Col. Jay and Judy Brewer
"You might flunk out, but Brewers don't quit." That was included in parting advice given by Jay Brewer's father when he dropped off his freshman son at his alma mater. The young Brewer didn't have to confront either of those possibilities. Instead, he joined the staff of the Aggie Band after graduation and moved up the ranks to senior associate director. He's now known as the 'voice' of the nationally-famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Band. At StoryCorps, he talks about some of the lessons he learned as a cadet.
- [Colonel Brewer] I had progressed through junior high and high school in Channelview, Texas. I was graduated and I was on my way up to A&M. The date was August the 21st, 1977. I'll never forget it. My dad drove me up to college. We pulled up on Lewis Street, behind the Adams Band Building, and we sat there and we had a short conversation. The conversation went from I wasn't mature enough to go to college, but he knew I wanted to do this really badly and he knew I wanted to play in the band and he encouraged me several times during that conversation to make sure I got academic help before I got too far behind. Of course, I did not. At one point in the conversation, he pointed to a building which is Dorm 12 in the Corps of Cadets area. That's where the football team lived when he was here in college and dad played football at A&M. He said, "Son, you see that building right there?" I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "That was the nicest place "that I'd ever lived in my life," up to that point. This building looked pretty bad. I said, "I beg your pardon?" He said, "Yes, it had paned glass on the windows." I said, "What did you all have, growing up?" He said, "On good days, tar paper." Then, I got a 30 minute lecture about how tough it was being raised up during The Depression. So, that was my first day at A&M. Then, the story continues.
- [Judy] You mean, he didn't help you move in?
- [Colonel Brewer] Oh, no. He did unload the pickup and I had my footlocker, my electric typewriter. I was the rich guy in the dorm. And, my bass trombone case. He drove off, but before he drove off I guess he said something I'll never forget. I don't know if he meant it, but I wasn't willing to find out. He said, "Son, you're gonna learn things here from these young men that you can't learn from your father." He said, "Some of it will be good and some of it won't be so good." He said, "Remember, you're the one that wanted to do this, so don't call home crying to me that you wanna quit 'cause you're not gonna come home and humiliate our family. You might flunk out, but Brewer's don't quit."
- [Judy] No quitting, no quitting.
- [Colonel Brewer] Yeah.
- [Judy] So, how about those first few weeks? How'd that go? That was, I'm sure, just such a riveting experience.
- [Colonel Brewer] Well, yes it was a riveting experience. It was obviously a whole new environment, being in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M. Being on a huge campus of 22,000 students, unlike today's 65,000 students. I had never seen that many people in my entire life. Band practice was exhilarating. We were scared to death to make a mistake. The upperclassmen were quite demanding. We did lots of running, lots of pushups. We learned how to keep our unit rooms to military order. We learned how to march. They got us to and from class most days. But, I guess what we learned early on was to work as a team and it didn't matter how white or black or rich or poor or tall or short we were, we were fish buddies. We relied on each other and the upperclassmen made damn sure we relied on each other 'cause we were all we had. I guess the best friends I have in my entire life were people that I went through those four years with.