As the year drags on and the bleak days of winter begin, filled with snow, ice, and fingers crossed snow days, the lack of music in the hallways only adds to the dark despair these few weeks before break entails. Especially since at this time the halls would be filled with the wonderful winter sounds of holiday music provided by the never ending loop of said holiday songs playing on 104.1, the radio station of choice for hallway music. I remember the days of yore when music played in the hallways and all was well. Sadly, those days are gone and I am left to listen to the music in my head and count on my internal clock to get me to class on time. This is perhaps the reason that i miss the music in the halls the most. It was a time gauge I could use to make sure i wasn’t late. And now with Saturday school, being late has more serious consequences than before. It was always nice to know that when the music stopped you had better get going because you had a minute left until class starts. Sadly, freshmen have no memories of this wonderful time that seems so long ago now. They will only remember, when they fondly look back at their days spent here at Ames High, that the passing time between classes was filled with either awkward silence, or the gossip that pollutes every hall of every high school known to man. Also, they will remember being late to biology because they got out of P.E late and didn’t know how much time they had left since nobody really knows what time class starts anyway, and there was no music to stop playing in the hallways letting them know that they had to start sprinting if they wanted to get to class on time. Any non-freshman, however, will look back on their days at AHS and smile at the memory of music in the hallways, how during homecoming week they started taking requests, and during the holidays the halls were decked with classic holiday hits. And above all, they will remember the way that the music in the halls served not only as a clock to let students know when the had to start running, but as a bright spot in an otherwise bleak and mundane school day. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but one thing’s for sure, school was much more interesting with an, at times, holiday-themed soundtrack.