Do you know your left from your right?

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The photo has nothing to do with the story. Our quiet doe had a sleep under a shrub only a few metres from the kitchen window. She is looking a bit haggard lately. I’ve written a few stories about the time we belonged to a brass band. You can find them if you search for ‘brass band’. Every hobby or pastime has its own jargon – terms that you don’t come across elsewhere. Or there might be certain actions that are followed that are so commonplace that no one thinks to explain them to newcomers. Our band only marched at Anzac Day so a couple of weeks before April 25th, we’d go to an oval and practice marching. The drum major would stand out the front, scream out ‘Band, by the left, quick march’. That was simple enough. I thought ‘by the left’ meant step off with the left foot. Then, one evening the order was ‘Band, by the right, quick march’. This threw me into a tizz but I got my feet sorted out and that was that. I have to have a think about which is my left and right. I believe there a few of us like that. So, before the Anzac Day parade, I sorted out my left and right so I’d be ready for whatever the drum major called out. To my consternation, the order was ‘Band, by the centre, quick march’. I learnt later that the ‘left, right or centre’ simply means to take your dressing (keep in line/spacing) with ‘left, right or centre’. You always march off on your left foot – which maybe everybody knows but I didn’t.