South View's Tragedy
Jennifer Anne Taranto
My old high school band has been recently struck by a devistating tragedy.
Nearly a week ago one of the drum majors, Misty Cosgrave, was killed. The
news struck hard at everybody and although I'm not there right now I can
imagine how hard it is for those kids to walk into class every day and see
her empty chair in the flute section. Everybody knows that marching bands
are really just extended families but our band seems to be cursed. I can't
remember a year throughout my high school career that someone didn't end
up in a coma, or as in this case, worse. Is this just the fate of my old high
school band or have others suffered through similar situations? How in the
world are those kids supposed to cope?
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Jennifer Taranto (jata...@eos.ncsu.edu)
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Aaron Villa
: My old high school band has been recently struck by a devistating tragedy.
In my four years of marching band (Cheshire H.S., Cheshire CT 1988-1992), we
certainly our share of misfortune. My freshman year, the father of one of our
drum majors died early in the year. My sophomore year, one of our outstanding
horn instructors died from a heart attack. Not to mention dealing with
problems of mono outbreaks ("Don't drink from the same cup!" was constantly
preached to us), multiple injuries (broken everything), even one girl who was
anorexic.
The point is, yes, marching bands often become extended families, and when
that many kids, plus their families, plus staff memebers, etc., all come
together, there is bound to be tragedy, simply by the number of people
involved.
Don't get me wrong; band was some of the best times of my life (honestly, no
matter how hoky that sounds), but it did have its problems, too.
But band is merely a part of life ("Band is life; life is band"), and we all
have to learn to deal with the bad--and the good--in life.
Aaron
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| "It's not enough to be tolerated, because when the shit hits
Aaron Villa | the fan you find out how much tolerance is worth. Nothing.
avi...@bu.edu | And underneath all the tolerance is intense, passionate
| hatred." (_Angels in America_ by Tony Kushner)
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