Tuesday, October 07, 2008

In Which We Travel Across Town to See the Purdue All-American Marching Band

It was field trip day at Edgelea Elementary School.

And all across the county, as all the area's fourth- (along with some fifth-) graders trekked over to Purdue to see the Purdue All-American Marching Band in concert.

I rode along as a parent chaperone. I am not employed full-time - there is nothing stopping me from going on field trips. So I headed over to the school around 8.15 (Sylvia did not want to ride with me, choosing instead to ride the bus), ready to meet the bus for the trip.

The concert was lots of fun. I am a big enough geek that I loved watching and hearing the band. They played their usual - the fight song, other little snippets that they play during the games. They ran out onstage just like they do the football field, and the 330-piece band was joined by the Goldduster Dance Team, Color Guard, Twirling Line, Silver Twins, Girl in Black, and Golden Girl.

The twirlers are good. I've never gotten to see them that close (our seats are not that good at the games). They had one, two, sometimes three batons going (not my earlier post where I said my high school twirlers were not that good - they couldn't really twirl one baton, much less three at once). The twirling line tossed their batons from one to the other, and very few hit the ground.

Purdue has a great band. (Though I thought Marching Mizzou was great, too.) I love it when we go to the Christmas parade here in town. All the area high school bands march through, then along comes the Purdue band, blowing them all out of the water. They are huge, and just so much better.

As I said, I'm a geek. So I love this sort of thing.

What I didn't love? Sitting by the father of one of Sylvia's classmates. He went off on a diatribe, singing the praises of Fox News. Fair and balanced - right. Mostly I just nodded - what can you say? I wasn't going to change his mind. But if there's one thing I can stand, it's people who represent their position and have no idea what they're talking about.

And I am not intolerant - I have plenty of friends who do not vote the way I do. But I can respect their opinions because they are smart. I have on particular very dear friend, and while she and I agree on many, many things, we do not always vote the same (though this year she could well be voting the same as I am - I have not actually asked her because it does not matter - we are friends, regardless). I do know her husband will vote differently than I do. But you know what? He is smart, and he can talk about issues intelligently. And while we don't always agree, I truly respect his opinion. He jokes, on occasion, that he will turn us into Republican some day ... we'll have to see about that.

*****

Watched House Hunters tonight on HGTV - love that show. Not sure why, but we do. Tonight they featured a lesbian couple ... gotta love enlightenment!

No comments: