Dave's Career as an Arabian Tent

Dave, Joshua and I traveled to Cary, North Carolina this past weekend for a marching band competition. It was the band's final marching performance of the season. Joshua's career as a high school marcher is now over.

We arrived at the school at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to have a brief chaperon meeting, inspect students' luggage and pack the buses. There were about 200 of us in all: 173 students, 22 chaperons, and 4 teachers + 2 teacher's kids. After 5.5 hours on our four buses, we arrived in Cary. We had a couple of hours to lounge around at our hotel, a very nice Embassy Suites inn, before departing for the competition venue.

After the band performed in the evening, we returned to the hotel, where we let the kids hang out until midnight. After conducting room checks and head counts, the chaperons hung around in the hallways to make sure that nobody tried to sneak out of their rooms and get into places they didn't belong. Most of the adults, therefore, finally got to bed between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. After a short sleep, we were up around 6:30 a.m. to start eating breakfast in shifts, make sure our students had gathered all of their luggage, and pack the buses. We left Cary at about 8:30 a.m. and arrived at back at the school around 2:00 p.m. The chaperons had to make sure the students a) checked in their uniforms, b) put their instruments away and c) cleaned their trash out of the buses. When it was determined all was in order, everyone went home and crashed.

If you've checked this blog (and Dave's) over the past couple of months, you've seen some photos of the band and our show props. With only 22 chaperons on the trip, our pit crew was short 6 people. Dave had to fill in at the back pit by hoisting and supporting one of the large tents. Some astute observers noticed that, when the wind blew, the people inside the tents were exposed to everyone's view, a circumstance that detracted from the ambiance of the show. In order to ameliorate this effect, some seamstresses assembled gowns to match the tents. That way, if the wind blew, the person inside would fit the decor. I shot a couple of photos of Dave and the other tent people on Saturday night and promised the chaperons that I would post these for all of you to see!

This is a shot of Dave and Jim, the other large tent supporter. Jim is my fellow vice-president in the band boosters. He has an excellent mind for business and financial details. He also played a large role in designing and constructing the tents. It sort of makes me wonder why the group elected me to be the other vice president. I'm lousy at math, I can't sew and I certainly can't build anything. On the other hand, I'm really good at spending money.



Here we have Jim, Kathleen, Barb and Dave. Barb is a freshman mom, so we've been initiating her into the boosters. Kathleen has been active for several years.


There you have it: documentary, photographic evidence of Dave's short-lived career as a tent. Next week, we will be backstage snapping photos of the fall concert.