TRacer

Thanks for the kind words. Our BCH gave us a speech with the gym lights out that was very inspirational. He on behalf of the staff owned up to the timekeeping gaffe and went on to state that the next day he was going to watch the first drum corps in DCI history jump from 4th to 1st. Both the parents in attendance and staff agreed our last run through on Finals Day was actually better than what fans saw later that night. As for ‘85, I still get flashbacks whenever I take my car through the local drive-thru car wash as the soft whirling brushes remind me of the chaos and utter mayhem of flying uniform pants as it was a “straight through” pass, not “roundy round” inside as some people thought. I about had a heart attack while on the move as I had a stereo Walkman strapped to my body recording the proceedings and it got caught on my waistband.

SCV went from having the edge the week prior to essentially giving away the title at Prelims because of a monumental lapse in timekeeping similar to ‘82 when SCV had to run down the ramp at McGill Stadium, but worse. In Atlanta SCV had less than a minute to get on the field at Prelims and was compelled to step off with no warm up and everything on the line, and the very weak soprano opening statement in Fanfare & Allegro was a harbinger of the “beyond poor” performance that followed. They also wore their green pants with green stripe tunic overlays, so there was no white “Slammin’ Pants” magic that night. The staff later apologized to the corps back at the housing site. SCV’s consolation prize was winning Field Brass & Field Visual/M&M outright the next night. IMO SCV’s drumline deserved another 3 tenths but their 3rd place finish behind 2-7 and BD in Percussion was the right call.

The 2004 Rose Parade I marched with SCV was an all-alumni effort like Madison. Fast-forward to 2017 when my son marched the Rose Parade with SCV they used Cadet corps kids, alumni up to a max age of 25 and recent contractees for the 2018 season. When Riverside City College (RCC) marched Macy’s in 2018 there were *a lot* of DCI kids in that group (my son included) as it’s basically a drum corps all-star marching band. EDIT: of the two, my kid enjoyed Macy’s more because of the breadth of membership; his feeling was that there were too many egos in the line during the SCV effort.

It is not Hawaii, believe me. It’s a 6-hour flight just to get to the Mainland, then another long hop to Indy. You can’t even travel to the next county in Hawaii without getting on an airplane. 😆

There was a profile recently on Ohio local media of a low brass player from BC ‘24 going back to school at Marshall; he was interviewed at their band camp.

The Kingsmen Alumni Corps brought back “So Very Hard to Go” in 2007; from my vantage point (lead bari, side 2) the crowd seemed to like it. I just saw TOP last month at the Blue Note Theater in Waikiki; their new lead vocalist is an amazing guitarist!

The first year of a coed hornline at SCV was ‘84; one of the FHs was a fantastic lady from Guardsmen ‘79 and a lead bari was a lady from Tennessee who had previously marched MBBB.

While not a packed house, we had a faithful contingent of older fans, UH students and parents that came to the one theater in Honolulu that carried the telecast; it wasn’t uncommon to have people fly in from the Outer Islands (we do not have a ferry system here) on a short holo-holo just to see the event. There are usually about a half dozen kids who make the trek to the Mainland to march every year. At the last event we went around the theater, introduced ourselves and where we marched. I’ll never forget the older guy who said, “I…marched in a group called the Madison Scouts from Wisconsin; most haven’t heard it. This was 1981 and we…well, we only took 3rd.” Then he sighed, looking sad and embarrassed (I remembered them being on a championship trajectory that year.) After a short awkward silence I said, “Brah, I was there in Montreal that year with another corps; you guys were freaking awesome and just blew us away. Be proud!” His response was a “Wow….🥹🥹🥹”

1981 Madison and ‘81 2-7 did the same drum solo (New Country).

Both my son and I are alums, and as such we flew in to march the Parade of Champions held in October 2021. This was the trip where we got to meet the former ED for the first time which went….poorly. As usual, many of the local heavy vets didn’t attend and one of the instructors from BITD (as in ‘81 & prior) running the brass pretty much mailed it in when he wasn’t lecturing the 5-6 guys who had brought G horns. Between that and the meet ‘n greet with the “flip off the camera” ED I was utterly turned off to the experience. At any rate, as the parade block headed for the judging area it was announced over the PA system that SCV had been recently conferred as the Official Musical Ambassadors by the mayor of the City of Santa Clara (!!)…and there was much rejoicing from the crowd (“yayyyy…”) The following year “the call” went out again to SCV alumni for the 2022 POC (remember, musical ambassadors!)…three weeks later, SCV cancelled the parade corps due to “lack of interest”. My kid and I didn’t bother.

I too left Scouting in my mid-teens due to MB, DC plus 3 varsity sports commitments (track, CC & soccer). I left at the rank of Life; in retrospect I probably should have stuck it out to get my Eagle Scout (next rank up) but I helped by good friend (we were the best men at each others’ weddings) get his Eagle project done.

Loved his instruction during my years in the Kingsmen Alumni Corps 05-08; he made me wish I had started marching DC a lot younger than I did.

Having been there SCV did not use dot books in 84/85; the mantra then was “guide to form”. SCV tied with GC for High Visual in ‘84 & won Visual outright in ‘85; from recaps it appears Field Visual was the key.

My ex-wife (FH) and I (baritone) marched KAC for the duration and we have a pic of our kid with a soprano standing in the rehearsal horn arc next to his mom; he was only 6 at the time and wanted to be out there with his parents so bad. We kicked around the idea of asking Dave & Joe to put him in the US flag unit in a little Kmen uniform since he was still very new to high brass but he didn’t have the hang of body control yet.