author: Deemer (Tim)
Event: Band Camp
When: The week of July 21st - 25th, 2003
Well, as some of you may know Scott and I not only run the SI web site, but we also hang around the Mt.Vernon Marching
Band and annoy them each year as marching & visual instructors. You see - we know the Director personally. Yes, that's
right! Mr. Tim (deemer), Mr. Scott (scottman), and Mr. B (Tim Barnett) went to High School together many, many,
many, many, (is that enough - no? okay), many, many, many moons ago...
The last 3 years I've joined the band during their week away in late July traveling to the
St. Mary-of-the-Woods College campus in Terre Haute, Indiana. We headed
out on Monday morning as usual, arriving early afternoon. Once everyone was settled in their new living quarters
for the week, we started into our rehearsals. This year I had the honor of also running the low brass/low reed
sectionals in music - which was a great treat for me...not so much for them, but it was for me =)
We couldn't have asked for better weather [well, we could have but you get the idea].
Last year by 10:00 AM I was drenched and spent most of each evening ringing out my clothes before bed. This year,
however, we were fortunate enough to awake to chilly mornings, enjoy mild days, and greeted by cool, "Fall-like" conditions
upon returning to our rooms for the night. It was wonderful!
Each day was similar to the one before. We'd start with a big breakfast together, warm-ups, marching, music, & more marching.
In the evenings, we instructors tried to have an activity that the bando's would enjoy. One activity that's becoming a
tradition is the "paper airplane" contest, which was a lot of fun -- but the game that I think enjoyed the most excitement
& laughter from everyone was the "frozen t-shirt" contest! [thanks to Jennifer & Stephanie -- the "MO-ral Squad!"]
Unfortunately, none of those pictures came out (stupid disposable camera) but what I can tell of the game is that
each class (and the instructors) "volunteered" one person. The object of the game is easy -- the volunteer has to
take the article of clothing out of a bag that's in front of them & put it on. Sounds simple, right!
Well -- the catch is that the participants not only don't know what the article of clothing is, but when they do
get it out of the bag...it's frozen solid! In addition, each participant was allowed to "tag" another member of their
class/group to take over once their hands/fingers had frozen where they couldn't use them any longer.
This may be the funniest/coolest thing I've watched any group of people do since I watched
this.
Well anyway - Saturday came around and we went through our normal morning routine. After lunch we packed up & headed home. Our second
week of camp is 8am-5pm the following week - so everyone took Sunday off to relax, recoupe, and check their email =)
I appreciate them letting me tag along & work the camp every year. I've enjoyed working with this group for the last
4 years - being with the bando's, being around the music, and hanging out with my old "high school buddies" =)
I like to think I add some value (other than the comic relief) and that they'll continue to ask me back. Otherwise, when I keep
showing up and helping out, it's bound to get ugly...
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Deemer is one of our owners and a creator of SI (which started way back in 1997).
He's not very bright, so do like we do - play along with him and no one gets hurt.
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If you're interested in contributing an article for the site, please let us
know by dropping us an email at info@simplyinstrumental.com.
We'd love to hear from you! Otherwise, we'll keep getting stuff like this from Deemer =)
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