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Drum Corps horror stories


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He's an assistant drum major this year I believe. He had trouble marching again and was in the front ensemble but they moved him to like third or fourth drum major

^ What he said. The kid's name is Ryan, he's a pretty good guy. Sadly he can't march, but at least he gets to be a part of the corps and on the field with them, even with his injury.

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I think it was Cap Reg 06 that had like 30 people go to the hospital during a rehearsal day in Kansas? I think Cavaliers gave them some food?

I don't think they're the only corps to end up with stuff like that. Haven't there been many cases of mass corps food poisoning over the years?

And anyone around in '09 remember the drum corps flu? There were corps losing 20 or 30 kids out of shows going back and forth to the hospital. I know my corps had to segregate out an entire bus just for the sick kids so they didn't spread it to the rest of us.

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October 1993 I was in a bad car accident, snapped my femur in half and shattered a vertebrae in my neck as well as fracturing 2 more. 3 months later (and a mere 2 weeks after having the HALO device removed from my head) I was at Colts audition camp. At the time, I was still walking with the use of a cane to support the hip-to-knee metal rod and 3 screws in my left leg.

I left the cane at home and auditioned playing and marching to earn my spot. Where there's a will, there's a way! :thumbup:

Have you seen Crown's show this year? Could you imagine marching that on a messed up leg?

I jacked up my knee three years ago while marching, and it still gives me problems with really high velocity drill, I can't imagine doing it on a shattered leg with a bunch of metal in it

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I don't think they're the only corps to end up with stuff like that. Haven't there been many cases of mass corps food poisoning over the years?

And anyone around in '09 remember the drum corps flu? There were corps losing 20 or 30 kids out of shows going back and forth to the hospital. I know my corps had to segregate out an entire bus just for the sick kids so they didn't spread it to the rest of us.

I was just going to bring that up!

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I was just going to bring that up!

That sucked for all of us. Trying to shove as much orange juice and Vitamin C in that you could, just to try and not get sick. We were given express orders from our director to not talk to or come into contact from anyone from other corps just in case they could be sick, which really sucked when you had good friends in competing corps. Crown just had to get everyone sick. :tongue:

I think the only time my corps marched a full 150 between San Antonio and Finals was Finals night, because even the sick kids didn't want to miss that night

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Have you seen Crown's show this year? Could you imagine marching that on a messed up leg?

I jacked up my knee three years ago while marching, and it still gives me problems with really high velocity drill, I can't imagine doing it on a shattered leg with a bunch of metal in it

'94 Colts third tune. 218 bpm for half the song. Also another 218 bpm in the Reprise/Closer. With a metal rod and 3 pins in the largest bone in the human body and the principal weight bearing bone, less than 7 months after shattering it in a near-fatal accident.

This isn't in any way directed at that kid. Watched it happen. It was brutal. Just saying that some have overcome pretty tremendous odds to do what we love.

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This isn't quite on par with shattered legs and car rollovers, but still wasn't any picnic: in the middle of the '93 season, I started having severe abdominal pain, which I first attributed to Taco Bell LOL, but turned out to be a kidney stone. After several hours of misery in the ER, it was diagnosed and I was admitted to the hospital in Wichita Falls, TX. Then the real fun began as due to the density of my drum corps tan, it took 4 nurses and 5 attempts to put an IV in my arm, since no one could find a vein! Human pincushion! I refer to that place as The Chamber of Horrors.

Our corps was structured in a way that I would take over as Director for the second half of tour, which was starting in a few days, so going home wasn't an option - no one else could do my job. I had to stay in the hospital until the pain stopped, though the Dr. couldn't determine if the stone was completely gone or not. I ended up taking my medical records with me, in case it suddenly struck again somewhere down the road.

At least we got some humor out of the ordeal once I got back to the corps. I was under strict orders to drink an enormous amount of water, and since I ran ensemble rehearsals from the scaffolding, this resulted in my constantly having to climb down the thing to run to the bathroom RIGHT NOW, which of course resulted in much amusement for the kids.

Interesting side note: kidney stones in drum corps or a brief time after are not uncommon. When I was on the Magic staff a few years later, I knew 3 or 4 people who had also had them at a young age. My theory was it had something to do with the water intake and that was confirmed by a doctor I went to a few years ago (I still have to get checked for them). He had a kid who marched corps and said the dehydration issue that everyone deals with from so much sun and heat exposure is definitely a contributing factor.

So, keep hydrated folks!

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I'm not sure if it was '77 or '78 while I was marching with the Cabs, but we had, I believe, the American Legion Parade in West Paterson, NJ before we were heading to march in the Reading Buccaneers show that night. On the way back to the Post, we were informed that one of the Muchachos, David Renaldo and a couple of other Muchachos were in a horrific accident on Route 80 heading back from the parade. I remember coming off the field at Reading that night when Jim Costello told all of us that David was in dire need of blood, and if we could, to go to the hospital when we got home to donate. Unfortunately, David died that night. It was a tragic night for everyone in Hawthorne.

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