It's OK, I'm with the Band

I drove out to Barboursville, West Virginia this past weekend for a 30 year high school reunion even though I didn't graduate from there. The kids had things going on, Fern had to get to the airport to fly to North Carolina and Kevin had swim lessons, so Dan covered them and I drove out alone.

(Dad worked for the Army Corp and we moved several times, so I attended a bunch of schools:
Davis Creek Elementary: 1st grade
Sukuran Elementary, Okinawa: 2nd and part of 3rd
Davis Creek: part of 3rd
Pea Ridge Elementary: the rest of 3rd through 6th
Barboursville Junior High: 7th-9th
Barboursville High School: part of 10th
James Wood High School, Winchester, VA: rest of 10th-12th)

I started band when I was in 6th grade and stuck with it until after high school. The whole band experience created great opportunities, wonderful friends and lifelong memories. It's unifying, no segregation by gender or athletic ability. We went to band camp together, football games, shows, competitions, exchange trips. By the time it was all said and done, you spent a huge hunk of your life during those seven years with your band mates. Like living in the Sousa House at Hogwarts.

Dan asked me whom I wanted to see at this reunion, why was I bothering to go, since I actually didn't finish school there. My answer: the band kids. I guess if you're not part of a group like that, you don't get it, you don't get the camaraderie.

It's not just me, either. The other band folks enjoy seeing each other too. It turns out there always seems to be a solid core of the band who show up at the reunions. One of my fellow flute players complemented me, although I'm not sure she knew she had. She told me she remembered I always had a pretty high-up chair, I was always pretty good. I had forgotten that and I appreciated her mentioning that. I remembered not being first chair or even second chair, so of course in my mind I remembered failure. Now I see it wasn't.

I'm amazed how time alters our memories, like how good of a musician I was. But in addition to that, my memories of the town of Barboursville, my neighborhoods, school buildings don't match reality. Since we moved away from there during my sophomore year, I never drove there, I didn't go out there. All my memories of those places are visual, how they looked, the landmarks where you turned to get places. I never learned the names of the streets.

I drove around to see the sights, where the schools were, to the houses I lived in, and the shops I went to. I didn't know how small my street was at the time, it seemed spacious where us kids played hide and seek and kick the can. It is really barely wider than one car. I drove around to all four schools and was disappointed. Many years ago they closed the high school and turned it into a middle school, and they razed the junior high and made it into a park. One elementary is boarded up, the other is the only one still open.

I had a great time reviving memories and friendships. And with Facebook it's easier to keep in touch than it used to be.

And now for some pictures:

233 Daughtery Drive. This is the first house we lived in in West Virginia. My bedroom was the window up on the left. Those trees weren't nearly as big back then. I think my folks bought this house for about $23,000.

Davis Creek Elementary, the only one of my four schools still open.

6159 Rosalind Court. We moved in here in the middle of my third grade when we came back from Okinawa. It was white back then and had a covered front porch, and no cutesy picket fence.

Pea Ridge Elementary School, what's left of it.

Main Street Barboursville. Looks pretty much the same as it did when I was at the junior high was across the street.

This is all that's left of the junior high, these steps go up to the park now.


The library is still blue.

Camden Park is still there. Barboursville is on the east end of Huntington. Dad's office was in Huntington, my orthodontist was in Huntington to which I'd ride the city bus. On the west end of town was the amusement park. We didn't go very often so it was a treat when we did go. It took several visits over several years to work up the courage to ride the big roller coaster. Looking at it now, it's just a rinky-dink old wooden coaster, nothing to be afraid of. But that's all part of that altered-perspective-of-youth thing.

When I went down town for my ortho appointments I'd often stop in the peanut shop afterward for a quarter pound of roasted pumpkin seeds, my favorite. Nice to see the shop is still there and open.

Here are some of kids from band. I guess we're all adult now, huh? Or pretend to be, anyway.

In Case You Were Wondering

So if you saw the photos from Sunday, you might be confused for two reasons. The pictures were backwards chronologically, and why there is a skating photo in the middle of a series from Universal/Islands of Adventure? That's quite simple, actually. I posted pictures from my phone as the day went on, newer pictures were posted after the older ones, and that's the way things happened.

All-in-all it was an OK weekend. We went to Orlando so Fern could skate at the 50th Anniversary National Championships. She was up against a lot of tough competition there and didn't do as well as she would have liked. She was 5th out of 5 for her technical program and third out of three for her rhythmic program.

Saturday night was the big team events, Bowie skated against a "local" team, a team from Tampa. I was surprised more teams didn't skate, but it is expensive to bring a large team down as we did.

Anyway, they had on-ice awards for the large groups at the end of the evening. I was a little nervous. At the local events you always can kinda get a feeling of how the teams do and which one might win the event. Saturday night, our kids skated well, even though Fern fell on a spin, and I just could not see the other team was better or worse. I'm not a judge, I still don't know all the criteria on which they are evaluated, but I could just not get the feeling they were better. So I was a bit nervous at awards time.

They announced the second place team, and it wasn't Bowie. I let out a loud "eeep" and tried to contain my excitement until they announced the first place team.

We got to Universal pretty early on Sunday, about 9:30 and went into Islands of Adventure. We headed towards the back of the park where we got on two rollercoasters right away. Not at the same time. Then we went round the park counter-clock-wise and rode more rides. I was impressed with the length of the rides, the duration was a lot longer than other rides at other parks. I was not impressed with the number of rides to go on. We'd ridden on everything that interested us but the Hulk ride by 2:00. At 2:30 we left so Fern could skate in her last event where I thought she did very well, didn't bobble, didn't fall, and got 5th out of seven. The competition was tough.

We went back to Universal to try to get on the Hulk. The waiting line had been 70 minutes before, now it was only 30. Fern and I got in line while Dan and Kevin waited elsewhere, But, alas, it was not to be. The impending storm pended and all outside rides were closed. When we got out of the waiting queue area it was pouring and I asked a drink vendor for a couple trash bags to use as rain coats. That kept us kinda dry on the way to the car. Kinda. My feet were drenched inside my shoes. Oh well.

Monday we flew home to more thunder storms and rain. Lovely.

I just checked the ISI website and The Bowie Ice Arena came in fifth overall based on points. The four teams ahead of us were all "local" teams—central Florida teams—with a lot more skaters so they were able to earn more points. Still, fifth is very good out of 43.



I'm glad to be home, even to a boat-load of email here at work to sort through. blah.


 

Everyday when I get home from work I check my box on the front porch, the box from which I run my business. Everyday it's empty. As much as people tell me it's a great service, I'm still disappointed when I'm not serving anybody.

Until last night when I got home from the local Six Flags, which is a horrid horrid place, by the way. It was the first time I'd been all year, hadn't been there since the fight last year. There was yet again another fight this time and a roller coaster got stuck. Anyway, there was a bag in my box with a vest and badges ready for my attention. In the words of London Tipton, "Yay me!"

The youth group at church went to Six Flags yesterday and I went as a chaperon, mostly beacuse I'm continually trying to get Kevin acclimated at church and Church with Kevin. Seven or eight years ago he was "kicked out" of Sunday school because of his autism, nobody knew how to deal with him. And the pastor didn't want to try or work with me for a solution. That pastor (why can't you accept my son, Christ does?) has since left and the new pastor, not so new now, he's been here over three years, is very accepting of all kids, he even lowered the age of junior church which meant if you were older than 7 you were welcomed in regular worship, noise and all. Back then I tried Kevin at a special needs Sunday school at a different church, but I didn't like their service, so it didn't last.

Now that Fern is of middle school age and participating in youth activities, I'm trying to get Kevin involved too. But not where it'd be stupid to try; I try to pick appropriate events. The other junior and senior high youth group kids at the park last night were very welcoming to Kevin and he would have been just fine without me there, but since I went to chaperon, he hung out with me and we rode rides together.

I hate Six Flags. It's practically in my backyard, about 20 minutes down the road, yet we hardly ever go. If you've ever been to Hershey Park, you'll never want to go back to SF. SF is to Hershey like the Motel 6 in Cancun is to Caneel Bay on Saint John. It's a different class of place.

Each of my kids spent two weeks at camp overlapping a week in the middle when my husband and I got away for a few days. We took my son to the Water Park in Chesapeake Beach and my daughter opted for an evening at SF. We tried to go last Wednesday, got there at 6:30 thinking it closed at 10. We had discount tickets, but when we got there, there was a sign saying the park was closing at 8. We decided not to spend $80 for 90 minutes of waiting in line.

The discount coupons expired on Sunday so we went after we got Kev from camp. After about an hour of rides we decided to get some dinner. I took Kev and got a cheesesteak with fries, while my husband took Fern to get Chinese. They got their food and were done quickly and headed off to Two-Face while we ate. They were next in line on the ride when we arrived (thanks to cell phones, what did we do without them?) Kev sat at some tables and I stood by the fence to the ride and waited. He and I were about 30 feet apart. He was very content just sitting there.

While I watched Fern and her dad take their seats a discussion started between two guys in the open space between me and Kev. I wasn't really paying any attention to them until punches started to fly. I'm not in harm's way, nor is Kev. But more people join in, women too, and people are getting thrown into the fence I'm standing by. Security arrives and tried to break it up but as the fight continues, it migrates over to the area where Kev is sitting who is completely oblivious to what's going on. One of the blessings (or curses) of Autism. I pull him out of there just as a young women gets decked. Kev objects to having to move, but I explain to him I wanted him away from the fight.

A few moments later Fern and my husband get off the ride and he immediately wanted to know if we're ok. He then filled me in on what happened on the ride. It seems several riders wanted off because their friends were in the fight and wanted to join in.

Did I mention I hate Six Flags?

Why? I've been asking myself. Is it a race issue? It seemed about 5% of the patrons were white, the rest were black and Hispanic. The fighters were black. I don't think race is the problem. I hated SF before I took note of the demography of the park guests and before the fight.

I think it really boils down to park cleanliness, broken rides and the $15 they charge for parking. Every coaster I went on had broken seats or seatbelts. The drop ride had just gotten stuck and they were closing it. The water flume ride didn't even have water in it and was closed. There is just a grungy feel about the place all around. Hershey Park is such a pleasant place, too bad it's 2 hours away.