I know exactly when and where I decided I wanted to be a band director
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Personal experience
Virginia Beach Music Festival and the 3rd Floor Balcony
The Virginia Beach Music Festival was a multi-day event that included competitions in Marching, Concert, Parade, Jazz, and Inspection.
Normally a band year has multiple seasons. Summer and Fall are mostly Marching Band. Some competitions included an inspection element, which included standing at attention for about 15 minutes while someone went through with white gloves and inspected selected instruments and uniforms. Marching season transitions into Concert Band — and Jazz Band starts up. Late Spring and early Summer is parade season.
To prepare for Virginia Beach, all that had to be going on simultaneously.
During school, the concert band would rehearse. Jazz Band was after school and evenings were a combination of marching, parade and inspection practice.
The campus had a long driveway that we used, but would often go through a couple of the neighborhood blocks. Inspections involved Copenhaver’s paddle. We would stand at attention and he would walk in front of us, stopping to stare and to grab and check instruments. If anything was wrong, he’d say, “That’s one”, which meant he would get you with the paddle when he got behind you, which could be several minutes later. And if you moved when he whacked you, guess what. Right. I never got the paddle.
The first time Holmes participated in 1969, (my Freshman year) Holmes was Grand Champion. We returned in 1970 as “Honor Band” for the event.
Director Copenhaver was from Virginia and our two Greyhound busses stoped at a park near his hometown for a community-provided picnic. I remember one of the busses got stuck crossing a small creek.
Two memorable events at the hotel we used. First, was one evening during the week when Mr. Copenhaver was in the parking lot and looked up at many of us on the balconies and said,
“They know we’re here.”
Other than when actually winning an event, it was the happiest I recall him looking and sounding.
The other was an evening when a group of seniors came knocking on our door. I was in a room with three other freshmen boys. They were there for “initiation”, which normally included some combination of ice down the underwear with shaving cream there and everywhere else — and then locked out of the room.
The four of us (I think we all four), went over the balcony. The floors were close enough together that we could go from floor to floor…. Until we could jump to the ground.
I can’t believe I did that.
But I never experienced “initiation”. And I never did that to anyone else.
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Student loan defaulters
I just watched a podcast showing numerous student loan defaulters who consider themselves “under-employed” and carrying “unsustainable loans”, complaining about the prospect of having to pay them back after years of covid and other reasons for repayment pauses.
I responded. Hard-hearted? Or real? Tell me what you think (nicely, please).
“I went to a state university because I couldn’t afford a top-tier private school. I had some scholarships, but also worked at least one job every semester and accepted financial aid via work-study and loans. With my degree, I got the job I studied for, struggled a few early years to repay my loan, and continued with life.
Current trends are to borrow immoderate amounts for over-priced private, name-brand schools, bypassing the more moderately priced options, to get a useless degree or one that offers low potential for justifying the price or the loan incurred.
With an attitude and degree no business wants to pay for, they accept lower wage jobs and spend what they should be setting aside for their loan obligation to get tatted, buy the fancy new car, best phone, gaming, credit card debt and party life. And then they want ME to subsidize their lifestyle so they don’t have to pay their debt. All four of my family went to college. Three involved loans. All paid back. Pardon my insensitivity.”
Increasingly, hs graduates are opting to learn high-paying trades or going into the military, which offers opportunities to learn, study, and gain financially — with stability. Those are wise decisions in the current environment.
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You can’t say that
Accounts of recent separations of news personalities from their employers remind me of a time my boss told me,
“You can’t say that.”
Years ago, on a hot sunny mid-day, our high school was evacuated over a threat. One of my thoughts at the time was wondering what was going through the minds of those stopped in traffic as 1500+ students, teachers, and staff crossed the state highway en masse. After accounting for all the students who left class, we sat in the football stadium bleachers until the end of the school day when busses and parents picked up students from the stadium rather than the high school. The congestion and confusion on that side street was significant.
The afternoon was especially stressful to those who had to work through the safety protocols to ensure students left only with a legal guardian. How do you call the school when the school is evacuated? How and to whom are calls forwarded? And what about student records with parent/guardian names and information in an area without computers and connections? How do they sign out from a remote location? Parents were frustrated as everyone was trying to do the right thing in a setting we had never before experienced. I should note that the communication and information issues of that day were addressed.
My uncovered bald head was significantly sunburned in those nearly three hours. By the time I got home, my head hurt and I was angry, especially after learning all that was the result of one student’s prank. I made an ill-advised comment on personal social media that punishment should include affixing the offender to the schoolyard flag pole and allowing all who spent those 2-3 hours in the stadium sun file by to express thoughts of the experience.
I should not have said that and I deleted the post, but not before someone shared it with the building boss, who called me to his office the next day. With a copy of my post in his hand, he not-quite laughingly said that, although he might feel the same way, “you can’t say that”.
I wasn’t fired.
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Loud music in church
This is one of my favorite pieces I’ve heard at Duke Chapel, played as a postlude as and after the auditorium has emptied at the end of a service.
Click on a pic to enlarge
Organ Symphony No. 5 in F Minor, Op. 42 No. 1: V. Toccata
Best if you listen with your volume turned up. There is a section in the middle that gets so soft you can barely hear it, and then it comes roaring back again. There is a several second reverb after the release of the last chord. Enjoy.
Here is an Easter Service in the Chapel. It begins using the rear organ. You’ll see the keyboard for the front organ during the processional. Be sure to skip to the Postlude if you don’t want to listen to everything in between. Here are some recommended stops to make:
9:46 Introit (Rear Organ)
13:40 Processional Hymn (Both Organs, ending with front organ)
24:00 Antiphon (Choir, organ, ensemble)
1:06:46 Choir (Offertory)
1:22:07 Postlude
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Tariffs and Markets
I am NOT an economist, and neither are most of the people crying on here about tariffs and the stock market. I see it too …. and have been advised multiple times in the past by my financial advisor to “ride the storm and you’ll be okay”.
The markets have never been a flat line and have never been a solid, unbroken incline. In the last 5 years, my accounts have INCREASED about 60%. Put that next to the @5% recent drop.
Since 2009, which is as far back as my account program will allow, the bottom line has increased nearly 500%, yes, nearly 5x. Again, the recent drop, while hurtful, is not going back anywhere near where I have been in my balances.
The diagram is from MY ACCOUNT, not something I found randomly on the Internet. I’m intentionally not showing the dollars, but you can see the ups and downs, but relative increase over the last 15 years.Other recent quotes that I find interesting:
“If tariffs are so bad, why do all these other countries have them?”
In earlier US history, up until they were replaced by income taxes in the early 1900s, the USA used tariffs to raise revenue and to protect the young, new manufacturing businesses on the East Coast. Here is a link to that article: https://time.com/7268866/history-of-tariffs-trump/
A whole list of links posted for a recent “Unbiased Politics” podcast at: (scroll down on the page) https://www.jordanismylawyer.com/episodes/april32025
And below an interesting post from Eric Trump.
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I almost quit. My time being the New Guy
It is Sunday 1 of a pastorless Sunday at my church. The prior Sunday was the last one for a pastor and his wife who moved back to their home state of Alabama to minister in a larger church. In the meantime, my church will use deacons and others to fill the pulpit.
Following is a near transcription of the first six-minute introduction. In the process of asking, “What will it be like for the new guy?”, I share my experience being the new guy in my first teaching experience.
It’s June, 1976, and I’m the new band director standing in front of my high school band for the first time getting ready for the big annual 4th of July parade in the thriving metropolis of Pekin, Indiana. Population 1000.
It didn’t take long after I got there for me to discover that I was going to have a major problem. I took the band outside and began to line them up.
“I want the trumpets on the front row, shoulder to shoulder.”
A hand goes up.
“Mr. Gardner, Mr. [Name] always lined the trumpets up 4 steps behind the percussion.”
And so it went, section by section as I was placing them, with each one telling me what I was doing the same as or different from the guy who was there before.
Later in the summer, we go to band camp where we learn our marching band show and I hear,
“This is not the way we did it last year. This isn’t the way we’ve done this before. This is too different.”
We go on our first band trip and I hear from the parents,
“Last year, they were allowed to get out of their uniforms after their performance and you’re going to make them sit there, in uniform, and watch their competition?”
From my principal on my first teacher evaluation,
“The former guy had a tighter grip on discipline than you have.”
At the State competition, which was our next to last contest I heard this;
“Last year we got 7th in the state and this year we only got 8th. And last year we won 1st Place at a contest and this year the best we’ve done, so far, is 2nd.”
I was about ready to quit because it just never stopped. Over and over again I kept hearing about last year and last year’s guy and the way they had done it before…until we went to the last contest.
That first year, somehow we managed to squeak by and we got a 1st Place trophy. But it was not until that trophy that the attitude there began to change….to,
“Maybe, just maybe, you know a little bit about what you’re doing.”
I’m going to tell you something statistical, to make a point.
Joan and I were at that school, well, I was there four years, she was there three.
Our fourth year there, we had nearly 25% of the student body in the music program. That would be like a 500 member band at [Local School].
And that last year we won 27 First Place trophies [and caption awards].
But I was almost a total failure there because nobody would give me a chance. All I could do was be compared to what was there before.
And so, this morning when I ask the question, “What’s it going to be like for the new guy?”, I’m speaking to you as someone who has been the new guy.
Here we are on Sunday 1 of a pastorless condition.
Hopefully, it won’t be this way for too long, but the shortest time it can possibly be will be about a month to a month and a half – if we vote on “the new guy” next week.
It will be a difficult time for us. We feel a sense of personal loss. We became attached to [outgoing pastor and wife]. They became our friends…and they’re gone…and we’ll miss ‘em, and that hurts some.
Some people might feel a little bit of anger. “How could they possibly desert us?”
What will it be like with the new guy? Will he yell and scream from the pulpit? Will he talk football like Bro [name] did?
It will be a revealing time and we will find out who comes to this church because of the fellowship, who comes to this church for worship, and who comes to this church for the pastor.
What will it be like for the new guy? What kind of church will he find when he gets here?
….
I’m here this morning to take a look at two places in Scripture where there was a New Testament Church that lost a leader…..
As we consider these two churches through the writings of the Apostle Paul, who in both cases, was the leader who left, I want to ask you to consider some things……
[short list]
….and which one is closer to the way we are here at Huntington Baptist?
If you read this post and would like to hear their entire 20-minute sermon, it is a private video available upon request.
Also, I will be adding this story to the EHS setion of my “Stories Through My Ages” book.
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Are public schools receiving less in Indiana due to SB1
With all the publicity of public schools receiving less due to Indiana SB1, I started doing a non-scientific comparison between 2000 (one of my sons graduated in 1999 and the other in 2001) and current. Some lists show current as 2023, 2024 or projected 2025. I did not cite each of these numbers as they come from multiple sources and, in some cases, sources differ on exact numbers. ALSO, I emailed questions to my state Representative and state Senator. I have heard back from one of them. Once I hear from both, I’ll share.
Originally for my own information, I compared some of the local and state data I was finding with the near west-coast school (K-12) my grandkids attend (I will refer to as Private School A) and an east-coast boarding school (9-12) where one of my sons is a teacher, coach and admin (Private School B).
No fancy graphs or editorials ….just FYI. Some numbers don’t seem to “add up”, so feel free to note or correct discrepancies.
HUNTINGTON COUNTY POPULATION
2000 – 38079
2023 – 36781
Decrease 1298 or 3.4%
HCCSC
2000 – 6548 students
2025 – 4916 students
Decrease of 1632 or 25%
HNHS POPULATION
2000 – @2000 students
2025 – @1400 students
Decrease of 600 or 30%
Size of administration increases (?) – below
SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN HUNTINGTON COUNTY
2000 – 8885 (6548 in HCCSC = 73%)
2025 – 8000 (4916 in HCCSC = 61%)
Decrease in student population 885
Decrease in HCCSC participation 1632 or 12%
According to HCCSC published material, 15% of students within our boundaries (@1200) choose alternate options. This compares favorably with other systems in our area. Alternate options would be schools outside our boundaries, online education, home schooling, private schools inside or outside our boundaries, and others.
Class Size 15:1 – favorable, comparable to most data I found in a variety of school types
Govt money per student = $9876 x 4916 (student population) = $48,550,416
GRADUATION
2021 – 471 students
2024 – 307 students
Decrease of 164 graduates
HN Graduation 89%. State average – 88%
Private School A – no data.
Private School B – “nearly 100%”
SAT SCORES
HNHS – 1140 (better than national and state averages)
National – 1040
Indiana – 971
Private School A – 1270 (1081 state avg)
Private School B – 1446 (1112 state avg)
Duke University & UPenn (Son #2 attended) – 1550 & 1540
IU – 1310
Purdue – 1330
Notre Dame – 1500
Ball State – 1177
PFW – 1080
HUNTINGTON NORTH HIGH SCHOOL
1 – Principal
4 – Assistant Principals
1 – Dean
1 – Athletic Director
1 – CTE (Career & Technical Education) Director
5 – Guidance Counselors
? – Administrative Assistants (one source said 9)
1 – Resource Officer (Total of 3? in the corporation)
HCCSC ADMINISTRATION (aka Corporation Office)
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT
Superintendent
Executive Secretary
CFO
COO
INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES
Director of Elementary Education
Director of Secondary Education
Administrative Assistant for Secondary Education
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Assistant to Executive Secretary / Receptionist
Deputy Treasurer & Grants Specialist
Corporation Treasurer
Accounts Payable / Receivable
Payroll Specialist
HUMAN RESOURCES
Director of Human Resources, Payroll / Human Resources
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Principal High Ability Coordinator
Professional Development Coordinator
Assistant Principal Professional Development Coordinator
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Director of Special Education
Assistant Director of Special Education
Administrative Assistant for Special Education
Interpreter
2 – Speech Language Pathologist
Occupational Therapist
Early Childhood Coordinator
Consulting Teacher for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Director of Marketing & Communications
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Air Tags and Find Me: A Personal Experience
A mildly disappointing purchase, but a net positive. (Details in the pic captions).
When you move as slowly as I do and discover as you’re stepping into the detached garage car that you don’t have your keys, it can cause a moderate delay.
Joan has been traveling frequently. The only way I know how she is doing on the road is when she turns the car off and the State Farm Drive App registers where she stopped, not progress in real-time.
We took advantage of a sale price to order Air Tags for my keys and Joan.
When we set them up, we discovered that the “Find Me” app we already had would do most of what we wanted, with the correct settings.
The disappointment is that, for my keys, it doesn’t tell me whether they are in the Living Room or the Kitchen….just that they are at this address. Well, duh.
In contrast, and what I thought we were getting, is the find-me part of my hearing aids. I see where they are in relation to my phone and not only that they are at this address but also what part of the house they are in. If I hold the phone closer to one of them, that location changes to “very near.” I wanted that for my keys.
Still, it is good to have them. Actually, I bought a 4-pack. If you have Air Tags, where else (besides your dog’s collar) do you use them?
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The Beast at Daytona
A few years ago, I made a post expressing pride in the success of many of the students from my first teaching position in a small rural school in southern Indiana. I think I said something about being humbled to have been (maybe) a small part of their success.
I got a really nice note from one of those students who shared a story about something he learned from me that has influenced his life lessons in management. He is now a Senior VP at General Motors.
He posted pics from celebrating the Cadillac racecar … and also the Cadillac Beast, which took a couple laps. I’m including a video (not from him) that shows the lap. Part is boring, but you can hear crowd noise, see two flyovers and how the racecars lined up behind The Beast (and the SS entourage, of course).
Great publicity.
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