Drumss

When I marched with the Hawthorne Muchachos - 1975 CYO Nationals

Agree about suggesting Delucia's Muchachos and Bridgemen material (and not just because I marched in both lines!).... I believe the North Star Solo from 1978 may have been called "Cookout"?

I was in a few GSC shows at Hinchcliff stadium as I recall (and I also used to practice in the winter at the Paterson Armory with both Valley Grenadiers & the Muchachos).... lots of drum corps memories from the Paterson, NJ area....

74, 75, 79

That Hershey show was interesting to say the least for us (Muchachos)...there was some discussion as to whether or not we would show up at all after the DCI debacle.... but when our busses pulled into the parking lot, all the stands were buzzing. Needless to say, we went all out and played our souls out... it was actually recorded by Jim Jones from the Troopers, and was just released last year by Drum Corps World on a compilation DVD. The recording is a little grainy (transferred from Super 8 tape I believe), but you can see the entire Muchachos show. When we entered the field there were a few boos (shades of Bridgemen in 1977), but by the time the OTL was done, people were on their feet....we received a huge standing O at the end of the show. Since it was a "clap-meter" (non-judged) show, we'll never know actual scores, but officially Madison won the "clap' show (sounds dirty), Muchachos in 2nd.

The female photographer in that photo is Bonnie Santo...daughter of then Garfield Cadets director Dr. Richard Santo.

Practicing 2+ hours at a stretch (on a hot parking lot usually), with no water breaks.

"Gene-Gene the Dancing Machine" was actually in the show all season in 1979...he was a cymbal player during the rest of the show. That was my age-out year.... it was a blast to play that show. Lots of fun... the 'surprise" in that show was the South winning the Civil War at finals (actually at prelims too, but it wasn't noticed as much)...

When I was with the Hawthorne Muchachos it was the Come On Inn in Haledon, NJ (for those of age)... With the Bayonne Bridgemen it was the Venice in Bayonne, or South Beach on Staten Island, NY... not the one in Miami

Generally they were louder... there was no warmth, or sound-absorbtion that wood shells would most often produce. They were essentially plastic tubes with heads, so the sound was very directed.

That is correct...those were in fact Ludwig promo shots taken in December 1974 or January 1975. I remember I had just joined the corps; I didn't have a uniform yet, so I couldn't be in any of those shots. Ray was with us for a number of months over the winter before he returned to Madison, which is why he's in that picture.

They were in fact the result of a Townsmen/Meadowlark merger..... The Riversiders were good, as were the Eatontown Royales for a couple years. The Valley Grenadiers (one of my alma mater corps) were very good too for a few years.... The Garden State Circuit turned out some nice corps...

I worked with the Garfield tenor line back in the early 80's when they used that configuration... I never liked it honestly, but the players in the line did OK with it. The tenor book back then supposedly tended to support patterns that were supportive of that setup.... but IMHO they just as easily could have used a standard configuration.

Back in the 70's when I was marching I had DRUMSS (just like my forum name) for a long time.... I also seem to recall that Santa Clara had vanity plates on all their corps vehicles too like SCV1, SCV2, etc......

Not 74... 75 & 76