Drumming up some memories
Today I will try to briefly explain the story behind one of my obsessions: hawaiian shirts.
Those of you who know me know that I am obsessed with hawaiian shirts. They are happy, happy shirts. However, contrary to popular belief, I wasn't born with a hawaiian shirt obsession. It developed way back in my senior year of high school.
In the fall of my senior year of high school, I was busy. Busy with classes, busy with activities (band and handbells, mostly), and busy stressing over college-related decisions. Music, as it still does today, gave me a chance to destress (hitting things...er, drums...is very enjoyable) and a good excuse to spend time lots of time with my friends (most of whom were in the band).
Our percussion rank that year was interesting as always. We were an odd bunch; nerds and "cool" people and some dorks, all thrown together and trying to play as a unit. We weren't all the best of friends (though there were some very close friendships within the rank), but we managed to have some good times together.
One of those good times was spurred on by the upcoming annual halloween parade. Every rank chose a theme and dressed in costume (there were some interesting choices over the years), and our percussion rank needed a theme. Being a percussion rank, too, we wanted to be cool -- after all, we had a reputation to uphold. ;) As a brief tangent, we had been pirates the year beforehand, and "distinguished English gentlemen" (the outfit consisting of bathrobes and bubble pipes and drawn-on mustaches...even for the gals) the year before that. Yes, very random. I think I've gained part of my sometimes-bizzare sense of humor from that group. :)
So after some discussion, we decided on a hawaiian theme. We all took a saturday afternoon to wander around town together and find hawaiian shirts. I remember ending up in this very random hippie-like store in State College -- the entire place reeked of incense! We bought our shirts, wore them to school the day of the parade (I think that's the most I've ever stood out, clothing-wise, in high school...I've become a bit more bold since then), and marched that evening. We went all out -- sunglasses, grass skirts for the gals, flowers in our hair (even for the guys!), and leis...and we even decorated our drums with bright streamers. It was a fabulous night.
My parents took a picture of us that evening, and that picture has become one of my most favorite pictures from all of high school. We enlarged the picture and hung it up in the percussion corner of the band room, where it remained for years (it was still there when my brother graduated high school in 2004)...along with other random percussion people paraphenalia from over the years.
There have been many great hawaiian shirt moments since high school (most recently 2 weeks ago when I saw my priest wearing a hawaiian shirt to a local restaurant). It's fun to think that this all started with a really fun and random group of people, way back a long time ago.
Do any of you SC people remember other parts of that story? Sadly, some of the details have become fuzzy. We have to keep these fun memories alive. :)
posted by Katie @ 6:30 PM
6 Comments:
Next time I see you, let's go Hawaiian shirt shopping. Can you believe I have none? :)
Sounds like a great plan! :)
The picture is still up! At least it was when I was picking up Leah from marching band this past fall. I wonder if we should take it down some time to make sure no one in years to come goes, "who the heck are these people??" and chucks it in the trash. :)
That was such a fun parade that year! Much better than trying not to loose a bubble pipe out of the mouth while marching. :)
Actually... about 2-3 times a summer my office has Hawaiian Shirt Day, where the whole office is strewn about with leis and other tropical paraphenelia, they play hawaiian music all day, and they have the Jack & Jill ice cream truck stop by. hehehe. :)
Obviously, I don't have any memories of that since i wasn't there, but i do remember the Halloween parades. I remember my rank doing a McDonald's theme the one year. Those of us who were dressed as the fry guys (er.. girls, i guess. hehehe) were constantly mistaken for M&Ms.
we used to have Hawaiian shirt Friday when I worked at Amgen. Everyone would wear hawaiian shirts, even the managers. And of course I had my Hawaiian themed graduation party. Hee hee.
Sounds like the hawaiian shirt thing started around the same time that we figured out we were sisters. Ah, good times. Glad to be past them, for sure, but I don't have any regrets. :-)
All I remember about the Hawaiian shirts that year is how cool y'all looked. Although I loved our Braveheart theme and we looked pretty good, we weren't nearly as cool as the percussion. I also have great pictures of the Hawaiian shirts, most notably one of you and Kevin with your tris. Of course, the obsession didn't stop there for Kevin and me, and that led to me somehow ending up with two of the coolest pillow-cases ever.
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