I totally believe the theory that smell and memory are connected. The roof of my Jr High was being water proofed with tar during my first week of school. To this day if I smell tar I automatically start feeling nervous. I start remembering how I felt on the first day of Seventh Grade.
Kids from my elementary school were divided up among 3 Jr Highs. There were only about 9 students from my elementary that would go to my Jr High. Luckily my two best friends, Ashley A and Becky P were among those nine. The three of us walked to to Jr High on that first day and entered a completely new world.
I'd been to the Jr High for a Orchestra concert the year before and for back to school night a few days before so I sort of knew my way around. During that first week I went to my classes and learned how things like the cafeteria worked.
Out of all of my classes I have the strongest memories about orchestra. Orchestra was the only class that I had with 9th graders. Those 9th grade girls seemed so grow up to me. Kim, Pam, Krista, Liz, and Heather they all seemed to know exactly how to act. They were involved in such interesting things; cheer leading, student government, dance company, and institute. To this day I still think about those girls with awe.
At first I felt completely out of place in Orchestra. Everyone else seemed so talented. I was sure they could all tell that I had no talent at all. But gradually as I practiced and participated in class I began to feel like I was talented too.
I was able to participate in the small chamber orchestra group in the Christmas Assembly. All the performing groups of the school were part of the assembly. There was a loose plot that linked all the performances together. Two students played Hyacinth and Richard Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances. The Buckets were on a vacation and the performances by the orchestra, dance company, cheerleaders, choir, and other groups were all part of the vacation entertainment. Their tour guide was Malory H who was elected Student Body President in High school. After high school she was killed in a tragic car accident. I remember her as a 9th grader stealing every scene with her stage presence.
At the end of the school year in May the orchestra went to the annual district festival. We had worked hard to learn our songs. We played “Arlington Sketches” and the Feather Theme from Forrest Gump. It starts out with a very strong rhythm played by the cellos and basses. We had seven cellos and one bass – me. It was probably the hardest song I had ever played up until that point, and I learned it perfectly. I remember standing on the stage performing my part exactly like I had practised it so many times. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life.
After we were done playing we went back to our seats. Dr. Frome, the man in charge of the music program for the district came over and told us how wonderful we were. He then asked, “and where is your bass player?” I raised my hand and he told me that I played fantastically. Later when I told my dad what happened he reminded me that Dr Frome was his high school orchestra teacher when he played the string bass, and that I had met Dr Frome when he conducted an orchestra where my Grandma played the violin.
When the festival was over we collected the two envelopes that had the tapes of our performance and the judges scores. We opened the envelopes on the bus. The first judge gave us a “1” which is basically a perfect score. We all freaked out and were bouncing off the walls. Our teacher, Ms Davis said that it was highly unlikely we would get two 1's. She opened up the next envelope and said, “We're going to have one heck of a party.” We screamed again and she told us that we had two 1's.
When we got back to the school we listened to the tapes of us playing. The judges made comments about out performances. One judge singled me out in particular and said that I played very well and that I added a lot of color to the orchestra. I was in a daze the rest of the day.
A few weeks after festival the chamber orchestra played a song called the Delta King at the end of the year awards assembly. I had a pretty long solo part in this song. I had a hard time playing it, but the night of the concert I played it perfectly.
I would continue playing the string bass until halfway through my Sr year of high school. I have a lot of really good memories of orchestra over the years, but 7th grade is probably my favorite. It was nice to know that even though I didn't know how to do everything I was good at one thing.
My favorite memory of your string bass was on a rainy day. You carried the bass while a handful of friends and Myself held about four-five umbrellas all around to keep the rain out.
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