Memorable Weather Experiences
Yes, I waited to post this on a day when we were having severe weather. I am that person who gets a kick out of the moment when "Blame it on the Rain" plays just as the sprinkles begin, or when the lightning flashes and "The Thunder Rolls" starts playing. I love those kind of moments!
To create The KC Curiosity Passport, I have to go scout out locations to place the letterboxes that correspond with my mini-mosaics. Today, I happened to arrive at the public sculpture, 'Life Force' by Scot Furgason, just as the rain clouds rolled in. It was rad!
That experience reminded me of the most awesome music/art/weather related experience of my life! In high school marching band (I was in color guard/flags), we were definitely not the greatest my freshman year. But, we had a great director (Thank you, Mr. Nace) who inspired us & brought us up to the next level by my sophomore year. That show was one of my favorites. It was a bit of a hippie show, complete with tie-dye flags. Our big goal that year was to make it to finals at the Ozarko competition. Of course...it rained that day. In fact, there were storm delays & downpour delays & "we might just float away" delays (okay, not the last one, but we were all thinking it). Then, it was finally our turn to take the field. This was our chance to achieve our big goal...& we were SOAKED! If you haven't ever participated in marching band, please take my word for it, when it is raining so hard that you can't see the lines on the field or that the rain is gathering on your eyelashes so much that you can't open your eyes, that most certainly makes it VERY difficult to stay in formation or even to spin a flag correctly (or hold onto the slippery flag pole!). We had just given ourselves a big ol' pep talk & were ready to take the sopping wet field. We made it through our first song or two (amazingly, 20+ years later, I don't recall the exact order of songs in our show) & the rain was beginning to let up. Then it happened. We started the awesome medley of Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In from the musical Hair. Just as we pulled together for the big push to the box & the chorus of "Let the Sunshine In" there was a giant break in the clouds! For a few moments, there was sunshine & no rain, all while we played "Let the Sunshine In." It was AMAZING! Not only that, but we actually felt good about our performance. We felt like we had been all in sync, performing as one. Was it perfect? No, of course not. We were just little, high school performers. But we had finally experienced that moment when a band truly connects with each other. It was electric (not from the lightning in the area)! I remember marching off of that field thinking, "That was AWESOME! DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE EVEN THE WEATHER WAS CHEERING US ON!?" I could barely control my mouth from blurting it all out before we were released from attention. Once released, the words rushed out of me. They tumbled into the air & mixed with all of my bandmates' excitement! We were elated with our performance, but also enthralled with the way the weather played along with us! It was honestly one of the coolest experiences of my high school years.
P.S. I hesitate to attach the link to the VHS/ripped to digital/uploaded to YouTube video of this very performance, as you can't really see the change in sunlight all that much. Please trust me, it happened. Thank you to Alex for digitizing it & uploading it. You rock!
