Describe your longest day in drum corps

[JimF-LowBari]

More recently, MCL had done the Baltimore parades in 2008. I caught the late "bus" out east from Nashville since I had to work the day before. We left around 4:30 PM from Nashville, pulled into the school the corps was housing at around 8 am, then drove to the first parade. Marched 4 parades, and got into our housing site around 5:30, ate dinner around 6:30, passed out around 8:30.

Did you do all 5 parades....

Mid 70s 4th of July. Rode the drum truck and and to load/unload even thou I played horn (it was considered my part of the gas money). Unload truck and load buses for a parade somewhere. Fight with new drummers about all drums on one bus so we can load easier. Fight with new horn players about all drums on one bus and the horns go under the other bus. "But I'm not riding that bus" "What you gonna ####### practice on the way down. I wanna see you get your horn out of the cargo bay at 60 mph".

Do two parades with bus ride in stinky unis in between.....

Get caught in traffic or lost somewhere (forget which) and miss 3rd parade....

(when the Hell did we eat????)

Then the major PITA for the day. Exhibition at Carlisle as last act before the fireworks are set off. Not sure where the fireworks were actually placed but think a field right behind the stadium. All I remember is hurrying like Hades to get off the field before the lights go out NOW ("Where am I..." trip) and you start feeling heat. Then load drum truck in the dark before the fireworks are over and it's another hour to get out of the traffic jam. Only time I loaded in full uni, minus shako and then dressed as the trck was hauling butt to the main road.

[Michael Boo]

July 4, 1976, which as the Bicentennial day, should have been one of memorable and pleasant charm. When we got to our rendezvous point for the day, we were informed that one of our members died during the night. (It later turned out he had an undiagnosed heart problem that suddenly hit him.) We then went onto perform three parades and an exhibition at the Park Ridge 4th of July celebration at the local high school football stadium. There were probably fireworks there, but all I can remember from after the performance was meeting my parents afterwards, who had driven up from over 50 miles away to see the exhibition. I hugged them especially tight when we met that evening.

[BRASSO]

July 4, 1976, which as the Bicentennial day, should have been one of memorable and pleasant charm. When we got to our rendezvous point for the day, we were informed that one of our members died during the night. (It later turned out he had an undiagnosed heart problem that suddenly hit him.) We then went onto perform three parades and an exhibition at the Park Ridge 4th of July celebration at the local high school football stadium. There were probably fireworks there, but all I can remember from after the performance was meeting my parents afterwards, who had driven up from over 50 miles away to see the exhibition. I hugged them especially tight when we met that evening.

I know the feeling. We all thought we were bullet proof and would live forever when we were young. I recall a similar Corps death. We were laughing and joking on a corps bus coming back from a competition not far from our home. This was one of my first years in Corps, and this kid was about 3 years older than me, a veteran marcher, and we just happened to be seated together side by side on the bus, so we yapped for an hour or more. I didn't really know him that well until that bus ride and we seemed to have similar interests, so it was cool chatting with him. We then all arrived, got off the bus, and went in our cars, or walked home. Early the next morning my dad woke me up and told me that the kid on the bus that sat beside me that I was laughing and joking with the nite before died in his car in an auto accident. I was positively numb for days on end. It was all a blur, the Wake, the Funeral Mass, the burial. All of it. I was in a complete funk. It just didn't seem real. I think I was maybe 16 that year. He was only 19 years old. If I close my eyes, he still looks 19 to me. We ALL have these experiences at some point of our lives. Thats one I won't forget as it relates to a sad and long day in Drum Corps.

[Michael Boo]

I know the feeling. We all thought we were bullet proof and would live forever when we were young. I recall a similar Corps death. We were laughing and joking on a corps bus coming back from a competition not far from our home. This was one of my first years in Corps, and this kid was about 3 years older than me, a veteran marcher, and we just happened to be seated together side by side on the bus, so we yapped for an hour or more. I didn't really know him that well until that bus ride and we seemed to have similar interests, so it was cool chatting with him. We then all arrived, got off the bus, and went in our cars, or walked home. Early the next morning my dad woke me up and told me that the kid on the bus that sat beside me that I was laughing and joking with the nite before died in his car in an auto accident. I was positively numb for days on end. It was all a blur, the Wake, the Funeral Mass, the burial. All of it. I was in a complete funk. It just didn't seem real. I think I was maybe 16 that year. He was only 19 years old. If I close my eyes, he still looks 19 to me. We ALL have these experiences at some point of our lives. Thats one I won't forget as it relates to a sad and long day in Drum Corps.

Feeling bulletproof is one of the hallmarks of being young. It's always a shock to realize one's mortality at such a young age.

I and other members of the corps were pallbearers for the kid who died in 1976 during the season. What amazed me most was the positive outlook of his parents...at least what they showed us in public. I've wondered if they were so upbeat to keep us from feeling worse. The post-burial reception was an outdoor picnic at the home of his closest friend's parents. He was with him when he died. That kid came to the corps for support that morning, just hours after the death, and rode on the equipment truck for all three parades. I remember he was sleeping on the truck, totally out of it after the horrible night. We went on the truck to get our instruments for each parade and were so quiet we never woke him up. He just needed to be with friends. He must have awoken during the parades, but I don't remember that.

Afterwards, I wondered if I ever expressed to the other corps members what they meant to me. Of course I knew I hadn't; there never was reason to, as we were always...as you stated...bulletproof.

Your situation, though, must have hit you especially hard since you were with him minutes before. One couldn't help but feel changed after something like that.

[BRASSO]

Your situation, though, must have hit you especially hard since you were with him minutes before.

Michael McAdams was his name... and he had even closer friends in Corps that had marched with him for a few years. But yes, it was surreal after just sitting on the bus with him what seemed like just minutes before. I went into the military right after I aged out in Drum Corps, was fortunate that they didn't send me to ' Nam, but our neighborhood lost another friend of mine in Vietnam. They named a school after him in our community. His Dad was a school custodian there. Years later I went to college on the GI Bill, came out certified as a teacher, and coincidentally wound up teaching at that school for 6 years that had one of my friends name given to it. I'm by no means unique in encountering the loss of friends, family members when we are young. You experienced this loss as well. I'm sure most others that are adults hzve expereienced similar... and even much worse in some cases, as its a familiy member. Yes, its so true, its typically harder on the young when a loss of a similar age young friend takes place.

Edited February 23, 2013 by BRASSO

[Michael Boo]

Michael McAdams was his name... and he had even closer friends in Corps that had marched with him for a few years. But yes, it was surreal after just sitting on the bus with him what seemed like just minutes before. I went into the military right after I aged out in Drum Corps, was fortunate that they didn't send me to ' Nam, but our neighborhood lost another friend of mine in Vietnam. They named a school after him in our community. His Dad was a school custodian there. Years later I went to college on the GI Bill, came out certified as a teacher, and coincidentally wound up teaching at that school for 6 years that had one of my friends name given to it. I'm by no means unique in encountering the loss of friends, family members when we are young. You experienced this loss as well. I'm sure most others that are adults hzve expereienced similar... and even much worse in some cases, as its a familiy member. Yes, its so true, its typically harder on the young when a loss of a similar age young friend takes place.

How did the rest of the drum corps react and grow from that experience? I thought some in our corps didn't want to talk about it...not out of not caring, but because it hit too close to home.

[BRASSO]

How did the rest of the drum corps react and grow from that experience? I thought some in our corps didn't want to talk about it...not out of not caring, but because it hit too close to home.

Like most everything else, each member handled it in their own personal and unique ways, I suppose. I do know we talked about missing him when we got together at our reunion many years later. We tried to remember the good times we had with him in the Corps, and a few I seem to recall deciding to focus on the good things we recalled with him back then...... so we seemed to talk mostly about that, and that seemed to temper the somberness of the genuine feeling of loss we no doubt all shared toether. So yes, it was hard to talk about him, similar it sounds like to me when your fellow marchers lost your marcher in the Cavaliers. Its unpleasant, and so we sometimes try to mostly focus on the good times we had... and the fond memories we shared together. I can appreciate that reaction on the part of others too when discussing a lost one.

Edited February 23, 2013 by BRASSO

[Michael Boo]

Like most everything else, each member handled it in their own personal and unique ways, I suppose. I do know we talked about missing him when we got together at our reunion many years later. We tried to remember the good times we had with him in the Corps, and a few I seem to recall deciding to focus on the good things we recalled with him back then...... so we seemed to talk mostly about that, and that seemed to temper the somberness of the genuine feeling of loss we no doubt all shared toether. So yes, it was hard to talk about him, similar it sounds like to me when your fellow marchers lost your marcher in the Cavaliers. Its unpleasant, and so we sometimes try to mostly focus on the good times we had... and the fond memories we shared together. I can appreciate that reaction on the part of others too when discussing a lost one.

It's so important for us to find the ties that unite us than the wedges that divide us.

[Bucbari]

1974, a day in July... not sure of the exact date, but it was around the July 4th holiday.

I was with a local-circuit junior corps (Sacred Heart Crusaders from Manville, NJ... we competed in the Eastern States circuit).

That day, we did two parades... then a field exhibition after the second parade... and then two contests.

I'm not sure I've ever been so tired in my entire life as I was at the end of that day. :tongue:/>

John Latko...a real piece of work...didn't know about the concept of rest. I can't count how many times he ran us into the ground and how often it hurt us on the field.

but on a lighter note...how about anytime we did that #### parade in Bridgeport. More then once it almost killed me.

[alankarls]

July 4, 1966. We marched four parades, one exhibition and two contests in two states. Needless to say, in the last one, we got crushed. It was hot summer and we had our uniforms on all day, and spent the day in the bus between events. We reported at about 8:00 in the morning and weren't home until around midnight.

Our management loved money, and treated us like rental horses.