This past weekend I was at a football game and during halftime, a friend leaned over to me and asked, "At what point in your life do realize that you want to be a flag girl?" In case you are wondering, a flag girl is one of the girls that goes on the field with the marching band and twirls a flag in a semi-synchronized fashion. I'm sure that this certain friend is not the only person to ever wonder such a thing. In fact, I'm relatively sure that I wonder the exact same thing every time I see a marching band performing. I also wonder: What exactly is the point of the flag girls? Do band directors put them out on the field because they think that waving a multi-colored flag around will keep our attention? Let's face it, when the marching band takes the field, fans take it as a cue to find the bathrooms or load up on as much popcorn and luke warm boiled hot dogs as they can possibly carry. The last thing we are thinking about is how amazingly synchronized the flag girls are. I don't even think that I look at the flag girls long enough to remember what color their uniforms or flags are. This leads me to wonder what satisfaction one gets from being a flag girl. Usually these things are done with some sort of expectation of attention or adoration from the audience; and since flag girls seem to be the last ones receiving either attention or adoration, something else has to be keeping them motivated. What is it? What is so attractive about being a flag girl? What leads a person to think, "I really want to learn the art of Flag Girl"? This is a question that I fear I will never find the answer to. My new goal in life is, in fact, to meet a flag girl and ask these important questions. Don't worry, gentile readers, I will update you with answers as soon as I get them because I know you are just as curious about this subject as I am.
Stone
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
maybe flag girls are motivated by the lingering hope that any small children or decrepit elderly folks remaining in their seats during the hot dog/bathroom breaks will watch and maybe, just maybe, be moved by the awe-inspiring synchronized moves
ReplyDeleteAs an attender of many high school band competitions, I must say when you sit through the seemingly endless and repetitiveness that is a marching band competition, the flags in their varying colors and designs and sizes are the most entertaining thing there. Even if they are all terrible themselves and cannot stay together. As for the motivation? They are usually in orchestra or do not play a marching instrument in the band, so they wave their flags to letter. What keeps them going in college, though, is completely beyond even me. Maybe they're just used to it, and they fear change. We may never know.
ReplyDeleteRock
Oh and I gotta vote for Xander. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Nuff said.\
ReplyDeleteRock
I also vote for Xander! Alex is a name to normal for vampire slaying.
ReplyDeleteI vote for Xander because Alex is so common and ordinary. And how many times will there be multiple Xander's in a class? Not likely.
ReplyDeleteAlex. Buffy is the only instance where Xander is not the gayest name in history.
ReplyDeleteXander. If I knew anyone named Alexander, I would most definitely call him Xander. Not just because of Buffy, although that is where the idea comes from, but because I agree with "Anonymous" that Alex is too common.
ReplyDeleteStone
As to the Xander/Alexander debate - his name was Xander, not Alexander. At no time did anyone ever call him anything but Xander Harris. Alexanders of the world are just stuck with that name and Alex or maybe Der. They can't claim Xander unless they are heroes, and not in the sandwich type of the word.
ReplyDeleteMom he was Alexander! Watch the wedding episode!
ReplyDeleteRock
In an episode in season six where Willow casts a spell and they forget who they are, he pulls out his driver's license which reads, "Alexander Harris" and for the rest of the episode until they get their memories back, they all call him, "Alex."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete