The Truth About Band Camp (At least MY band camp...)
by, ShimmerGirl
If I had a penny for everytime that I've heard that infamous line from American Pie (which was an awesome movie, by the way) when people find out that I'm a bando, I would probably be able to buy a brand new car right now and sell off my '89 Dodge Shadow. I love the way that they portrayed Michelle. She just may be a somewhat accurate image of some of us, particularly in the way that she seems all naive and innocent, and then in the end turns out to be quite on par with everyone else. (One of the best lines of the movie being "So are we gonna screw soon, cuz I'm getting kinda antsy." Who would have expected her to say THAT?!)
Being in the band, I never realized that there were people out there who DIDN'T know that there was such a thing as band camp until fall semester last year when someone that I was talking to about what we did over summer break was genuinely surprised that band camp is an actuality for some bands. But is it really just one big lesson in sex ed?
Wellllll...there are the backrub orgies every saturday morning that every bando looks forward to right after morning stretch. If you're nearby you just may hear some heavy duty moans of pleasure during those few minutes. There's always plenty of interesting stories about this person or that person, and then the ENDLESS list of band couples. (The theory behind band couples is that band sucks up SO MUCH of your life that the only people you have the time of day for are other band members.) Although I have to say that band coupling is much more apparent in high school than in college. :)
So what else goes on in the band? Well a lot of it is inside information. My band actually has a sort of 'honor code' that the upperclassmen have to sign saying that we'll be respectable when we are in the public eye, and that anything that is unrespectible isn't advertised. Basically it's a rule of 'keep it on the buses.' Now, don't get me wrong, we don't have wild orgies on the bus trips or anything, but when we're not in the public eye, we act just a raunchy as any other college student, perhaps a bit worse to make up for all the times we can't because we are performing or something. We have our songs, our bus movies and our traditions. We listen to stories told on Saturday morning backrubs that range from funny pet stories to the White Rabbit getting run over by the Alice in Wonderland float in the Disney parade to stories about advice from old gym teachers who also taught sex ed.
Another thing: Band camp isn't really a Camp! At least not the ones that I've been to or know about. The high school ones I know of was a day camp, you came in at 7 or 8, had an hour lunch at noon, and went home at 3 or 4, spending most of the entire day out in the blazing sun. The band camp I have now, since it's a college band, we stay on campus in one of the dorms for the week, and the hours are a bit more tedious: get up at 7 to shower and have breakfast and be on the field at 8, an hour lunch starting somewhere between 1130 and 1, and hour for dinner around 5 or 6 ish, and then go straight on until about 11pm. Then it's back to the dorms to sleep and do it all over again. It's the week from hell, but for some sick reason many of us like it. I suppose that the backrub orgies make the whole thing worth it. Besides, it's amusing to see how many of the people feel comfortable marching around in as little as possible. (Okay maybe it's not just the backrubs, but also the guys marching around with no shirts on that make it a tolerable week?)
So yeah, I suppose, in many ways we are kind of like 'Michelle.' A lot of us talk about band stuff A LOT (Hey, I'm writing this, aren't I?), and many of us have two very different personalities. BUT, I can honestly say that I've never used a flute, clarinet (my instrument), or any other instrument in THAT way...
by, ShimmerGirl
If I had a penny for everytime that I've heard that infamous line from American Pie (which was an awesome movie, by the way) when people find out that I'm a bando, I would probably be able to buy a brand new car right now and sell off my '89 Dodge Shadow. I love the way that they portrayed Michelle. She just may be a somewhat accurate image of some of us, particularly in the way that she seems all naive and innocent, and then in the end turns out to be quite on par with everyone else. (One of the best lines of the movie being "So are we gonna screw soon, cuz I'm getting kinda antsy." Who would have expected her to say THAT?!)
Being in the band, I never realized that there were people out there who DIDN'T know that there was such a thing as band camp until fall semester last year when someone that I was talking to about what we did over summer break was genuinely surprised that band camp is an actuality for some bands. But is it really just one big lesson in sex ed?
Wellllll...there are the backrub orgies every saturday morning that every bando looks forward to right after morning stretch. If you're nearby you just may hear some heavy duty moans of pleasure during those few minutes. There's always plenty of interesting stories about this person or that person, and then the ENDLESS list of band couples. (The theory behind band couples is that band sucks up SO MUCH of your life that the only people you have the time of day for are other band members.) Although I have to say that band coupling is much more apparent in high school than in college. :)
So what else goes on in the band? Well a lot of it is inside information. My band actually has a sort of 'honor code' that the upperclassmen have to sign saying that we'll be respectable when we are in the public eye, and that anything that is unrespectible isn't advertised. Basically it's a rule of 'keep it on the buses.' Now, don't get me wrong, we don't have wild orgies on the bus trips or anything, but when we're not in the public eye, we act just a raunchy as any other college student, perhaps a bit worse to make up for all the times we can't because we are performing or something. We have our songs, our bus movies and our traditions. We listen to stories told on Saturday morning backrubs that range from funny pet stories to the White Rabbit getting run over by the Alice in Wonderland float in the Disney parade to stories about advice from old gym teachers who also taught sex ed.
Another thing: Band camp isn't really a Camp! At least not the ones that I've been to or know about. The high school ones I know of was a day camp, you came in at 7 or 8, had an hour lunch at noon, and went home at 3 or 4, spending most of the entire day out in the blazing sun. The band camp I have now, since it's a college band, we stay on campus in one of the dorms for the week, and the hours are a bit more tedious: get up at 7 to shower and have breakfast and be on the field at 8, an hour lunch starting somewhere between 1130 and 1, and hour for dinner around 5 or 6 ish, and then go straight on until about 11pm. Then it's back to the dorms to sleep and do it all over again. It's the week from hell, but for some sick reason many of us like it. I suppose that the backrub orgies make the whole thing worth it. Besides, it's amusing to see how many of the people feel comfortable marching around in as little as possible. (Okay maybe it's not just the backrubs, but also the guys marching around with no shirts on that make it a tolerable week?)
So yeah, I suppose, in many ways we are kind of like 'Michelle.' A lot of us talk about band stuff A LOT (Hey, I'm writing this, aren't I?), and many of us have two very different personalities. BUT, I can honestly say that I've never used a flute, clarinet (my instrument), or any other instrument in THAT way...