hats are passed around, so I don’t get to have that personal interaction. Instead, I have a little fun with them and give out lucky plumes. Kids who know me know about lucky plumes. Those who don’t may start off thinking that it’s silly, but most come around and are glad that I recharged the plumes for finals.

Production Assistant Febreze-wielding Road Parent

To close out marching season, the band loads into charter buses and spends several days based out of a hotel to compete in some high-profile and high-stakes competitions. The chaperones are the last ones to bed at night and the first ones up in the morning. It’s coffee-fueled sleep-deprivation at its most (un)glamourous. 

I make my nightly rounds wearing a roll of masking tape as a bracelet and armed with a full bottle of Febreze, which is a must to beat the musk and keep the kids’ uniforms somewhat fresh for the next day. The masking tape is our tried-and-true method to make sure that the kids stay in their rooms and get as much rest as possible.

The comraderie among my fellow exhausted roadies helps us all power through until the next time we get to watch our kids march the show. Every performance at a competition makes all of the extra work worth every lost minute of sleep.

Photographer

If chaperoning and all that it entails wasn’t already more than enough, I also volunteer as a band photographer. I started taking pictures at football games and competitions several years ago and quickly felt very limited by my gear. I have learned a lot, improved my skills, invested in nicer gear, and generally upped my game quite a bit. I am able to capture some really nice shots that families treasure. It’s a lot of fun and quite rewarding to see my photos grow legs and have a life of their own.

I freely admit that the chaperone-photographer combination is a bit extra. Not only do I spend hours chaperoning, but then I spend hours processing photos and getting them ready for a quick turnaround so that they can be shared with the band community soon after the event. The not-so-glamourous part of the combination job is wearing my heavy camera with a big lens for hours on end and carrying around extra gear, including the occasional well-wrapped extra lens, in a clear stadium tote bag. While chaperoning, my camera is a constant accessory that I wear everywhere, and I do mean everywhere.

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This is my last year as a band parent. It’s bittersweet, to say the least. I have been able to soak it all in and enjoy each moment, even with the nostalgia of a year full of lasts. As the season peaks with two seemingly solid weeks of performances and that high-stakes trip, I am able to be fully present with a smile on my face and a spring in my step.

All of the hugs, fist bumps, and mini conversations that my favorite band kid and I share are special for us both. We know that we don’t have too many of these opportunities left. The long, late-night ride home on the charter bus after that last high-stakes competition will likely be my time to reflect on the amazing experience of being a marching band groupie. I sure will miss it!

AIATT