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First Time I Met _______ Was.......


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First time I met George Zingali was at Toledo's Key to the Sea in 1982 with Brady Rouse and Bruce McCready.

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First time I met....Gayle Royer was 1981 in North Tonawanda, NY

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>>First time I met....Gayle Royer was 1981 in North Tonawanda, NY<<

Well, that beat me by several years for actually "meeting" Gail ... first I ever saw him "up close and personal" was 1965 VFW Finals in Chicago when he was judging ... fast forward to 89 and I was able to sit down and have a chat with him at SCV's rehearsal site on Space Park Dr when I was on a business trip in CA ... quite an educator ...

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"First Times":

First time I met Joe Genero was in 1962, the Fall. He was hired to teach us in Royal Lancers and wrote the South Pacific show we used in 1963 & 1964.

The first time I met Hy Drietzer was in the Fall of 1964 when he was hired to write and teach us the music we used in 1965 and 1966.

I am SOOOOOOO honored to have know these two icons of the activity and to have actually have been taught by them!!!!!!!!!!!

Elphaba

WWW

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  • 2 weeks later...

The first time I met Jerry Seawright was at one of the DCA championship weekends in Scranton, PA. I'm a longtime Blue Devils fan, so I was blown away getting a chance to meet the man who made that great corps go for so many years.

The first time I met Bill Cook was also at a DCA championship weekend, in Allentown, 1980s. What a complete gentleman. And so down to earth. You would not know from talking with him that he was a billionaire.

The first time I met Gene Bennett was when I joined DCA's Long Island Sunrisers for the 1977 season. I had seen him several times before that, since my brothers were involved with Sun starting in 1974, and I remembered Gene marching with the Sunrisers in the years previous. But to finally get to meet him... and, more important, to be taught by him.... wow. Gotta be honest here... at first, I was scared to death. LOL. He had such a commanding, authoritative presence... larger than life.

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1970...parking lot at Nationals in Miami...4 or 5 corps all warming up simultaneously. We ended the Garfield ensemble and heard a particularly fine brass sound coming from behind a couple of trucks and buses, articulate, expressive and in tune.

"Who's that?", I wondered, strolling towards the source. By the time I arrived they were finished, but I corralled one of the kids, her uniform not familiar to me. "Who teaches your horns?", I asked, noting two things: 1) the tender age of the players, and 2) the fact that about half of them were girls.

"That lady over there", she replied. (Ladies did not teach horn lines back then. I had to meet her.)

"Hi. You don't know me but that's the best brass sound I've heard in a very long time."

"What a nice compliment", she answered, smiling and extending her hand. "We're the Argonne Rebels. My name is Sandra Opie."

I had to restrain myself from kissing that hand.

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1970...parking lot at Nationals in Miami...4 or 5 corps all warming up simultaneously. We ended the Garfield ensemble and heard a particularly fine brass sound coming from behind a couple of trucks and buses, articulate, expressive and in tune.

"Who's that?", I wondered, strolling towards the source. By the time I arrived they were finished, but I corralled one of the kids, her uniform not familiar to me. "Who teaches your horns?", I asked, noting two things: 1) the tender age of the players, and 2) the fact that about half of them were girls.

"That lady over there", she replied. (Ladies did not teach horn lines back then. I had to meet her.)

"Hi. You don't know me but that's the best brass sound I've heard in a very long time."

"What a nice compliment", she answered, smiling and extending her hand. "We're the Argonne Rebels. My name is Sandra Opie."

I had to restrain myself from kissing that hand.

Frank, you may not remember this... but you were the person who introduced me to Mr. Seawright that night in Scranton. Thank you for that!!!

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1970...parking lot at Nationals in Miami...4 or 5 corps all warming up simultaneously. We ended the Garfield ensemble and heard a particularly fine brass sound coming from behind a couple of trucks and buses, articulate, expressive and in tune.

"Who's that?", I wondered, strolling towards the source. By the time I arrived they were finished, but I corralled one of the kids, her uniform not familiar to me. "Who teaches your horns?", I asked, noting two things: 1) the tender age of the players, and 2) the fact that about half of them were girls.

"That lady over there", she replied. (Ladies did not teach horn lines back then. I had to meet her.)

"Hi. You don't know me but that's the best brass sound I've heard in a very long time."

"What a nice compliment", she answered, smiling and extending her hand. "We're the Argonne Rebels. My name is Sandra Opie."

I had to restrain myself from kissing that hand.

Another interesting thing about Argonne's great hornlines......the number of young ladies that were part of them! That 1970 line had more than 20.

Their great lines of 1971-73 had 40% of the brass being ladies. That certainly was not the norm for those days either. I'm sure Mrs. Opie's excellent instruction had much to do with that.

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I was and still am a fan of The Argonne Rebels! I saw them at the NT Open and they weren't the top[ 12 power house they were a few years before, they were still an incredible corps!

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August 1967, Wayne Poulson -Fran's brother in law- asked me if I wanted to join a Drum Corps. My reaction was "what the hell is a Drum Corps". I was 12. Well I joined the Raiders of 88 in Highland Park New Jersey. My life was never the same after that.

My 1st horn instructor was the legendary Tommie "Bucky" Swan. Need I say more?

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