Fran Haring

Oops. LOL

Yep. Looking for the mini-corps results.

A great read as always, Frank!!! I never actually met Ken in person... but I remember him conducting a mass group of horn players in "Auld Lang Syne" several years at the conclusion of the DCA I&E/mini-corps show. He had a HUGE baton (an actual baton... get your minds out of the gutter here, folks. 😆). I have never seen one that big in my life. (again, minds out of gutter, please. LOL) Where did he find stuff like that??? 🙂

Anyone have any idea what the attendance was at the shows in Rochester? (I don't. Just asking.) Kinda the bottom line here.

Yep.

This. All of it. The DCI Lite thing... it's an arms race DCA will never win. Had a PM exchange with a friend on this topic. I've hesitated to share publicly what I said because some might see it as DCA bashing (it's not... it's just one old relic's opinion 🙂), and I figure my friends there don't need me piling on, when I certainly am not part of the solution. If there is one. Maybe someday I'll put it out on FB and then duck for cover. 😂

I hear ya, Chris, and I mostly agree... but not everyone was a 9-to-5er. Not close. You whippersnapper. LOL. Our director (before my brother) was a major insurance exec who managed to be at every rehearsal... we had numerous other folks who ran businesses, were police officers, medical people, and so forth. One of my friends worked full time and was in college (night school) full time. Like today, they had a lot of demands on their "outside" time. They had plenty of things going on. As I've said... we were probably crazy. Now... the school schedule thing has definitely ramped up. DCA needs to move off of Labor Day weekend. It's just different today. Nothing wrong with that.

A giant, and just simply a great guy. Will never be the same without him busting my chops every time we saw each other.

That absolutely sucked. There's a backstory to that which I won't share here, so as not to raise my blood pressure. LOL

Times have changed, for sure. And this is NOT a knock on today's realities, or on any age group in particular. But when I marched with Sunrisers, late 1970s-early 1980s (I know... sounds like "get off my lawn" here...LOL)... today's DCA corps' summer schedules are a pale echo of what we did. Shows or parades every weekend from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. (19 shows my first year in 1977. 19!!!) Summer rehearsals on Wednesday and Friday nights. And we had a bunch of college-age kids (many more than most DCA corps, and even a few high-schoolers) mixed in with a bunch of 20 and 30-somethings. I remember when my brother, Sun's director in 1980, gave us the entire DCI weekend off. That was basically unheard of up until that point with our corps, and some of our members actually griped about it!!! My brother did the right thing. We needed a break. We were most likely crazy for doing all that I mentioned above. LOL. And did it for years. I absolutely have regrets about missing a lot of family stuff. So I fully understand that folks who want to get on with their lives don't want to be as "all in" and give up those weekends anymore. A different world. Nothing really wrong with that.

That corps was a stacked deck, no question. Lord knows how many future Hall of Famers, movers and shakers, visionaries, and so forth, were part of those USAF corps at Bolling AFB.

Great job, Chris!!!

Steve is great, no doubt about it!!!

No problem.... I misunderstand most stuff from most people!!! 😂

Yep. And they pool it for big purchases. Recently, an Amish man bought an auction property in our area. Paid nearly $2 million for it. In cash.

2018 was the first of the two Williamsport years. The downtown there was great. Perfect for the I&E stuff. The stadium... not so much.

Heck... even when Statesmen were rolling along in 2010-11, paid attendance was down. I'm almost 100 percent sure the top year in Rochester (at the soccer stadium) remains the first year.... 2006. 1996 at the baseball park was nearly 10K, but who knows how many folks would have returned in '97 unless the bad seating setup was addressed. Moot point since the show moved back to Allentown that year.

If PA ever legalizes recreational use, I can all but guarantee the Amish will be growing the stuff if it makes them money. (Unless they have a religious objection.) The Amish will do anything legally to make money. LOL. Don't get me wrong.... the furniture and other handmade items they make, the crops and meats they produce, it's all high quality. But man.... they like their cash. 😆

I'm in PA now, and I sometimes wonder what the Amish have growing in all those farm fields!!! 😂

Not seeing anywhere near as much as many other years. Maybe I'm looking for buzz in all the wrong places. LOL

On the DCA side, in 1982 chief judge John Collum collapsed in front of us (Sunrisers) while we were performing at a Sunday afternoon show in CT. He died a short time later that day. It really shook us up to see that. A number of us knew John. My brother (Sun's director that year) was good friends with him.

For whatever reason(s)... topics for the offseason, I suppose.... there has been zero buzz about DCA, its corps, and its championship. The least hype/interest I can ever recall. Seems all the mojo is on the DCI side. What that says about DCA's future, I have no idea.

One thing stands out for me. Didn't see much this summer, but I like the trend of at least several DCI corps going in a more "fun for the fans" direction. Crown,for me, is the best example here for 2022. There are others from recent years. I spent the majority of my drum corps career around DCA corps, and got used to "fun" shows. Nice to see the DCI corps getting the memo. Ironically, and IMO only, several of the DCA groups now need to play catch-up here. For whatever reason, the script has been flipped.

From experience, that absolutely is a help. Sean King and his YEA crew were great at providing that info to me. Heh... but even the best effort by any announcer to get the proper pronunciation doesn't always work. Once, I asked two staff members of a DCA corps to pronounce their DM's name. They both gave me the same pronunciation. Turned out they were both wrong. LOL. When I could, I would directly ask a given DM for the correct info. But I know that's a lot easier to do at a smaller DCA show than a big DCI event.

DCI should give Brandt the opportunity to go as long he wants. It would be nice for him to go out at his circuit's big championship event as he sees fit. Unlike someone else I know. 🙄😎😂