Blue Bottles! In Groton tradition, each year we celebrate the school birthday with dinner, dessert, and most importantly the fifth form singing blue bottles.
As our tables, organized by advisory, finished eating, the voices of the Sixth Form above us rang out a loud “We want blue bottles” and my formates and I rose to our feet. As we made our way to the bleachers clutching our lyric sheets, Mr. Bannard, the yearly conductor of the song, grabbed his knife and stood on the chair in front of us. Mr. Bannard raised his arms and conducting knife, and the song began, “139 blue bottles hanging on the wall.” We started slow and with little energy but that wouldn’t last long. As we worked our way down, 50, 25, 10, we got louder and rowdier. By the end, we were jumping, and falling, and our words were barely understandable. We got to one single bottle left on the wall and we paused, a planned silence that everyone nailed, no one going too early before we belted out our final line.
I hope we did tradition well with our rendition and I look forward to listening next year, from the balcony this time.