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Why did we........?


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....like those shows in Marion, Butler, Lynn, etc?

Not a lot of posting going on so I thought I would throw this out.

We have chatted about this, somewhat before, but why did we love those cities that we traveled to almost every year. Marion, Ohio was a small city but yet when I first went there in 1972 I felt that this is the capitol of drum corps. So many corps in one city, so many corps jackets wandering the city. The first year we stayed in an old elementary school that had toilets flush when you stood up. We had to rehearse on the playground that had swing sets on it. Another year we slept in a fire hall, upstairs in the middle of the city. Youngsters today just wouldn't understand!

Butler, PA and we were placed in an elementary school somewhere on a hill, was it Mars? I don't remember. Every corps went to the community pool.

Lynn? I went there twice in 1982 and 86. Not much to remember. But many of you do.

Sheffield, PA on Rt. 666 (Yep, hard to believe!) started out as a strange place to have a show. Across the street from the firehall with a festival going on behind the makeshift field. Later they moved it to the high school. We stayed in a roundish building across the street from the contest site and you had to cross a bridge to get there. I think the place burned down years later.

So.....how about your favorite cities?

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At Marion it was really exciting to see 30 drum & bugle corps in the parade the night before the competitions got started. The very first time I ever saw the Blue Devils was at the '73 parade. Every fast food restaurant had signs welcoming drum corps fans and members. My brother and his wife lived just two blocks from the Harding Stadium, where all of the 1972 action took place. (In '71 and '73 some of the prelims were held off-site.)

The local cable tv station broadcast tons of drum corps stuff, including the parade. (I'd love to know if any video survives today.)

There was a HUGE tragedy at the Marion parade the first year I went, in '71. Nancy Mauro, a member of the I.C. Reveries (Revere, MA) was killed when she was hit by a car.

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>>Marion, Ohio was a small city but yet when I first went there in 1972 I felt that this is the capitol of drum corps. So many corps in one city, so many corps jackets wandering the city.<<

Too bad you didn't get to experience two other "Drum Corps Capitols" in the 50's and 60's - Bridgeport, CT and Newark, NJ ... two inner-city, urban areas that spawned a multitude of National caliber players and corps ... every night kids would caravan around to whatever corps was rehearsing and then socialize at a local pizza or burger joint ... I also envision Chicago as having the same kind of city drum corps feel, and of course Boston with the whole multi-leveled CYO circuit ...

A wonderful time in drum corps ...

:-)

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"Wonderful Time In Drum Corps":

INDEED!!!!!!!!!! Piling into a car and riding off to Hedges Stadium or Bullard Havens Tech to watch the PAL Cadets, or to the US Naval Reserve at Seaside to watch St Raphael's Buccaneers, over to Stratford to watch the Yankees, or up Route 8 to catch the Connecticut Hurricanes,

A truly 'Wonderful time in Drum Corps'.

Elphaba

WWW

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>>"Wonderful Time In Drum Corps":

INDEED!!!!!!!!!! Piling into a car and riding off to Hedges Stadium or Bullard Havens Tech to watch the PAL Cadets, or to the US Naval Reserve at Seaside to watch St Raphael's Buccaneers, over to Stratford to watch the Yankees, or up Route 8 to catch the Connecticut Hurricanes,

A truly 'Wonderful time in Drum Corps'.

Elphaba

WWW <<

... and Elsworth Field for St. Ann's or the Wakeman's Boys Club field for the Royal Lancers or the CT Post Mall for the Shoreliners ...

:-)

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At Marion it was really exciting to see 30 drum & bugle corps in the parade the night before the competitions got started. The very first time I ever saw the Blue Devils was at the '73 parade. Every fast food restaurant had signs welcoming drum corps fans and members. My brother and his wife lived just two blocks from the Harding Stadium, where all of the 1972 action took place. (In '71 and '73 some of the prelims were held off-site.)

The local cable tv station broadcast tons of drum corps stuff, including the parade. (I'd love to know if any video survives today.)

There was a HUGE tragedy at the Marion parade the first year I went, in '71. Nancy Mauro, a member of the I.C. Reveries (Revere, MA) was killed when she was hit by a car.

71 Prelims were held at Harding. Trust me I'm the guy who "got left behind".

We had great housing in 71. We stayed at Ohio Wesleyan College. I can still taste the blueberry cobbler.

It was also a great show with Blue Rock pulling out the win in probably the most competitive year ever in the history of "this thing of ours"

Edited by Bucbari
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71 Prelims were held at Harding. Trust me I'm the guy who "got left behind".

No, all prelims in '71 and the class 'A' prelims in '73 were held at River Valley High School stadium, which was part of the Marion school district.

edit: (I still have the programs to prove it.) They held prelims there in the early years. Here's a newspaper archive clip from 1969 mentioning prelims being held at River Valley. (You don't need to be a newspapers.com subscriber to see the text, if you scroll down to the OCR Text you will see it.) https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/10426611/

I remember hearing the p.a. announcer mention the Sacred Heart Crusaders member who got left behind in '71. :smile:

Edited by Northern Thunder
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No I believe the person left behind was Bucbari.

It was.

Brian and Keith, what you said earlier about Marion... I agree. That town really rolled out the red carpet for the corps at the U.S. Open. Great atmosphere for that event. In 1971 for the Open, we were housed at a local college... and like George said earlier, the food at the cafeteria there was great!!! We didn't even come close to making Finals, but we certainly ate well. :tongue:

The World Open in Lynn MA.... the Manning Bowl. One of those stadiums that was not exactly a state-of-the-art venue...LOL... but there was something about the place that was just magic.

Same with Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ... longtime home of the National Dream contest. To be honest, the stadium was a run-down dump... an accident waiting to happen. But there was no better place to be than at the Dream on a hot summer Sunday afternoon. IMO, the most unique contest in the history of drum corps. I was privileged to both attend that show as a fan, and to march there with DCA's Sunrisers.

Edited by Fran Haring
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