Today has been a day simply brimming with high school memories. I dug out my old clarinet because we’ve been discussing school orchestra for Alex. This clarinet probably hasn’t seen the light of day in 20 years or more. I gave up playing it in about 10th grade when my friend Lisa and I switched from Bb clarinet to Eb (alto) clarinet; Lisa later went on to bass clarinet and then contrabass (courtesy of the school district, not her parents’ wallet!). I was able to easily play some stuff by ear today (yes! with a 20-year-old reed!). The problem here is that while I can still read music, and while I can still play the clarinet, I have to bridge the gap between them, so that when I look at a printed note, I know how the fingering goes. That’s my upcoming project.
So, while shopping online for reeds, a new ligature, etc., I spent a lot of time thinking about high school band: those freezing parades, those idiotic white bucks…I really don’t know why I stuck with band all those years, because I wasn’t very good at it. It was a social club, I guess. Certainly Lisa and I had a lot of fun together.
Later I had a bit more high school memory brought to the forefront of my mind when Chris was watching an episode of "Doctor Who." Normally the Daleks yell "Exterminate!" But in this episode they were in Germany, so they yelled "Exterminieren!" (the German word for "exterminate"). Well, there are a LOT of German verbs that are like this, English-sounding + ‘-ieren’ on the end…"telefonieren," "explanieren," "studieren," – in fact I’m not even sure whether "explanieren" is a correct one. My spell-check isn’t catching it at the moment, so maybe it is. In high school German class I was known for blithely tacking ‘-ieren’ on the end of any verb…"refrigerieren," "delegatieren," "announcieren"! Eventually everyone started doing this. So, thanks to the Daleks, I have Carolyn in my mind too, because not only did Carolyn and I both study German all the way from 7th grade through college together (including our junior years abroad), but she went on to become the high school German teacher at our high school!
So, Lisa and Carolyn, if you’re reading this, Guten Tag, and have a memory-filled day!
The US Picks 