Spying on someone else's school

I love so many things about my school, and I'm sure I'll get around to telling you about them eventually.

Meanwhile. there is another school that has taken on an unexpectedly prominent presence in my life... It's a public school whose schoolyard I can see into (and certainly also hear) from my 10th floor living room window. It has become a never-ending source of fascination, and not infrequently, consternation.

The first mystery of the public school outside my window occurred several weeks ago, when all of a sudden it became evident from the shrieks and sounds below that complete and utter pandolerium had been unleashed in the schoolyard. Naturally, I had to nose over to the window and investigate the racket. All I could see was swarms upon swarms of uniformed kids milling and fading and shouting and moving erratically around the schoolyard. This was made more confusing because of the fact that it was getting close to 6pm, and would soon be dark. This was no extra-curricular program, this was hundreds and hundreds of kids.

Soon, my ears were accosted by the grating, nasally, metallic, thunderous roar of what I could only assume was the lady in charge, or possibly a demon from the underworld, shouting things into a megaphone. I couldn't make out many of the words, but there was certainly no mistaking her imperious yet desperate, piercing tone.  There was also no ignoring her VOLUME! Ten stories above the megaphone monster it sounded as if she were cupping her hands around my ears and bellowing as hard as she could into my eardrums, so I can only imagine what it sounded like to the masses down below.

After several excruciating eternities, the hordes ended up in more or less orderly straight lines, so I deduced that they were practicing, (in probably the most painful, inefficient and disorganized way possible) their evacuation drill.

Finally, mercifully, the captives were released, the megaphone stopped reverberating across the mountaintops, and there was peace in the schoolyard.

For a while...

To my extreme distress, I found that the following week, the satanic ritual was being repeated, only this time there were dark clouds in the sky and it looked as if rain were imminent.  And in fact, it was.

Just at the key moment when order had begun to settle in among the throng, the clouds burst, rain poured down in torrents, thunder crashed, and all the kids scattered and ran for cover, shrieking as they went.

Last week I was relieved that no drills had been required...

And then I discovered that drum line season has begun. And they practice for about two hours after school on Thursdays and Fridays.

Uncle.