… Everywhere we go-o, people wanta kno-ow. Who we a-are, so-o we tell ’em. We are the devils… I woke up this morning remembering the words to that cheer. It was used on the feetsball field but it was also yelled out on every dern band bus I was ever on. Especially the junior high band bus. I was in the high school band when I was in seventh grade. The junior high school was attached to the high school and music teachers were few and far between in those days, so if you were good enough to get into the high school band as a junior high student, you were in the band. Not to brag but I was probably good enough to be in the high school band when I was about a 5th grader. I stayed pretty quiet in 7th grade even though Mr. Diecke put me above the other 7th graders in chair placement but in 8th grade I started challenging for chairs and I beat out at least one 12th grader.

So, the junior high band bus was great fun. The first time I rode it, in 7th grade, my old man actually gave me a bunch of pennies to play poker with. Yes, poker. He had played the trombone back in the 1930s and that’s what they did on the band bus back in those days. I played poker with my pennies but I don’t remember if I won or lost. I do remember that after that year, poker for pennies was no longer allowed on any band bus. “Politically correct” was not a known term in those days but it was coming down the pike and the powers that be decided that poker for pennies was not an appropriate band bus activity. It was okay, we found other obnoxious things to do.

In high school I preferred to ride the older kid type bus. I was sick of the fart jokes and it was a lot quieter and we didn’t yell out the old Blue Devil cheers too often. My main memory of riding the high school band bus was once when I was in 12th grade and I was definitely first seat in the flute section and the parents were in Hawaii and the Engineer and I were staying at Don and Katie’s house. I drove the Engineer and I to school in my grandma’s old Ford Fairlane that she didn’t drive any more. I forget exactly what happened but we were on a bus back from a band festival in Escanaba or someplace and I had a date with my boyfriend when I got back. I forget how many buses there were but our bus broke down somewhere in the yooperland and they had to send a new one out. I had a chance to ride home with some Soo parents coming along in a car but I decided I needed to stay with my bro’, even though he really didn’t need me at all, being there with Matt and Joel and Weidrich and whoever, he was probably having a great time and maybe they were even playing penny poker without anyone knowing. We eventually got back to Siberia and I still went out with my boyfriend. Don and Katie were much less concerned with what time I got home than my parents were [grin].

We went to Knight’s tonight. Man oh man, was it crowded! We put our name in and then hung out at the bar. We were told 35 minutes but it was longer than that but we eventually got seats *at* the bar and ended up eating right there. I am no doubt repeating myself but Knight’s is building another restaurant downtown in the old Jacobsons / Borders space. I think they will go for a slightly different demographic down there. I think “our” Knight’s will continue to be successful and I think the downtown Knight’s will thrive too. I will probably post about this again. Somehow it makes me want to jump up and down with glee!

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