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I forgot my black shoes once in Kilties and we put black electric tape over my sneakers. We didn’t have to do the entire shoe because we wore spats.

That's not the first time where I've heard the feeling that the inspections were being used to tilt the playing field.

There was a friend at the Bucs in the early 80's who forgot his pants. They fashioned a pair of pants out of Hefty bags and electrical taped it to him. Luckily they had those long blue coats at the time down to just above the ankles, and no one noticed during the performance.

For high school, we had to have all white shoes for summer parade (white shorts, the years orange band T shirt, and specific calf high socks that we bought from the school. Fall uniform was black shoes of our own, must be all black with high black socks. Often the spray paint was pulled out to ensure "all one color" much to the annoyance of parents on a budget trying to balance kids' fashion desires with a need for marching band shoes. [waves] I became proficient in using tape well enough and picking the most bland shoes I could. So my shoe game was terribly dull until college. When I promptly got the loudest most colorful running shoes I could. My senior year though we had new uniforms with white pants and white shoes that were uniform marching shoes, so that at least alleviated the shoe budget for some families

Regarding some of the permissiveness of certain things in Cadets culture in the GH era--- I'm gonna throw a lifeline and see if someone knows this with more certainty. Around 2006ish a friend and I were discussing Cadets and they shared some videos with me and explained how well the visual package was coordinated into the music. I'm watching and I hear this hollering on the video, not the normal crowd yells like "WE LOVE YOU, JEFF!!" stuff. I'm like, "what was that!?" and I was told it was a Cadets staff member yelling at some performer in the brass. He then resets and tells me to watch the brass. I see someone a bit out of form and after a couple of replays, it's IIRC "OH, GOD, (name of brass player)!!!!!!!!" Thinking it's the 2005 show possibly. If it were me, that instructor wouldn't be back the next season. And had they not been back, I'm sure some other corps would have snapped them right up.

A lot of these comments bring back memories. Dad was an Industrial Engineer in the steel industry, and he told me that at one time, HR was called "Industrial Relations", and it was about establishing good, positive, and strong relations between Labor and management, and that was how he was taught in college around 1960, and that's how he worked for 33 years. Then, the term changed and that's when things began to jump the shark. People were no longer people but a resource like a crop to be harvested or scrap steel to be bought to recycle into railroad wheels. Something to think hard about.

Something I was told at some point in Drum Corps or College that made me stop on a dime: "You teach like you were taught." Read my last post about what was done to me at Syracuse. When I heard that little saying, I was determined NOT to do that. I learned HOW to teach from my brass instructors in corps and my college Wind Ensemble conductors. Some people like my HS band director, what to do and not to do. Some, what NOT to do. Getting a grad degree in Educational Development and Strategies also got me onto strong paths as an educator. Regarding Xylo's quote, I've seen abuse patterns exhibited by a student in a band I worked with. Ugly and still disturbing 25 years later.

If the judges had any inkling what was coming in the fall, they would have put Cadets 7th (or possibly even 8th).

I'm saying this only half tongue in cheek, but most of those types of folks are too busy actually running drum corps... Mike

Jim once laughed at what a DI was saying to another Marine and he asked if something was funny. Jim said “Funny as hell, sir!” He ended up doing push-ups. He has a few funny stories from the Marine Corps. He worked in avionics and one day a REO griped the deceptive electronic countermeasures unit and said it didn’t work in the O.F.F. Position. 🤦‍♀️

I wish there was an intelligent, mature, informed podcast that discussed the art form and the business of drum corps, one where the folks who actually know what's what would be willing to go on and discuss the activity and provide insight and clarity to listeners. Can't imagine anyone respectable lending their cred to DCAF.

I couldn't help laughing the first time a DI got in my face and screamed. Once. Never happened again when 3 more of them seemed to surround me like f'ing dementors in the blink of an eye. I think it was because I grew up with generations of military in my family and they all told me that drill instructors/sergeants were just playing a role. Nobody outside of Dickens novels is that much of a caricature and that was my reaction the first time. But yeah, when 4 of them were surrounding me, "accidentally" bumping into me and pushing me around, I got over the laughing thing pronto. And I did end up having 1 DI out of 5 who was indeed a caricature. Just a nasty little guy who liked having power over others. The other DI's did their best to protect us from him in their own subtle ways. Back to high school marching band inspection back in the day, if anybody forgot black socks before parade inspection, our band director spray painted our ankles and feet black. Different times. And @happycomposer, I'm hoping you'll keep us updated about your findings. I've always been curious about this as well but really didn't even know where to begin.

I get that. And you are right.

To be fair, probably less amusing in the actual military than in a drum corps inspection. What with one of them being the military and the other being band.

Yeah, saying that DCI knew the end was coming and "gave" Cadets the 5th place finish was conspiracy theory, clueless, and just plain stupid. The Cadets came in 5th because they were better than everyone beneath them, including this woman's beloved Regiment. They deserved their placement, and I say this as a Boston supporter.

Indeed. I learned that all too well recently with the discovery of new info regarding a fellow alum. It rocked me to my core. Additionally, there is a straight line path from the abuse I endured and my return to academia to learn to be a pedagogue. Much more to say here but it'll edge this thread closer to closure so I'll keep it to myself. Several of my abusers are still active and beloved in the activity so... ya know... I'm the bad guy.

Enjoyed the podcast as well and even got a few laughs from it. 1) Nikki's comment about DCI "giving" The Cadets 5th place last year because they new this was coming. - Yeah, ok. 😅 2) the ballad from 2023 - the comment about only realizing how good it was after recently hearing it added to a clip from Kung Fu Panda - where were you all season last year? I do love the Kung Fu Panda mash up tho...

Somethings really are, unfortunately, as simple as "boy grows up watching dad abuse mom, grows up and abuses his partner." Drum corps is no different. It takes work to find a different path than the one you were brought up in. Any time I have been involved in marching education I have been keenly aware and focused on not letting how I was originally taught be how I put things forward. Those old behavior pathways are always there, worn into the brain, and available to travel if I am not cautious and mindful.

But mellophones take up the slack with JD Shaw arrangements...

I can handle hot living down here in Floriduh but I am going north for the summer this year. Three summers of swamp hot so it’s time for a little break.

Even my son has two. All the iterations of Southwind are gone and it seems to be forever. We know what happened to Cap Sound.. big fish eats little fish to survive.

This should be good!

What, the George Soros of drum corps..wow.

Jeff, I couldn't sleep after I realized there was yet another Red Flag I was aware of that you wouldn't have been aware of for very good reasons. I've kept it to myself for 30 years and have only discussed it a couple of days ago with someone else. Since this thread involves abuse- That contact person within the corps that we both know that I mentioned? Well, someone took that individual where there were no witnesses during a rehearsal and struck them. Who, Mom and I don't know, we just know the individual was struck and was afraid to say who it was. 30 years is a long time, but I'm thinking that was when Mom hit me with the question as to what in Hades was happening there. Mom and I don't know who it was. And whomever it was should be thankful I don't know. *sigh* There was also the joint Bingo with the Fire Department where it was decided by the Management that it wasn't worth it. A loss of easy and steady income at the time. There's another Red Flag I remember. A lot of times, I know more about many things that I let on, Jeff. I know to many I might come across as a total rube and a goof, but I figure I'm better off underestimated. I know we agree on one thing, Jeff, and I believe everyone on this thread agrees: We want the experience to be far, far better for young people who want to be challenged hard in this activity. It's an intense crucible where one finds out a lot about themselves. Without the discipline I learned and kept with me, I prolly would have given up in the hospital two Augusts ago. But I know I was determined and disciplined enough to fight hard from my corps experience. We need transparency and professionalism badly. People need to stop running away from these things and try and bury it. Yeah, it's horribly embarrassing. Being called out and called a "Worthless sack of (insert colorful Noun)" like I was over the PA system at the Syracuse State Fair Grounds Stadium when I was 16 in the middle of a rehearsal was pretty embarrassing, and it still gets whole lots of great ho-ho-hos and chuckles when its brought up. I just smile and chuckle along, so funny. I overcame it and then some. I was determined to make it in the activity. Some folks might not have overcame that. The activity needs to learn from this stuff and do better.

Jeff, there were things I knew that happened before that. The big Red Flag was when the Business Manager passed away suddenly and the Director took the role of both Director and Business Manager by convincing people that's fine. and getting voted in. Right there's a huge Red Flag. Loss of Checks and Balances in management. That alone should have been a concern from everyone, and it wasn't. Those are two separate positions for good reasons, and it should have been done by two different individuals in spite of the sudden emergency situation. Some responsible individual should have been found. Bad things usually happen when one person is given too much control and there's no one there to check them. No, I wasn't there. I ended up doing other things with DCA. And if I was there at that point, I would have voiced very serious concerns about that alone and been shot down in flames. Likely been laughed out of the room. I look back when I made an approach about coming back in 1992 and got shot down. I think it was because I was thought of by the certain person who shot me down as someone who was going to ask too many questions about too many things. There were other things I was privy too through contacts where things were shady and questionable before the Championship. It was why Mom had her questions. It's why that contact I had got the heck out of there before things got really bad and made sure the books on their end were tight. You can figure out who. Yes, the house got cleaned after 1the championship- but the damage was done in many ways before it, and there were enough clues there that even someone like me was concerned. Many folks were kind of oblivious or maybe they might not have wanted to look closer? There was a Championship to win, and if this stuff got dug up, it would have been a distraction. Folks wouldn't have been happy. As it was, folks were unhappy in many aspects. Was there an annual corps meeting some time around March where the corps' expenses were explained and itemized and how the income was raised and what the corps monetary balance was at that time after the Business Manager died? Just asking. That was done for 5 of the six seasons I was there, the Sixth was that whole insane six-week effort, and that really doesn't count. There's another red flag if the combination Director/Business Manager at that time didn't sit down and take the time to seriously discuss this with the membership like it used to be done. If that was done, all well and good, but I'm seriously asking you. Somehow, given who was the responsible person to lay out the accounting to the membership, I'm betting the answer is "no" and the excuse would have been that it wasted valuable rehearsal time, just trust me that everything is okay. Don't worry about where the jackets that were pre-paid for are, or the Rings. There's another red flag. Jeff- there were a lot of things that hard questions should have been asked about and got deflected, or folks were scared to go there. Sometimes, when one is standing back from a distance and observing neutrally, maybe they're seeing more than someone that's right there in front of it about some of those things.