MY LIFE IN A TUBA – BAND PARENT OF YESTERYEAR

MY LIFE IN A TUBA – BAND PARENT OF YESTERYEAR

Copyright 627/2011

“Mom, Mr. DeNapoli needs a tuba player in the band. If I take music I don't have to take Spanish. If I take Spanish, I'll flunk it.”

Now THERE'S an attorney in the making!

It was my first month of chemotherapy and I could deny that young sprout before me very little. At the same time, I knew that facing his mother's terminal diagnosis required spiritual support; he would find this through music. Music is the cosmic dart.

Ernie DeNapoli was the music teacher for almost twenty years at Southwick High School. There, students were trained by the guiding hand of a true educator, in how to “be”. Even if you were music illiterate, which Justin was at that time, every student became enlightened.

Ernie was the teacher that the administration would have preferred to bury in a sink hole somewhere and cover it cement; but Ernie paid his dues and earned his tenure. His teaching style some found objectionable, but his students learned! ALL OF THEM.

In order to reach a student sometimes it's necessary to be tough. It was nothing for “the Vito” side of Ernie to express itself when he was seen kicking a chair across the room to disengage his rowdier students from their recalcitrant behavior. No one was ever injured, and the ends justified the means. (If you're from a traditional Italian family you cannot help but comprehend this teaching style.) At the same time Ernie listened. By listening to a student he was able to match each with an instrument.

It wasn't a fluke that Mike, another student and compatriot, came to Justin and suggested that he join band and 86 Spanish. There was no doubt in my mind, after meeting the music manipulator, that Justin's distress over his mother's diagnosis was over-heard and Ernie needed a strong young man to carry the tube, or the sousaphone for marching.

Having never been a band parent I naïvely signed-up to support Justin's interests. As exhausted as I was, I was energized by this unique membership. All parents were genuinely supportive of not only their child, but every child in band. If someone needed a ride, the ride manifested – and it wasn't always the same parents extending themselves.

We were our own congregation that showed up for rehearsals, which we either attentively sat through, or knitted, or read. When rehearsals traversed a one hundred mile round trip to and from Amherst Massachusetts to participate in All-County, there was always room for one more kid on someone's lap.

Then came the oranges. Hundred of crates of oranges filled the cold storage area off the music room and one-by-one we parents backed-up our cars, while the students filled us up to go off and raise money through the sale of Florida navel oranges.

Every month there was something to sell; candy, calendars – whatever! It was a blast! Fund raising was once again a time for parents to get together to support whatever the hell Ernie had the kids involved in doing.

The end of the school year came and not a dry eye was in the house when Ernie announced his happiness in finding his true love, Judith, and he was moving to Colorado. There The Regis Jesuit High School was blessed with the final years of a great heart; a hero and a nemesis that no one could help but love.

Ernie died there, at his desk, after school.

If your child comes home and announces her/his plans to join band – sign-up with band parents. Make it happen, because education is doing, not sitting.

Peace Baby

Thanks Ernie

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LET GO & FREE FALL INTO NEW BEGINNINGS

.

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