Fran Haring

Not counting on DCI's fortunes to improve? 😂

Saw a video recently of the 1998 Grand Prix in Clifton and the NY Skyliners Alumni corps' exhibition at the start of the evening. The concert side was filled, and it's a good-sized stadium. And this before the DCA corps even took the field that night. Sorry if this sounds like a "get off my lawn/back in MY day" post... but times indeed have changed.

In my bad-beer drinking days, Strohs, to me at least, was actually a cut above Bud/Miller/Coors. And Pabst Blue Ribbon was better than all of them. Now I can barely even look at that stuff. 😅

Definitely. Two terrific city corps. And the Riversiders from NYC. My older brothers got started in drum corps in 1967 with a NJ Garden State Circuit group. I'd go to shows with my folks, and the Riversiders were the first corps to really get my attention. They were great that year... dominated the circuit.

Being a total novice here with this stuff... does this mean the Cavies might be the next candidate to turn out the lights, for at least a while?

Absolutely!!! They had a great corps in the late 1960s-early 70s.

Not a packed house at the Grand Prix anymore. For several years now.

Sending you a PM on FB Messenger. I think you'll get a kick out of it. 😂

LOL!!! I'm sticking around for a bit longer as my fiancee Brenda's biggest fan, since she'll be part of the Crossmen Alumni 50th Anniversary corps in 2024. She's a 1980-81 Bones alum.

And that chatter makes sense, to me at least. To be absolutely honest... there are several DCA corps that are not close to having a finished product on the field well into July. NOT denigrating those corps.... it gets tougher every year to keep their corps alive, and I salute their efforts... but just stating a sign of the times, I guess. Not sure the early-season show sponsors and, yes, the fans, are getting their money's worth, in total. But hey... I'm just a blast from the past spitballin' here. So whatever. 🙂

The George Washington Carver Gay Blades!!! A senior corps from Newark, NJ. The Long Island Sunrisers DCA corps picked up several Gay Blades members in the mid-1960s. Quite frankly, there were not many options for African-Americans to join a senior corps in the NYC area in that era. The Gay Blades were majority if not entirely Black, and the Sunrisers and NY Skyliners were integrated. Two of the Gay Blades who joined Sun... color guard captain and, later, visual designer and caption head Gene Bennett, and quartermaster/goodwill ambassador Alfred "Uncle Nick" Nichols... have been inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame. We in Sun were lucky to have them on board! Gene's visual shows, circa mid to late 1970s, were several years ahead of the curve in DCA.

One of the coolest things during my PA announcing days was getting a chance to read the Marines' writeup at that Hershey show and at the Cumberland, MD, DCA show. My friend Alex Duff was the drum corps' public affairs officer, and he liked my work (one of three people who did 😂)... so he let me do the gig instead of the usual "Marine voice" the corps used. Quite an honor!

That Hershey show was great. Run by Larry Hershman and his Five Star Brass crew, with a solid DCI/DCA lineup. I had the privilege of announcing that show from 1992 through its final year in 2005.

I still think 50-cent beers at shows would bring in the crowds. Even if the crowds are too drunk to care about what they're watching.

That sucks. Watched several of those videos. A nice trip down Memory Lane.

The futility of the tick system. LOL. 1974, my Eastern States corps had three midrange players... myself, another French horn player, and a mellophone. One night those two had to miss a show, so I was all alone. For whatever reason, I had the worst show I had all season. Total gackfest. But on the brass sheets... zero midrange ticks. 😂 Where was that hearing-aid salesman when they needed him???

My first year with an Eastern States Circuit corps, 1971, one of the field brass judges zeroed out several corps, including us, at one show, while the other judge (in the old Side One/Side Two days) gave out scores that were basically in line with how we all performed that day. From what I recall, that "zero judge" was never heard from again. 😂

Didn't that happen to the Crossmen not too long ago, and almost cost them a finalist spot? Of course, that was separate from the time they almost missed Finals due to the "warmup location violation" issue. LOL

I had the opportunity to work for Dan and the DCI Tour crew as the PA announcer at a few shows. Dan went out of his way to make me feel welcome, and I really appreciated that. A good man. I wish him well.

For a few days last week, it looked like Kevin McCarthy might be available for this job.

If I could predict the future, I'd be out buying lottery tickets.

Yep... remember it well. Didn't you guys win the weekend before championships as well?

LOL!!! That '82 Rochester show... we were on 1st in a 10-corps show (the days of the "blind draw" lineups). Seemed like half the crowd wasn't even in the stands yet when we performed, around 6 PM. LOL. When we ended up 5th, but only a couple of points out of 1st, and with the Hurcs ending Westshore's unbeaten season that night, we figured "hey... we're still in this"... busted our butts down the home stretch, and got it done! A great comeback summer for us, after an offseason where we were barely drawing 20 horns at several rehearsals into the spring months.

This is from the DCA side, but a halfway decent obscure fact/bit of trivia: In 1981 and 1982, the corps that won DCA's Rochester Regional show (the championship finalists from the previous year) finished third at the DCA championship finals, and the corps that finished fifth at the regional ended up winning the DCA title that year. 1981: Buccaneers win the regional, Hurricanes finish fifth. Hurcs win DCA title, Bucs finish third. 1982: Hurricanes win the regional, Sunrisers in fifth. Sun wins the DCA title (my last year with them!) and Hurcs finish third. I'm here all week, folks. Try the prime rib.

It is. Also independent of DCA and any other drum corps organization. There are a lot of inductees who have been associated with DCA, but there also are numerous inductees who are most well known for their work with DCI. Also several "crossovers" who have worked with both circuits, and some whose work pre-dates DCA and DCI.