The Music Man

Grant, as a High School Senior, has been growing into and out of several identities over his high school career.  He gave up football after his freshman year and tried out for, and made the JV Tennis team in his junior year (but lost out on a spot as varsity player in his senior year).  He began with a schedule heavy into IB classes (International Baccalaureate), but found the cost/benefit ratio to not be as advertised by the counselors, so moved into an AP (Advanced Placement) dominated set of courses.  He left Spanish III mid-year for a shot at working with the Journalism teacher (with his parents approval), despite the dire warnings from the counselors that told him that a high school diploma without four years of Spanish was a guaranteed path to slackerdom and ultimately living a destitute existence in a trailer set up on concrete blocks in a flood plain. Through his differing academics tacks, the one thing his mother strongly encouraged [insisted] was that he stick with orchestra.  He has not passionately embraced the cello, nor put in the practise time to be Honors Orchestra first chair, though I am told by people that know such things that he has a "good ear" and superior technique.  But for Grant, he has made many of his closest friends from within the Mighty Owl Orchestra (MOO) - and for Grant, that is a good enough reason for sticking with the cello.  [His mother always suspected he would find a good group to hang with in the orchestra room]

I suspect one other motivating reason for his 4-year affiliation with the philharmonic set is the annual Spring Orchestra Festivals.  Mr Peacock, the ever-patient and consummate professional Orchestra teacher allows his young musicians to vote on which High School Music Festival to attend each Spring.  Last year, Garland attended a festival held near the snow covered ski slopes of Colorado.  This year, the selection was made to return to Panama City, Florida.  The stipulation from his parents was that this time he had to pay his own way.  After a bit of a shock to consider laying out such a sum, Grant dug deep into his savings and registered as part of the 40-plus students to travel to turquoise water and white sands of the Gulf Coast.

Wednesday evening, April 13, the bus' belly was packed with cases of violins, violas, harps and cellos, and once the bases were loaded, the Mighty Owl Orchestra struck out on the road fun and adventure.  The bus left around 8 PM with the students dressed in comfy sleeping apparel as they traveled through the night to from Dallas to Panama City, on Florida's panhandle.  The competition is Friday, and that leaves several days and nights for the other attractions included in the itinerary, such as visits to Shipwreck Island Water Park and shows at the Gulf World Marine Park, all while staying in a cheap motel on the beach with a bunch of your wild friends.  Grant, as a senior and veteran of these trips, plans on staying at the scheduled parks as little as possible and will break back to the hotel with his buddies for good ol' free time on the beach. 

Oh, Panama City!
It starts with P and rhymes with T,
And T stands for 'Trouble'
Right here in Panama City! - Not to worry,

The orchestra group is mature and well-behaved (mostly) and Mr. Peacock, also a seasoned veteran of these trips is cool.  The bus is loaded for the return trip on Sat, afternoon and the MOO pulls back into HS parking lot mid-afternoon on Sunday.



Grant arrives to load cello and tux onto the bus for
MOO Spring Festival in Panama City, Florida

 This is the time of year when student lives accelerate and choices have to be made.  The one complication to Grant's travel with the orchestra was that he had a schedule conflict.  Earlier he had place second in the District in a UIL Journalism competition (see: Feature Story; March, 2011) and Regional UIL competition was scheduled for the Saturday. April 16 at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, 100 miles south of Dallas.  Initially, Grant thought that his high placement in the UIL Journalism competition was going to give him a pass to miss a day of school while trying to advance to the State level.  But once he had all the facts, it was give up a Saturday and drive to Waco with Mr. Forrester (Journalism teacher) for a writing event, OR get out of school for 2 days, travel with many of his good buddies, mess around on the beach and have good times across half of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida while dodging tornadoes.   He had his new frisbee and bathing suit packed in a flash without a second thought.

With Grant traveling for 4 days, we, the parents, get to practise empty nest syndrom.  I am thinking this 4 day excursions could be fun for Everyone.