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Could Crusader's win the Gold Medal?


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7 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Also it's Crusaders not Crusader's.

You would think I would have known that after marching with the Corps for 5 seasons. How many years did you march with the Corps so that you are so wise to it's ways? 

 

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Just now, BRASSO said:

  Get Tony DeCarlo to sign off on it, and you might be onto something there,  Bsader.. ( ...haha )

We did share a season together in '74. 

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3 minutes ago, Bsader said:

We did share a season together in '74. 

 I thought so to.

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53 minutes ago, Bsader said:

You would think I would have known that after marching with the Corps for 5 seasons. How many years did you march with the Corps so that you are so wise to it's ways?

Must... resist... further... note... on... apostr----------

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8 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Must... resist... further... note... on... apostr----------

Hey everybody!  We know whats going to trigger N.E. Brigand!  :laughing:

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18 hours ago, Tim K said:

I think every drum corps, drill team and CYO band in the Boston area has stories about the Bunker Hill Day parade (Charlestown) and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (South Boston) during the heated years, and they are not pretty. Groups that were racially diverse had far worse stories. Some of that carried into drum corps, and in my comment, I was referring to the old time drum corps rivalries and am not excusing what happened to your corps.

Why the focus on the South when Northeast cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, New York, or Newark had such blatant examples of racial violence? My theory, in the South the laws were on the books that allowed segregation, in the Northeast it involved attitudes. It’s a lot easier to change laws than attitudes. 

I grew up in Southie in the Old Colony Project. I was a member of the Mustangs wether I wanted to be or not. It was geographic.. We lived in a town within the city. Drum Corps was St. Kevin's practicing at Columbia Park, the Gatesmen practising where ever they could.  You cannot second guess , pontificate, or refer to a standard established by someone from Wellesley when you were raised in an area with trees. All of our fathers worked for local 25 or in the ILA. ( Boston docks )

There was less hatred of non white people in Southie and Charlestown than there was in other areas. it was understood that they were trying to make a living also. 

It was a game of governmental checkers that pitted people against each other to accommodate dictates of the federal govt.

Fortunately times have changed and people can be who they want to be and not have to live by neighborhood rules that outsiders will never understand..

We are better now, and drum corps. ( beginning with the Holy Trinity Cadets ) paved the way to some extent. A mayor named Flynn from Southie was the reason that there are now ranking fireman and police in Boston

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On 7/15/2018 at 1:37 PM, Bluzes said:

Well attitudes didn't change much in the early 90's were I was the Engineering Director for Cablevision of Boston, told sales director watch who he sends into Southie of course he had to learn from experience when one of his sales force got an ax through his windshield. On a lighter note my son waited till I moved on to Southern Connecticut when he decided to join the Crusaders (94) would leave work early on Friday to get him to practice at some factory parking lot in back of South Station only to find some cars still in the lot and the corps marching around them. Would think I left early for this?

 I have been reading what i thought was my cute little wise ### topic suddenly turn into a serious discussion about race relations in the city of Boston both past and present. Their is a part of me that wants to try to bring it back to it's silly inception but their is another part of me that feels the urge to wade in to this seriousness so as to make what I feel is a necessary point. Since I tend to be more serious than silly...here I go.  

My Father was born in South Boston in the year 1925. Growing up he was was a "bit of a boxer" and participated in boxing exhibitions during World War II. One of these exhibitions was refereed by the great boxing champion Joe Louis who gave my Father a pair of boxing gloves after he won his match. My father left me these gloves when he passed. They were more than a bit torn up when I got them as my Father let my four brothers and I, and the kids in the neighborhood, beat the snort out of each other with them. It was more important to my Dad that his kids were "having fun" than it was for him to hide those gloves away as the prized possession.

My Father was a humble man so to get him to tell a story which would shine a light upon him was liking pulling teeth so you need to take that into account as I relate to you this story. My Father hardly ever drank though he told me he did during the war (World War II) and I'm sure you can imagine why. Because he was a boxer and was now drinking during the war I asked him if he ever gotten into one of those famous bar room brawls between the Army and the Navy that have always been depicted in the movies or on TV. He simply said no which led me to ask.... So you never got into a fight, drinking like you did, during the war? He hesitated and then began to tell a story about being in a bar in the country of Wales, where he was stationed before the invasion of Normandy of which he participated in along with the invasion of Okinawa. (Yes, he fought in both theaters of operations.) He told me that he was in this bar in Wales drinking next to another patron who happened to be an African-American. They weren't together, they just happened to be in the same place at the same time which was not a problem for my Father as he was white but was definitely a problem for this gentleman as this was during the 1940's and he happened to be black an they were far from being the only ones in that bar and two of these others who happened to be in this bar were from the South and they were incensed that the owner would allow a black man into the same drinking establishment they were now frequenting. My Father told me these two men of the South proceed to denigrate this African-American man with words that he could not believe one would use in order to abuse another human being. My Father told me that it got to the point that he just couldn't take it anymore. It was at this point that I began to notice that, as my Father told me of this experience,  he was becoming more and more upset to the point at which he suddenly stopped talking. I was hesitant to ask the obvious question but I did...did you do anything about it Dad. Yes, he replied, I knocked them out. Again, as a humble man my Fathers response was not said in a way to impress me nor would he feel comfortable with the fact that I was writing of his experience on DCP in a way that made him out to be some kind of hero. But my Father was a hero and a good man and in case I ever forgot that I was always reminded of this fact by others who, during the course of my life, would walk up to me, shake my hand, ask me If i was Red Manning's son, and when I told them that I was, they would look me straight in the eye to make sure I was paying attention and then they would tell me"You're Father is a good man." It wasn't just the words they would use in letting me know of their respect they had for my Father it was how they said them in this earnest way so as to make sure I was aware as to how very fortunate I was. That's a wonderful way for a boy to grow up. My Father was a good man and he grew up in "Southie."  So... not everyone needed to change their attitude in South Boston and I'm sure the same is true of many who grew up in the South at the same time. Were their far too many who did need to change their attitude....absolutely. Are their still too many who need to? Yes! But not all of them. 

Now, let's get back to the silliness that was submitted by this wise-### alumnus of the Boston Crusaders.... without an apostrophe. 

Edited by Bsader
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Didn't mean to stir this all up, like the things that seem to have affected your Dad and the things from the past that affect me appear to be one and the same even if he was from Southie and me from the worst of the worst places in New Jersey it's all how you turn out.

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