The future of the Cadets

[BigW]

3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

"Crossmen you may push your buses to competition"

On that note, this article is excellent:

http://joshinthesouth.blogspot.com/2009/02/crossmen-spirit-bond.html

I remember one of their Bass Drummers telling me about the death/asplosion of the "Boy's Bus" out in the desert. Sheer chaos and anarchy.

 

[FTNK]

12 hours ago, Tim K said:

The bus issues back in the day were not limited to drum corps. I can recall a local school district  offering free tetanus shots for kids who did not walk to school. This would have been in the 1970’s. I guess kids were getting cuts while riding the busses from sharp edges and springs popping through the seats. I don’t recall an uproar about the tetanus shots either.

I’ve heard all sorts of crazy bus stories. One friend who marched told me kids would take turns making sure the bus driver stayed awake. Another corps that did not compete nationally had a high school kid drive when a bus driver did not show up. It was a local circuit show and just before scores were announced, the announcer asked if anyone had a license to drive a school bus and could help out. That did cause a stir.

One of the Legacy videos has an extra of the old “On the Road Again” segments with kids pushing a bus to get it going.

One of our techs had to drive the guard bus for a few days and that was in 2004! But then again that was the aforementioned wonderful Cap Reg... 

I guess when I marched (2004-2006) was right at the end of corps owning their own (often decrepit) buses before charters became the norm. As far as I know 2006 was the last time Cadets used their own buses

Edited May 2, 2018 by FTNK

[MikeD]

17 hours ago, BRASSO said:

... uphill.... in the snow.... both ways...... Haha!

 Just kiddin'... Its true, more than once did lots of Corps marchers have to get out and push a Corps bus to get it moving... even if off the road, so the dam thing could be towed... lol

I mentioned Blue Rock's buses in a thread. They had one horrific bus that the corps members had to push to get it started. It also had no reverse, so they had to be very careful where they parked it.   

In the Cadets, we had relatively decent buses, but on tour once we had to get out of one of the buses and walk up a steep hill because the bus was having trouble with the incline. They made us walk in front just in case the bus started to slide backwards down the hill.