Friday, September 19, 2008

Did She Really Think We Were Simon and Garfunkel?

My friend, Jeannelle, posted the other day about her high school band experiences. It was such a great post that I decided to write about my high school band days.

Then I remembered that I wasn't in band in high school, BUT I WAS IN CHOIR! Except, at our school it was called chorus. I was in chorus for four years. I liked to sing, and it was a fulfilling social hour, so it was an easy decision for me.

Each day we would slowly make our way into the music room and proceed to have a good time while our teacher would eventually make her way out of her office, which also doubled as the Bermuda Triangle. Things went missing in that office.

After several minutes, the teacher would finally emerge with some music, but if a cute guy could start talking to her, there was always the chance that the music would never actually make it to the piano and we would never actually have to sing.

It all worked quite well for us with the exceptions of concerts. When we had a concert, panic would overtake the teacher and she would find some pop songs for us to sing. The problemo? I went to high school in the late 70's and the pop songs were always from the mid-60's. We were a very cool school choir indeed. I know the choirs from other school all envied us.

And since we had never really practiced the songs that much, the words were a little iffy for us. But the teacher came up with a great solution: she would just sing very, VERY LOUDLY, to make up for the weaknesses in the choir. Quite clever of her really. I'm sure no one suspected the truth.

Two more memories: We were on t.v. one Christmas. The teacher decided we would sing Ave Maria in Latin. Okay, fine. Except the camera kept focusing on me and I didn't know a single word. I later learned that became apparent to our entire tri-state region.

And lastly, during my senior year I was an aide to the teacher. That meant I spent one hour per day looking at the mess that was her office. One day the teacher wasn't there, and the principal was adamant that the sub needed to get into that office to get the LESSON PLANS (ha!) So, in a typically reactive way, the principal used her credit card to open the door and broke her card in the process. Later in the day, I innocently asked the principal if she would need to use my copy of the office key. Ew! Bad question indeed. She pulled me into a corner and SCREAMED that I was responsible for her broken credit card.

She was maybe slightly crazy.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Such a great post. I was in the band but both of my older sisters were in chorus and what they called madrigals...I was always jealous of them. They looked so cool. Have a great weekend!

Laura ~Peach~ said...

i like you! thats halirious....

Karen said...

Ah, fun time. Fun times.

Rechelle said...

That's hilarious. Sounds way too familiar.

Mental P Mama said...

Oh you were so naughty to that principal!

Reddirt Woman said...

How much fun did you have in school!! I was always playing in sports so I didn't get to play or sing in the music classes.

I wanted to say thanks for stopping by my place and welcoming Hallie and Sock Monkey today. I'm not an early riser, so there is a new post since you were there (speaking of Christmas), but I did want to tell you that the only way I eat okra is fried. I like it crunchy. Some folks like it stewed with tomatoes or cooked in gumbo, but those are mushy and I like it fried. Of course, I'm a child of the south so you could probably fry about anything and make me happy.

Again, thanks for stopping by my little corner and I'll be back for more of your tales.

Helen

Anonymous said...

I think I had LOTS of crazy teachers - only I didn't realize it then. High school would have been a lot more fun had I called them out on it and messed with them a little bit.

Anonymous said...

Ugh! I'm the dingus who just typed that t/

Nice, huh? That's what I get for wanting to mess with my crazy teachers! :)

Anonymous said...

On the bright side, if people like me screw up that means you get a higher comment count.

Anonymous said...

Yay for screwups like me!!

Big Hair Envy said...

Hubby's high school english teacher had vertigo. She was about 83 years old at the time. Anyway, they once tilted all of the chairs to the side before she walked into the classroom. She almost fell over and broke her hip. Needless to say, there was no class that day....the teacher was taken away to see the doctor!!!

Looking back, I think high school was mostly just a joke that adults played on teenagers!!!

Skeller said...

oh yeah, I remember lots of people in school that I'm pretty sure were crazy. :-)

Thanks for visiting me today thru BATW,
Susan

Anonymous said...

You did her a favor, saved her high interest down the road ;)

I was in chorus too. Mostly we laughed. Although I do sing in public now and I own some mighty cool microphones! All the kids in the church want to use my mics. No way I say. Spit into the church ones for now when you do your Christmas speeches and grow up and someday you can buy your own to plug in!

Aunt Julie said...

Don't you think that high school is great training for real life? I'm a high school English teacher, and I see crazy stuff like this every day! It's the one place where kids can really learn that adults aren't perfect.

Anonymous said...

My low-life Junior High Choir teacher made us listen to Cheech and Chong albums (you know, those big black round things that spun around)many days. Now, what that has to do with music is beyond even me.

~SkullBlossom~ said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm glad you can look back with smiles on your high school days!!!

Jeannelle said...

Way to go......great post of high school memories! I'm sorry your teacher wasn't of the best quality. Some are, some aren't. While our band instructor was iffy, our vocal teacher was fantastic! She challenged us with classical stuff.....expected us to do well.....and gave us a great high school music experience.

Jan said...

Your post makes me wonder if all high school choral groups are alike! Our chorus sounds just like yours and to make it even better I can't sing a note and am tone deaf. The only reason I joined is because my best friend liked to sing so of course I joined to and became a "mouther".