Oh Say Can You See

Our Off Duty hangout --the basement.

It was mostly "regulars" and of course, mostly males because need I keep saying, the school was ALL male (Ahem -- even our bathroom).  There were a couple other females that would be down there   --like the one girl I had stood at the bathroom door waiting to let back in . . .And even as few of females as we started out with, we were down by a few more since every week we were losing students one-by-one.

I wouldn't exactly say the basement was fun --but it was pretty laid back and some of the guys were pretty funny and anything was better than hanging with my roommates so it was a nice distraction.  Earlier my Instructor (the "nice one") had asked me if I could sing.  Well, I guess I need to explain . . . .

At the very end of PLDC in fact, the night before graduation if I remember correctly, there was a Dining In.  A Dining In is strictly for military personnel whereas a Dining Out would include guests such as spouses & dates.  Actually, I'm very bored right now trying to explain this and so you can go here---

MILITARY DINING IN

It's very formal, very military, very ceremonial and so of course, there is the posting of the colors and the Star Spangled Banner too.  So in preparation for the Dining In my Instructor, (the "nice one") was looking for someone to sing --thus he approached me.  Sure I can sing, I guess --but the Star Spangled Banner? He explained we really didn't have any instruments or music and when I told him I really didn't want to sing a solo a ccappella version of the Star Spangled Banner, I meant it to mean --no thank you, please find someone else.  But as the words left my lips and hit his ears and his brain translated their meaning, what he seemed to hear was I'd really prefer not to do it but I'd be glad to find someone that can.  That's what he heard because he said to me, "So great then, you got it?"  You don't exactly tell your Sergeant "no" so ---I guess I had this one.

So thus my nights in the basement were spent asking around, "Hey, do you sing?  Can you sing?"  I got mostly positive responses until I told them I was looking for someone to sing the National Anthem --solo without any accompaniment --then suddenly no one could sing.  But as some would respond to me, "I'd be glad to sing in a group or as a chorus but I don't want to sing solo", I wondered if that mattered.  I asked my Instructor (the "nice one") and he said he didn't care if it was 1 or 20 --just as long as it was sung.  So then I began gathering up voices and I'd say, "If you want to sing meet us in the basement at such-n-such time."    At first it was just me and another guy.  We decided to just give it a go --so we sang it out together and it wasn't bad ---but it wasn't good either.

But before you knew it we had more people join us.  Some of them had some choral experiences --others had not.  We were a very raw group, as far as talent and experience go and every night we'd just hang out in the basement and sing the Star Spangled Banner --and then something happened . . . .

We experimented with notes and sounds and parts and before you knew it, we had something actually quite fantastic down.  We even drew small little audiences as they heard us rehearse they'd come over just to listen, many commenting on how good we sounded.  We were quite proud too --I mean with so little training and no instrumentation (not even to give us our note), no written music --just a hallway in a basement (that was actually smoked filled because it was the only indoor smoking area) we were able to put something quite lovely together.

One day while in class my Instructor asked me, "By the way, did you ever find someone to sing for the Dining In?"  Oh boy did I ever!  I told him how our little group haphazardly came together and how we surprised even ourselves at how good we were getting.  I went on and on with it --because honestly, we were just that good.  And then my Instructor told other instuctors and they told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on . . . . .

And the "basement people" were telling others too to come hear us sing and so word was getting around . . .

And maybe I might have been helping spread the word a little bit too . . .

Because I was so proud of our group.  But remember this  ---

Pride comes before the fall.