The day Modem sat on the American flag

[Modem Butterfly]

The year is 1989. The place is Corvallis, OR. It is late October and early in the morning, around 7 AM. My highschool band was competing in a "Battle of the Bands" competition at Oregon State University. We had a great band, out of 400 students in my school, 110 were in the band. I was first chair clarinet, but I hated the marching uniform, so for my senior year, I joined the flag team, which got me out of marching. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at flag twirling. Also, the adviser, a woman we called Ronald because she was 6' tall and had a giant red afro, disliked me strongly. She decreed that since my skin was darker than any other flag team member I had to go without nylons. She also decreed I had to carry the American flag.

So, we're in the stands, shivering since it's quite cold. I'm wearing a sweater, a short cheer-leader style skirt and spanky pants, no nylons. We weren't allowed to wear anything other than our uniforms (which fortunately included a pair of stretch wool gloves). Taking the adivce of Ronald, all the other flag team members are sitting on their flags. So, I stood up, spread mine out, and sat. MUCH better. Almost tolerable, actually. I chatted with some of the other students, most of whom didn't notice what I was doing. Ronald, though, noticed quickly.

"Modem! What do you think you're doing?" I responded with some smart-ass remark and she got very upset. "You're showing no respect for that flag at all!" Well, no, the place I was sitting was clean and dry and the flag was well off the ground, covering my bottom and legs. "You can't do that to school property!" Says who? You're a volunteer, and anyway, you told the others to do it if they got cold. "Well at least sit on the Canadian flag!" Ummm... if you think it's disrespectful to sit on the American flag, how is it okay to sit on the Canadian flag? The other students were watching this and laughing. Ronald was getting pissed. She ran off to get the music teacher, who was well-known for being a Vietnam-era Vet and for having an anger management problem.

"Modem! What are you doing?" he shouted. I said, "I'm cold and I'm letting my country keep me warm," and the band teacher laughed. Ronald said, "Are you just going to let her get away with that? Is that what you fought for twenty years ago?" and he said, "Lady, that's exactly what I fought for. In America we treat our kids as more important than our symbols. If you don't like it, move somewhere else,"

[ET Awful]

1. LMAO . . . Sounds like despite his "anger management" your band

teacher was a pretty cool cat :)

[Modem Butterfly]

2. He was indeed

He taught junior high and high school band (we had one JH in town since we were so small), as well as jazz band. My brother and I both really enjoyed music and did well in band from the start. He was a great guy. The guy had a temper on him though and when he was pissed, he would just go off. It was really something to see.