A Mom’s Memory: Chicago Challenges Reap Big Rewards for Wellington Landings Middle School Band

By Lois Spatz

Imagine, if you will, being in charge of 88 middle school students stranded at the O’Hare airport on a Sunday afternoon. Arriving at said destination with the knowledge, your flight has been canceled and you’re not sure how you will get two bus loads of teenagers home. Then consider being there for eight hours, being told by several seemingly friendly gate agents, “A plane is coming for you, we promise,” while watching your departure time on the terminal screen scroll later and later with each passing hour.

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Then imagine eager, excited teenagers roaming about while tired tempered chaperones put on a brave face, not completely sure what will happen next.

Perhaps you’ve entered an episode of the Twilight Zone or just a glimpse into a day in the life of Wellington Landings Band Director Chris Martindale and 22 other adults who were all toughing it out together after a long, action-packed weekend in Chicago. A weekend filled with museums, shows, a theme park visit, two first-place trophies and series of fortuitous events.

It started out with an early, yet ordinary, 7 am flight from Palm Beach International on April 30th. The plan was to take the middle school concert band to participate in Chicago at the 2010 Parks Across America competition and a few other stops along the way. 

First issue – the airlines separate the group into two connecting flights in Atlanta, one scheduled to leave an hour and a half later than the other. A string of fate and luck begin for the group when it is announced the first flight is delayed exactly an hour and a half and coincidently, they all leave the tarmac together.

Arriving in Chicago, they are greeted by two tricked-out neon tour buses that are theirs for the weekend, only the drivers are from St. Louis and do not own a GPS system. Turns out the group gets to see a lot more of Chicago’s architecture and visit a few extra neighborhoods than expected along the way, taking the true scenic route. But hey- we all know it’s about the journey, right?

First stop, the Field Museum where the only ever discovered 42,000-year-old intact mammoth, named Lyuba, is the featured exhibition. The group also spends the long afternoon touring the museum, walking along the shores of central Lake Michigan and crossing the street to explore Soldier Field.  

Around 3:30 they pack it in and head off to the Willis (formerly Sears – don’t get me started) Tower. Here teenagers go out on a ledge 103 stories above the ground on a Plexiglas floor that overlooks the city. For some born and raised in Florida, it is the first time they are experiencing being in a building that far above sea level. 

Next stop, Gino’s Pizza, a Chicago piece of history to go with your piece of pizza served family style. The decor is scribbled graffiti where even the principal of the school has to raise his hand and call out the requested pizza toppings through the loud crowd buzzing over a BlackHawks game. Quite possibly a teenager’s dream of a perfect meal. 

The end of Friday night was a culmination of exhaustion and exhilaration with a performance of the Blue Man Group at the historical Briar Street Theater in Lincoln Park. The show was an amazing mixture of paint spilled into the audience by blue men pounding enormous base drums, there were electric guitars and other loud “music”, flashing lights and about 3,000 rolls of toilet paper stretched through the top of the audience down to the bottom during the finale. Although the accompanying English teacher wasn’t so impressed, most of the kids were thrilled beyond belief. 

Early Saturday morning found the students munching pancakes and sausages in the Embassy Suites lobby buffet, then packing instruments to head out to Gunther, IL. This would be the highlight and “real” purpose of the band’s trip – to participate in the 2010 Music in the Parks competition, a national venue where schools are invited to visit theme parks as they strive to perfect their art. (Or as some parents may call it, a very expensive field trip used as a good motivator to practice the French horn.)

With very little sleep and not having even seen their instruments since they packed them in a truck the previous Tuesday, the WLMS concert band performed in the O’Plaine Middle School gymnasium, taking the judges by storm. They would later receive two Superior ratings along with the two top spots in the competition.

After a quick change on the buses, the boys and girls were ready to head to Six Flags Great America. Not only did the get to spend the day riding coasters and merry-go-rounds, they were treated to a genuine awards ceremony at the park. WLMS took first place in the Middle School Concert Band 1 AA division, as well as the honor of taking first place in the Overall Junior High School/Middle School Concert Band. “I am not only proud of the way my students perform, I am proud of the way they carry themselves everywhere they go,” Martindale said. 

Then came Sunday. The morning started out as the group’s tour bus was stopped by a police officer along the route to Shedd’s Aquarium. The reason, there was a parade for the police and the bus driver took a wrong turn. Being held up for so long, the group had to head directly to the second leg of the Sunday tour, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.  After a busload of moans about missing the Belugas, Martindale shouted, “You’re all from Florida, you’ve seen fish before.” 

Once again, misfortune turned propitious and an early arrival turned into photo ops and climbing rocks along the south shores of Lake Michigan on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day.

If you’ve seen the movie Vacation with Chevy Chase and his character’s visit to the Grand Canyon, then you can visualize the group’s tour of one of the most amazing museums in the world.

After an hour or so everyone loaded back onto the buses to head for the O’Hare airport. Only one problem it was 1:30 with a departure time of 3:08. Anyone ever tried to make it through the traffic of east of downtown to O’Hare in an hour?

The next small wave of panic settled in after a voice mail message from one of the parents calling from Wellington. “This is Marie,” my friend and fellow band parent Marie Diz’s message continued, “I just had another parent call me in a panic to say your flight has been canceled and you are not scheduled to come home until Monday evening.” 

“Chris, come here,” I say as I motion the band director.

“We already know,” he says with a reassured grin. “Let’s keep this to ourselves for now.”

As I look a few seats in front of me, I notice the Principal’s pale appearance, cell phone in hand, with frantic fingers repeatedly entering numbers and I realize he is probably in shock as he is entering our flight number into Delta’s automated system. 

The possibility of another day in Chicago looms only through the minds of those few on board who are aware of what is happening.

As the bus enters the departure area, the panic of missing the flight is replaced with the anxiety of getting 88 students home and in bed in time for school the next day.

“There are two options,” the Delta gate agent tells Martindale. “Either we put you all up at the Hilton and give you meal vouchers or we send for a plane.” Either one of these solutions is a hit with the gang, but most prefer plan A which would include a day off of school.

As everyone settles in for a long wait and a long hand of penny poker in the middle of the terminal the announcement finally comes, we are going home tonight on our own private plane. The airline has requested a plane from Detroit to come specifically to ferry our group home. Now all we have to do is wait. 

It would be eight hours of back and forth strolls through the terminal, a lot of McDonald’s hamburgers and thousands of text messages later, but finally we see the 727 pull up to the gate. The thrill of being on our own plane is shared only by a few other stranded passengers, including an inebriated FAU Science teacher who thankfully passed out once we got on the plane.

Finally, as the chartered plane pulls out to the tarmac around 10:00pm, we see fire trucks rushing the runway. There are 15 or 20 of them headed out to a plane and we all realize this night could get a lot longer. We see them turn an Air Canada plane back towards the gate with the trucks escorting the plane right past us. (We never did find out what was going on, but did get the all clear pretty quickly afterwards.)

At last, home sweet home at 1:30 AM. A final cheer filled the cabin as the weary travelers ended the adventurous weekend with one last bit of good luck – a final announcement from accompanying Landings Principal Eric Paul, “You will be excused for your first two classes tomorrow so everyone sleep in.”  

And as the band students drag themselves into the arms of their dreary-eyed parents waiting in the Palm Beach arrival area, you could say the Twilight Zone episode Life’s Real Roller Coaster Rides has come to a final yet happy ending.

Lois Spatz is a proud mother, photographer and writer. She enjoys volunteering for the scouts and the schools in the western Wellington area. For copies of photos, contact her at (561) 797-1056.