Last night was the high school jazz band festival right here in little old north Kitsap. Brought back some vivid memories for me. As I have mentioned in the past, I was in the vocal jazz ensemble in high school, and we competed regionally in festivals around the Northwest just like this every year, usually taking first or second place. Winning felt good, and made the hours of rehearsal all worthwhile.

So all these years later, seeing these kids still so excited about performing jazz music was a thrill for me. And they were all very good, as I knew they would be.

The cherry on the cake, as it were, was that the winner of the festival this year (and last year) was my very own alma mater, who remain a dominant, competitive school in the Pacific NW. They played last and were by far the best band. When I was in high school, our jazz band was actually not that good; it was the choir who won all the awards and accolades.

My old high school is now considered one of the top public schools in the state, which is interesting given the fairly uninspiring education I was given there in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I guess it helped to have a brand-new building, which of course opened three months after I graduated and the decrepit old structure was bulldozed.

I checked out the web site just now, and was a bit stunned to find that not only are several of the same teachers still teaching — including my old newspaper advisor who was in his early 20s when I graduated — but apparently one of my old CLASSMATES is teaching there now as well. How weird is that.