“Some people change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat." - Caroline Schoeder
The high school band that I was, until about a month ago, the director of, started their summer band practices today (Wednesday). Had I stayed in the job, we would've begun last Monday, but the transition caused the start time to be delayed, so they started today.
Today, I woke up at around 7:15 in the morning and left for work just after 9 a.m to be on the sales floor before 10. As band director, I would have had to wake up by 5:30 a.m. and be in the band room around 7 a.m. with practices beginning at 8. As I reported to work inside the air conditioned store, my former students had already spent more than two hours outside, marching. By 10 a.m. it was already 88 degrees (F) and the heat index was 105 degrees, with 76% humidity.
“If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?" - Steven Wright
Last year, we took a Wednesday off from practicing and one of the local campgrounds hosted the entire band at a beach party. One of our best local bands, a ska band known as The Bottle Cap Bandits (several of my former students are members), performed for several hours, paid for by the campground. The students had a lot of fun, enjoyed a break from the grueling practice schedule, and got to know each other and build camaraderie and a team identity.
Unfortunately, several of the students developed horrible sunburns that day. At the beach, none of the locals wear sunscreen. A number of these kids work as lifeguards or other outdoor jobs on days off from practice, or go to these jobs as soon as practice is over at 4 p.m. By the day of this party, they had already spent several days marching in the bright sun and high temperatures. The day after the party, several of them were burned beyond anything I had ever seen before, and I've been a lifeguard and had sun poisoning, so I've seen a lot. My wife has always been scared that I would end up with skin cancer from my job, and I do have some suspicious moles and a small spot on my nose that is a little scarred and sometimes bleeds when I'm in the sun too much. I always put on sunscreen before practice started and reapplied as often as possible. I did it in front of the students, so they could see my example. I offered to share my sunscreen with them every day. Most of them would decline, though some would try it occasionally.
The day after the beach party, I had to set up a makeshift "infirmary" in my color guard room and place one of my staff members in there to tend to the "burn victims" and apply aloe and monitor them until they could get a ride home, or until the band came inside for music rehearsal. One student in particular was an extremely fair-skinned redhead (the student who is now band captain). After she got home from the beach party, she began developing huge gray pus-filled blisters. Some of these were almost as large as a playing card. Her parents saw them and sent her to practice anyway. She called home at my request and asked her mother to take her to the doctor. Her mother refused, saying she could not get off work, and didn't have the money to treat a sunburn with a doctor's visit. I've met her mother. She is a nice person and was one of my ardent supporters, but this is neglect. Finally, I called a local pharmacist and had the staff member drive her to the pharmacy to get her treated there. I also had one of my other band parents call her mother and tell her exactly how neglectful it was to deny her daughter treatment. There is a kind of laissez-faire attitude about parenting in this area that is almost mind boggling. The pharmacy was not able to treat her much without prescriptions, but her mother was eventually persuaded, after threats of reporting her for child endangerment through neglect, to take her to the doctor, who prescribed her steroid cream and other medications.
This student talked to me via text today. As band captain, she is quite disheartened. I knew that if anybody would be able to hold the band together when I left, it would be her, but she is taking each setback almost as a personal affront. She cares about the band more than anyone else. I heard from my former color guard instructor that many students have quit, and that many more were expected not to return for the second day tomorrow. This is frustrating for the student leaders, and especially the band captain. I felt bad for their pain and for the students who have quit, but what I did, I had to do for me.
Practice ended at 4 p.m. By 3 p.m. today, the temperature was 95 degrees (F), with a heat index of 119 degrees and 71% humidity. At 3 p.m. I was leaving my air conditioned store and getting into my air conditioned car after only about 5 hours of work, indoors. If I still held the title of band director, I wouldn't be able to leave the school until about 6 or 7 p.m. after sectionals and meetings finished, the field was disassembled, and I met with everyone who needed to see me (the line outside my office every day after practice was usually more than a dozen people and sometimes took two hours to get through), and after I returned all phone calls and emails (a typical day was about 20-40 calls and 80-100 emails). Then, I would have driven home and collapsed onto the bed from heat and sheer exhaustion. The next day, the cycle repeated. Tomorrow, I have the day off (the temperature is expected to top out at 96 degrees (F), with a heat index of 110 degrees and 62% humidity). I actually have the next two days off. I plan on doing some reading (a book on getting published as a freelancer that I've been working on reading) and some writing. I guess I couldn't stand the heat.
"Hither rolls the storm of heat;
I feel its finer billows beat
Like a sea which me infolds;
Heat with viewless fingers moulds..."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
