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What Did You Put Up With?


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I recall one year, we were so short of bus drivers, our Vibe player doubled as one of our bus drivers. Can you imagine rehearsel all day long, then driving a bus anywhere from 4-8 hours afterwards? I recall being so scared of him having to drive, I would sit next to him keeping him company talking and all, as I remember seeing how tired he looked. And he was 19 at the time. He had the proper license to drive but still, can't imagine a corps being allowed to do this today.

I actually drove and taught both 27th and ECJ. I do think 2-7 had a member or two drive short shifts and I'm pretty sure they were not the only one.

I remember on one tour, 84 I think, the kids on my bus set up a schedule to keep me awake. One night, one of the snare drummers (Rick Carr) came up to me and said what should I talk about? I said anything you want, tell me about yourself. He said: "Well I was born on a Tuesday....." Great drummer, funny funny guy.

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I marched a summer with the Frontiersmen (81) after I got out of the Army. The regular bus driver quit before we were to leave and so I ended up driving the members bus with no license the rest of the summer. Sleep? Heck I didn't know what that was. We were to leave Binghampton to Montreal when I said enough is enough and the corps director drove. I hadn't had any sleep from Marion to Butler to Binghampton. Add rehearsals to that. I was stupid then!

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In 1971 we left Santa Clara in 3 busses the corps had purchased from the Troopers. I believe they were 40’s era Brills. We got as far as Milpitas (about 5 miles) before the first buss broke down. It wasn’t a good omen. As it turned out, we ended up doing the majority of the tour with only 2 busses running at any one time. I recall praying that we would survive the trip over Sierra’s. I remember standing in the aisle for an entire 6 hour ride to La Crosse. Outside of Toronto we had 1 buss run into the back of another. About a dozen members marched the show that night with whip lash and wearing neck braces. In Boston we were down to 1 buss (due to the accident) and I remember going to a show (I believe World Open) with the entire corps stuffed into one buss and the equipment truck. On the way home, in the middle of the desert, outside of Needles one buss caught fire. A CHP officer arrived at the scene and told GR, “You need to move that buss out of the middle of the road.” GR replied, “But sir, the buss is on fire!” Every trip that year was an adventure, but we took home the VFW trophy and that, as members, was all we worried about.

True, every bit of it. I was in the back third of the bus that did the running into (bus #3). And the drive in the back of the truck from the warmup site to Manning Bowl for World Open finals was something to remember and very motivational.

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Practicing 2+ hours at a stretch (on a hot parking lot usually), with no water breaks.

and stretching was hurry up and run to the starting line.

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Thank you all for sharing your experiences, even though I never got to march with a corps, I still enjoy reading all of the posts.

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When we think back, it's pretty amazing what was allowed when we marched in the 70s and 80s. By all accounts the world wasn't such a bad place and our parents weren’t outraged with what we went through, in fact they accepted it and waited at shows to cheer us on. However, we know certain things would not be tolerated now, by the members OR the parents.

Just think about:

• The bus rides: Always breaking down, no AC, no bathrooms, one driver for 14 hours

• Housing sites: Sleeping outside in a parking lot because there was no housing, sleeping in a basement of a closed church, no showers (cold showers were a welcome surprise)

• Practice fields: They had more holes, bugs and no rest room facilities

• Food: Well we all know many a corps that had dry cereal, BP&J and stale chips or a ham sandwich for a meal. The norm was at least 1 meal a day was on your own.

Corps today would fold or be turned in to DCI for that.

What did you go through, or know of?

On our 1971 tour from Garfield to Miami for a Dolphin pre-season game, and then on to Dallas for VFW Nats, with a final stop at Six flags over Georgia on the way home, we used to station corps members in shifts sitting on a water cooler near the bus driver to talk to him, in order to keep him from falling asleep!

Also had to walk up a loooooong hill someplace in the South because the busses couldn't make it with us inside.

Going from Miami to Dallas we ended up sleeping under the stars at a football stadium in Baton Rouge, as we had no sleeping arrangements for that one night.

Just a few of the fun times!!!! :thumbup:

Practice fields? Our normal drill practice "field" every week was the parking lot at the Bergen County jail in Hackensack, as the town of Garfield made us stop very early. We could hear the inmates yelling and fighting inside.

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No air conditioning on the busses.

Having to push the same aforementioned busses.

Housing that was sometimes in "sketchy" neighborhoods.

Satin-lined wool uniforms on 100 degree + days.

Parades with horses (or worse Elephants).

No cell coverage....'course they didn't exist yet.

No wifi, or laptops...see above.

Impromptu marching rehersals in the truck stop parking lot.

And worst of all:

.

.

.

.

.

.

Disco music. :thumbdown:

(Yes, I do realize that the words "Disco" and "Music" are mutually exclusive.)

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No air conditioning on the busses.

Having to push the same aforementioned busses.

Housing that was sometimes in "sketchy" neighborhoods.

Satin-lined wool uniforms on 100 degree + days.

Parades with horses (or worse Elephants).

No cell coverage....'course they didn't exist yet.

No wifi, or laptops...see above.

Impromptu marching rehersals in the truck stop parking lot.

And worst of all:

Disco music. :thumbdown:

(Yes, I do realize that the words "Disco" and "Music" are mutually exclusive.)

Ah yes, forgot the lines at the pay phones to call home, (or the significant other) you left behind. Had to make sure your new tour bus mate wasn't around when those calls were made.

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Most of these have been mentioned but here is what we had to put up with.

1. Playing instruments that were probably already 20 years old.

2. Not being able to read music and noone to teach me.

3. Homemade Uniforms which we laundered and pressed ourselves.

4. Buses which had no air conditioning or bathrooms

5. Sometimes no buses and just cars

6. Riding to and from shows in the back of the equipment truck

7. Marching members driving buses

8. We left members (unintentionally) in Philidelphia PA, Kewanee Ill., Norwalk, OH

9. Sleeping outside at a rest stop on the way to Lynn MA.

10.Parades with horses

11. Playing a drum corps show on a minor league ball field

12. Rehearsing in parking lots (Veterans Field), corn fields, county fair grounds

13. Eating hot dogs cooked ( or just warmed up) in a men's shower room

14. Eating at the Red Barn

Good times!

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