"The Time the Bus Died" and Other Stories from the Golden Wave Band

I'm just going to go ahead and tell you guys something. One of my all time favorite parts about going to Baylor is getting to be a part of the Baylor University Golden Wave Band, affectionately known as BUGWB (pronounced bug-WUHB).

I honestly don't know how my friends put up with me. What I do with the color guard tends to come up in many conversations and most of my wacky college stories involve events that occur when I'm with the band, or not even with the band itself, but band people. 

We're all pretty weird. In the best of ways, of course.

The Terrific Twenty of Texas 

I'm not going to say much more in introduction, because most of this post will be stories. So I thought that, as a storyteller-to-be, I could share some of my favorite off-beat tales with you. 

And I've neatly made headings for each. 

Old Sport

This one actually happened last year. So, a little back story. On the way to away games, the band watches movies on the TVs inside our charter buses. For this game, the color guard/trumpet bus ("the Grumpet bus") watched "The Great Gatsby." I'm not sure if you're familiar with "The Great Gatsby," book or movie, but in the movie, Gatsby often uses the phrase "old sport." 

Now, there was a flag move I was having  trouble with at the time. I was often confused about the sequence and tended to put my flag up when the rest of the guard put theirs down.

As we were marching through the show, there on the field in front of thousands, right as the guard performed that part in of the routine, my guard captain turned to me, looked me right in the eyes, and said, "Put your flag down, old sport." 

I almost lost it. But it worked. My flag went down in the right place. 

The Time the Bus Died

Fun fact: I sleep deeply. In fact, it's fairly hard to wake me up sometimes. However, when the mellophone next to you is shaking you vigorously sometime during the night and saying, "Maggie. We have to go. The bus broke down and won't start. We have to move buses," that usually does the trick. 

I was really groggy as I lurched off the bus. All seven band buses were pulled over on the side of the road. I staggered after my seatmate as we journeyed one bus back. The interior was brightly lit as my seatmate gestured to a couple of empty spots. I collapsed into the window seat and pulled my blanket tightly around me and drifted off to sleep. Until I didn't. At one point I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I glared at the moon.

I digress. Luckily everyone lived happily ever after. Except the bus. I don't know what happened to it. I guess it's all right, somewhere out there in the wild blue yonder. 

Hump Day

Unlike my high school marching season, which ends in late October, marching season here at Baylor concludes with the bowl game (if the football team makes it that far) in late December or early January. Which means that as the semester is wrapping up, our practice field looks like a lifeless wasteland. And the band feels like a lifeless wasteland. Especially when it's cold. One frigid Wednesday, it was so cold that the color guard, who forgot to layer as much as we should have, all piled under one blanket on the side of the field.

As there was only a small blanket and 20 of us, there were a lot of heads and legs poking out of our little pile. Somehow we got away with the most minimal practice possible as we tried not to get hypothermia.

We tried. 

Catch! 
The thing about this particular event in the lives of the color guard is that I didn't actually see this happen, but got to experience the aftermath of tears of laughter streaking down faces.

There was a girl visiting the color guard for the Bear Band program. This is when high schoolers have the opportunity to join our band for a football game, eat with us, sit with us, and see what we do. After the game, a color guard member asked our visitor whether she wanted her Powerade bottle. The girl nodded. The color guardian then asked if she could throw it.

Evidently, the visitor missed that memo, because as she stepped forward to receive her bottle, the color guardian lobbed it at her, nailing her right in the face.

Oops. She lived, though. But I'm not sure if she's coming to audition with us in the spring. 

Never Again

Another story from last year.

Sometimes I just hate earrings. You have to keep up with them, always remember to wear them at the right time, and make sure they don't break. But when they do...Extra hassle. My earrings decided to be that pair, and not cooperate with me or my ears all season. Because they could.

And because they could, the back of one of the earrings chose the worst moment to break off: on the bus. On the way to an away game. But thanks to the Mary Poppins bag of one of my fellow color guardians, there was a hot glue gun and a safety pin available. Can you see where this is going yet?

The end of the story was the part where she had to brace my head as the bus rattled down the highway and jam the sharp part of the safety pin through the piercing in my ear.

Welcome to color guard. At least I got my tetanus shot before I came to college.

Behind the scenes of  ESPN's College Game Day. We're just as crazy as you think we are, if not more. 

Mini Tales

So here are a couple of stories that are a couple of sentences each. I still wanted to add them, and even though they aren't long, I gave them their own category. 

A Quick Snooze

The day of our first performance, I fell asleep on the floor of my captain's house. According to the rest of the guard, they watched me sleep for a while. How nice.

Canned
On our way to the stadium one afternoon, I made a passing comment about how I could fit into one of the nearby trash cans. Seconds later, I felt two strong arms wrap around my waist, as another color guardian tried to physically lift me into the trash can. I was having none of that, so I kicked my legs until she released me. Probably the closest I've been to actually being canned. 

Hope you enjoyed them! Not to worry, there are plenty more where those came from! With the bowl game coming up in a couple of weeks, I'll have some more stories to tell about my adventures with BUGWB.

Blogger's Note: Just a heads up: I'll be taking this coming Friday off. Because Christmas. And no internet. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!