Well, my son is pleased, so that's the final verdict.
I went to two of the three performances. The first was at 10AM for the kindergarteners, first and second graders. The kids sat quietly and applauded at the right times. The band members did their pieces, and the chorus waited for their turn.
It was badly organized, but it seemed to work. So far, so good. I felt really bad for some of the players, though, because it's obvious to me at least that the band teacher has taught them nothing, nothing, nothing. My son, due to the private lessons, could have done the advanced band pieces; the junior band performed by instrument because they'd never rehearsed together.
Then I went with my husband to tonight's performance. There were too few seats for the number of people who attended, and people were just rude, rude, rude. I couldn't believe it. The chorus, which performed last, Would. Not. Shut. Up. The kids were talking and laughing and jostling one another. It was so noisy, you couldn't hear anything, and even when the teachers came and shushed them, they'd start right back up again.
If *my* class had done that when I was in grammar school, we would have been horse-whipped. We'd had it drilled into us that you don't make any sound whatsoever while someone else is performing.
That wasn't as bad as the parents, though, who also didn't shut up. At least some of them were rude enough to leave right after their kids finished performing, so they didn't keep disturbing us with their chit-chat.
Ah, but the family in front of us, the lovely family in front of us...
My husband doesn't say bad things about anyone. He's very mild-mannered, and when he says something like "She's not very nice" it will draw a gasp of horror from listeners because that's about as nasty as he ever gets. *He* said to me, "That kid in front of us was a brat, and the whole family was obnoxious."
Yes, we had not only the "we don't control junior" family, but they also thought it was cute.
The good point is, we dont' ever have to deal with them ever again, right?
Wrong. We go out into the parking lot to leave, and people have parked EVERYWHERE. They're all over the narrow winding road you ahve to take to leave the parking lot. They double-park across from other double-parked cars so a bicycle would have a hard time getting through. The cars trying to leave are backed up to West Bumpford because the cars parked at the neck of the lot have made it impossible to leave, and idiot families are walking seven-abreast down the road at a pace that would make a snail say, "Oooh, that's a little slow."
We sat in the car and waited until most of the idiots cleared out. My favorite was the Mustang parked diagonal on a corner with its lights on, looking like it wanted to turn, but with no one inside the car.
Dear heaven, I live in the same city with these people.
But it's over now, and my son is pleased, and we even got some of it on video tape while the brat in front of us wasn't climbing in front of the camera and standing on his grandmother's lap, blocking us from being able to see anything.
