High School Book de la Face Flashback

A funny and unexpected phenomenon is occurring right before my very eyes. Ever since joining Book de la Face (and I am up to 72 friends, so watch out!), I have been getting friend requests from people I went to high school with. Why high school friends are joining Book de la face at this exact moment is beyond me, but it's happening on a daily basis. Contact from old high school peers is usually fun and serves as a great trip down memory lane. (I confess that a few requests are from people I didn't recognize or who I cannot believe would want to be my friend now as they certainly did not want to be my friend in high school. Then, there are those old boy friends. They request to be my friend, read my profile and remove me as a friend. Good for me!)

An even stranger phenomenon is that the majority of people I am reconnecting with are from the band. I always knew that the band members were the cool ones, although I am sure the majority of our peers thought otherwise. I always thought I was the only one who loved being in band, being in the band room, hanging out with the band nerds, but I have now learned otherwise. It's not like we sat around and talked about the camaraderie of the band. I knew that these were my people, the ones that accepted me for who I was, the ones who understood each me, the ones that didn't bully each other. One of the first things I learned in high school is that using the "real" bathrooms was not a very safe or good option. The second thing I learned is that the band room bathrooms were always safe, clean and inviting. No smoking problem, no bullies, no drugs, no mean girls. Another thing I learned is that the band room was a great place to eat lunch, mostly for the same reasons.

The entries in Book de la Face over the past week have revolved around two topics: band as a sanctuary and powder blue gym suits (with our names sewn on them with thick white thread)/gym class in general. Oh, those gym suits--hideous. Gym class in general was hideous, although my athletic prowess came in handy during those classes. I suppose we should include the "share a bathing suit" portion of gym class as part of our flashbacks--how gross is it that they used to have us SHARE bathing suits? You always wanted to be one of the first ones to the pool locker room so you had a shot at getting a swimsuit that actually fit in some form or fashion. Heaven help you if you were late during the last gym class of the day--you were SOOOO stuck what ever was left over. The powder blue jump suits were just as hideous but at least they were your own. We were supposed to take them home every week but I am here to tell you that was not the case--in fact, I think some people went the whole year without washing them. Yes, that led to a funky stink but the lockers made them stink, anyways so I suppose in the long run it really didn't matter.

I am stunned at the number of people who mention that they ate lunch in the band room. I never thought about it until I started reading the posts. One of the other band officers (yes, I was a band officer--queen of the band nerds) wrote about the band room being a "sanctuary" and he is right--it was. I went to the band room whenever cutting Algebra II, when I had free time, when I had lunch, when I was avoiding something else, when I was in study hall, when I had to pee, when I was waiting for something, when I had the actual band class, after school, in the evenings when there was band practice. I was in the "regular" band, the orchestra, the jazz band and the memorial band. Heaven!

Thinking back, band helped me gain some semblance of sanity in a crazy, hormone-filled, overwhelming time when no one knows who they really are or what the hell they are doing. Being the moody mess that I was, band was the glue that held me together. I don't think I can thank them enough. When I think about it, I am still surprised I chose to go to a college without a band.

I jokingly have suggested that we should have our next high school reunion in the band room. The more I think about it, the more I think it might be a great idea. We could fill that room without effort.

It has been wonderful to hear from the band. The varied stories of what is happening in everyone's life right now are delightful. Married, divorced, widowed, partnered. Kids, no kids, kids who have serious illness, kids who didn't make it. Evangelical to pagan, ultra-conservative to flamboyantly liberal. High school diploma to doctorate. We all turned out so different yet we will always be the same: we were all in the band and THAT will always tie us together....

Band nerds, unite! And, thank you for keeping my sanity in tact. I owe you one.