This page will be devoted to the many sayings invented and/or used by Boca High Band and Guard people throughout the years. If you have anything to put here, e-mail me. I will put them on this page as soon as possible. Thanks.
The first quote was brought into existence by the founder of this association, Greg Kuzma. The quote is "Don't eat the bananas." Many of the current members have never heard of this quote. Those who do know it who weren't around during Greg's years have the story confused, thinking that this idea sprung from the "Go bananas" cheer. Here's the true story behind that quote, as told by Greg Kuzma:
Ok, way back in Boca Middle, I was in the 8th grade. The band went on a tour in Brandenton in west Florida. On our first stop, at Bradenton High, we unloaded the busses and performed a concert in the breezway of the front of the school. Well, after our concert, (which was fabulous I must say) the Bradenton Manatee Band performed a few songs and their band parents offered cookies and other assorted refreshments...I am usually a good eater so, I went over and took a handful of cookies, Banana cookies to be exact. After a few minutes and another song, I went back over and grabbed some more banana cookies.
BANDPARENT: "...uh, excuse
me...what are you doing?"
ME: "I'm getting some banana cookies"
BP: "No. You can't have anymore banana cookies!"
ME: (Trying to take more cookies out of bandparents hand)
BP: "NO MORE BANANA COOKIES FOR YOU!" (just like 'No
more soup for you!')
So, I went around to the other Boca Middle band members and told them:
ME: "...hey, dont eat the banana cookies!"
People laughed and were like: "what are you talkin about?". I'd just laugh and walk away to tell someone else. Eventually, nearly everyone in the band was murmuring about the banana cookies...in the audience while the Manatee band performed their last song. After the event ended the Bradenton band parents had plates full of Banana cookies, b/c no one ate them.
After the concert, Mr Matt James, Band Director, found out that the Manatee Band parents had TONS of banana cookies left over and needed to get rid of em...Somehow, one of the band mom's told Mr. James that I was the instigator to this fiasco. So, after he got an earful of what a mean band student I was, he got the rest of the banana cookies and made me pass them out to every person in the Boca Middle Band for the rest of the day. Now, I know what you are thinking, "what's the big deal?"...The deal was there were hundreds, maybe thousands of cookies left over. Trying to pass them on to the band wasn't easy, especially after I spread the rumor: "Don't Eat The Banana Cookies!" So, after a little butt-chewing from Mr. James, I passed out about 200 of the 350 cookies and ate the rest. For the rest of the trip, the other Boca Middle band students kept asking me about the banana cookies and I would reply with the shortened version of "Don't Eat The Bananas!"
When I moved on to Boca High, I kept the tradition alive by wearing a Banana on my head at my freshman and sophomore band camp...those who were with me in Boca Middle knew of the legend of the banana cookie and understood...thus, the Battle Cry of: "DON'T EAT THE BANANAS" was born.
Along with this cry, the Band Cheer known as "GO BANANAS" (purely coincidental) became the theme song for this story. This song goes as follows:
(Chorus)
"Go Bananas, Go, Go, Bananas"
"Go Bananas, Go, Go, Bananas"
You peel it down the left,
you peel it down the right,
You peel it down the middle and
UH, take a bite (pelvic thrust here on "uh")
This stands cheer was very popular with the crowd and cheerleaders :-) However, In (YEAR?), [after Greg's years] Dr. Shearin found this to be an outrage and banned the band (pun?) from ever "performing" this cheer again!
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