67madplaid71

Nobody but the Royal Airs ever referred to the CYO, VFW and AL Nats as some sort of triple crown. I always felt that the World Open was much more of a significant title to win than the CYO, so if there ever was such a thing as a triple crown, in my mind it would have included the World Open and not the CYO which was initially only for catholic corps and usually drew a lesser slate of top corps. Besides, winning the World Open in 1965 probably was more of an achievement than even winning AL Nats, let alone comparing it to the CYO.

Great story. I had the opposite situation recently. I am an alumni of the Kilties and have an original snare drum that the Kilties used in their first public appearance in Racine's 1936 Fourth of July parade. This drum was one in the first set of drums bought for the Kilties in 1935 and was used by them until a new set of drum was purchased in the early 1940s. It's still in wonderful condition needing only new heads. I asked the Kilties if they would be interested in using it or at least marching with it in Racine's 2011 Fourth of July parade as a sort of 75th anniversary of their first public appearance thing and they politely told me that they weren't interested.

The earliest theme show that I know of is the "South Pacific" show that the Racine County Council Boy Scouts did in 1950. All of their music was from the musical "South Pacific."

Hard to get a lot of prize money when admission to finals was only two bucks. 1968 VFW finals had maybe around 15,000 spectators; I think 1969 had a little more. At two bucks a ticket they grossed about thirty grand. After expenses there wasn't "big money" left to be paid out as prize money. You also have to remember that prize money was paid out in other contests too such as band, color guard and drill team; the VFW didn't just hold a drum and bugle corps contest. These other convention contests didn't draw what the finals of the drum corps contest did, so I would guess that the prize money paid to these other contest winners was siphoned off of the money made at the VFW drum and bugle corps finals. I also believe that prelims at VFW nationals was free for spectators; maybe the band, color guard and drill team contests were free too. I don't believe that the VFW was all that interested in putting a lot more time, effort and money into their national convention contests. One has to remember that in reality the VFW staged "The Million Dollar Pageant of Drums" contest as an entertainment event for their convention attendees, not to do the drum corps activity a favor by holding some sort of a drum and bugle corps national championship. Also the VFW was mainly interested in having a large, colorful and entertaining convention parade. To lure drum corps, bands, color guards and drill teams to march in their convention parade, they had to hold a nice contest for them. In other words, in my opinion, "The Million Dollar Pageant of Drums" contest that was held each year at the VFW national convention was the carrot that drew in these drum corps and other units to march in their convention parade without the VFW having to pay them to do so. The VFW didn't make much money holding these contests, but as long as this plan worked and these units marched their parade for free I think the VFW was very happy and content. As a further incentive, the VFW presented an award at each national convention to the best drum and bugle corps in the parade.

Unforunately your memory is bad as this didn't happen. If this was the case you'd think that by nationals you guys would have known your drill! The reality is that the Kilties won 1968 VFW Nationals out right. Since then you Royal Air people have dreamed up all kinds of excuses and penalties. First it was said that it was announced during the score announcements at nationals that the Royal Airs would have won but for a two point penalty (It was a one point penalty and without it you would have finished in second place). Now we have the score announcements on tape (uncut by the way) and that announcement never took place. Now, 32 years later we are introduced to this bs. Come on guys, your attempt at revising history isn't working. There are no contemporaneous reports or articles in any publication anywhere which in any way substanciates anything you or any of the other Royal Air Alumni have said. I'll say it again no matter how distastful it is for you, the Kilties won 1968 VFW Nationals out right; without your penalty the Royal Airs would have only taken second place. If by chance the Royal Airs fell apart during the closing portion (exit number) of your drill then by all means you didn't deserve to win nationals. But the Royal Airs didn't lose because of a penalty.

Don't keep feeding us DCI's Kool-Aid, greed was the primary reason DCI was formed. The drum corps activity as a whole had nothing to do with the organization of DCI and accepted and lived within the rules at the time. It was 13 corps who belived that they were better than the activity and sought to go out and make their fortune together. That's the truth! Also in the pre-DCI era rules were discussed and decided at the American Legion Rules Congress held each fall (which is also where the organization of the Combine was announced at in the fall of 1971). As far as glock's go, I marched in that era early 1960's) and most felt that they were stupid and had no useful purpose anymore in drum corps. Back in the real old days they helped make drum corps more "musical" along with fife's because of the limited capabilities of the bugle, but with the introduction of the rotary and especially G-F bugles later on, glock's and fife's became unecessary. I guess one just has to look back at the era of the VFW and American Legion and compare it to the DCI era. Obviously Tony Schlecta was right! More corps, more fans, more shows, more sponsors and the activity actually grew then. DCI put a screen door on a submarine and then kept telling us that we needed to take music appreciation classes if we didn't like what was going on. Fans and sponsors left the activity in droves, not to mention the almost the total disappearnce of the junior corps activity.

My absolute all-time favorite was 1965 Symphony in Brass recorded at Chicago's Civic Opera House. I wore out the volume with the Kilties, Cavies, Royal Airs and St. Kevin's Emeral Knights. What a great recording! This was also my mother's favorite drum corps record as she also played it all the time which, of course, helped to wear it out quicker. My father's favorite record, however, was the 1965 Midwest Dream, the volume with Argonne Rebels, Norwood Park Imperials, Kilties and McHenry, IL, Men of Brass Seniors on it. He loved the musical arrangements and soloists for the Men of Brass.

Were there any photos of the Kilties or Boys of 76 that I could get copies /scans of included in your treasure trove?

The Ambassa"Does" were the feeder corps for the Ambassa"Dears." Both were All-Girl corps and both were from Racine, WI. In the fall of 1972 they merged with the Citations Color Guard, also from Racine, and became the New Day All-Girl Drum and Bugle Corps and their feeder corps then became the New Dawn. The New Dawn no longer exists, however, the New Day still exists as a co-ed parade corps with a competing winter guard.

The Kilties sold the rights to market their 1972 recordings to Fleetwood for $5,000. In my opinion, whether or not the Kilties organization still exists or not doesn't matter as Fleetwood paid for the exclusive rights to market all recordings of the Kilties made during 1972 and the marketing rights still belong to them. It was a one-time payment for exclusive rights forever. The damage incurred by someone selling a 1972 recording of the Kilties is to Fleetwood, not to the Kilties. With regard to the Kilties having a "very down year" in 1971 all I can say is that the Kilties Small Corps was undeafeated that winter; the Kilties winter guard won the 1971 Badgerland Association Color Guard Championship in addition to winning or placing very high in color guard contests throughout that season; the Kilties full corps won the 1971 North American Championship in addition to winning the following contests during the summer of 1971: Northwest Festival at Milwaukee, Des Plaines Vanguard's contest, Woodstock, IL, contest; National Preview contest at Salamanca, NY; Racine Scouts contest; and the annual Labor Day contest at Janesville, WI. The Kilties also took many seconds and thirds that summer. The Kilties just had a very slow start that summer. With regard to going to Dallas for the VFW National Championship, yes, the Kilties did in fact go to Dallas, however the Kilties never got there. After taking fifth at finals of the Mid-America Open in Overland Park, KS, the members of the Kilties voted to turn around, save the money and go back to Racine. The Kilties were not real flush with money at the time so the idea of spending additional money by continuing down to Dallas without being in contention for the national championship just didn't seem to make sense. The survival of the organization mattered more than an 11th or 12 place finish at finals - on the way to Dallas the Kilties beat the Belleville Black Knights who took 12th place at VFW Nationals by almost 2 points on August 12 at the Argonne Rebels contest and beat the St. Paul Scouts who took 11th place at VFW Nationals by almost 4 points on August 14 at the Mid-America Open. Yes, I believe that politics did indeed play a very important part as to why the Kilties were not included in the original group of drum corps that organized DCI. Being privy to some private information all I wish to say is that it is my understanding that some of the founding Midwest corps did not want to include the Kilties and so they weren't included. I don't believe that it was an oversight or an accident that the Kilties, who won three of the previous seven VFW National Championships prior to the organization of the "Midwest Combine" in the fall of 1970, were initially excluded from the combine and later from DCI. Some rivalries are very bitter! I would expect that the "official" reason from DCI would be that they didn't want to have too many corps from the Wisconsin - Illinois area included, that they wanted to have the DCI member corps spread out over the country and not have an area really saturated with them. The other "official" reason I would expect to hear from DCI would be that the Kilties didn't have a very stable management team in place at the time.

I agree. I too believe that the Blue Stars folded after the 1982 season and that the current Blue Stars are an out growth of the Blue Star Cadets. If this was the case, it was very smart on their part in my opinion. This has been much discussed among Kiltie Alumni because our organization was in a very similar situation at the exact same time, buy the late 1970s the Kiltie Kadets were still a very viable and stable organization while the Kilts as a DCI Corps was pretty much destroyed financially. (Kilties 1969 budget was $29,500. Kilties 1973 budget, their first season in DCI, just 4 years later was over $150,000.) After the Kilties folded for the first time in the spring of 1980 the Kiltie Kadets went on to have a very successful year in 1980 including winning the CCI Championship. The discussion always centers on what would have happened had the Kiltie Kadets continued on without the Kilts being reorganized in 1981. For the record, the Kiltie Kadets folded after the 1981 season and the Kilties were reorgainzed for the 1981 season but folded for good after the 1982 season. The resources and members taken from the Kiltie Kadets in the fall of 1981 and used to reorganize the Kilts caused the demise of the Kiltie Kadets and wasn't enough to ensure the continued existence of a the Kilts as a DCI Division 1 touring drum corps. 1982, the tenth anniversary season for DCI, was not very kind to the activity. Some very popular DCI drum corps folded after that season including the Blue Stars, Kilties and Memphis Blues Brass Band. I would have to say that today's discussions are about 30 years too late about how the DCI business/touring model doesn't work. We knew that back in the 1970s already that it wouldn't work for the vast majority of drum corps. By 1983, Brian Tolzman can help me here, probably close to 75% of the actively competing junior corps which were alive when DCI began in 1972 were gone by then along with almost all drum corps circuits too. It didn't take very long, just 10 years, but the activity was pretty much "toast" by 1983. If I as a prospective franchise/business purchaser was looking to buy a franchise/business today, I certainly would not buy one in a business sector that saw 90% of its franchises/businesses fail over the past 38 years and the business sector now had little to no prospects for growth. A business sector which also saw the vast majority of its past repeat customers leave in droves due to the franchises/businesses in this business sector's inability/refusal to meet their customer's expectations. We don't hear from them because these "lost" fans are long gone and could care less about posting comments on DCP.

Racine's New Day has been reorganized and is active again as a parade corps. I believe this past summer was their second summer back, maybe their third. I talked to their corps director two summers ago and she stated that they have no desire to become involved in competing again except for Winter Guard. Also the Racine Junior Scouts still exist as a parade corps. I think they're now known as the Troop 205 (I might have the troop number wrong) Drum and Bugle Corps. I also heard that there was some sort of reorganization of the Boys/Spirit of 76 Drum and Bugle Corps going on this past winter/spring. I think their goal was to become active in the SCDA. If that's the case, Racine (Population 70,000) has five active drum and bugle corps right now including the Kilties and the Racine Scouts. I don't know if Milwaukee's Midwest Legends are still active as a senior/all-age drum and bugle corps. I didn't see them in any parades this year but I did see them last summer in a parade in Elkhorn along with a couple of American Legion Bands which ironically are still doing fine after about 90 years in existence. I know that the Midwest Legends never competed but they were quite active as a parade corps around SE Wisconsin for many years. Composed mainly of drum corps alumni from the Milwaukee area.

In our case you are right! We went to Bloomington 2 years ago and had a great time, thought it was a nice venue and area to vacation in. Last year we went to Indy and again we had a great time on this vacation but we felt the venue was poor not only accustically, but also the NFL concession prices were a concern for us. I paid $18.00 for nachos, a coke and M & M Peanuts. We, without regrets, decided to go to Minneapolis this summer instead of back to Indy. Unfortunately some of the show was rained out but we liked it so much that we will go to Minneapolis every year that it has a comprehensive lineup rather than Indianapolis. We had a great vacation there and found that it's a very nice venue - plus we don''t have to drive through Chicago!

Custer's Brigade from Illinois. I always thought that was a real different name for a drum corps even when they were in existence back in the 1960s. I don't remember them faring much better in the drum corps activity than the original Custer's Brigade did fighting out West. Also, I think it would be quite shocking to see a Klu Klux Klan Drum and Bugle Corps today. They did exist early in the 20th Century. Not a good idea today!

Yes, there was a difference in score sheets with the VFW favoring execution more so than DCI did at the time. However, there were two other factors that could have been involved here too: politics and biased judging.

DCI was not a national organization in the fall of 1971 by my definition except that the organizing 13 drum corps were from all over the United States. You need to study your history. DCI was organized when the 13 drum corps who were in the various "combines" during 1971 met in the fall of 1971 to analyze their previous year and to discuss how they (meaning these 13 drum corps, not the activity) were going to proceed in 1972. There was no concern for the rest of the drum corps activity, no input by the rest of the drum corps activity nor was there any chance of any drum corps ever joining this elite group except by winning their way in by making finals at a future DCI Championship. DCI most certainly was not an all-inclusive, national umbrella organization for the junior drum and bugle corps activity nor was it founded to be such an organization. National organization to me means all-inclusive where everyone is able to join. No junior drum corps was ever able to join the DCI organization then and participate in any sort of a meaningful manner like they could with other organizations such as the Illinois Drum and Bugle Corps Association or Badgerland Drum and Bugle Corps Association, etc., that were still in operation and very viable organizations at the time. Anyway, it was decided at this meeting in the fall of 1971 to merge the "combines" into one 13 drum corps organization called Drum Corps International. They (these 13 organizing drum corps) decided to hold (use the rest of the drum corps activity for their benefit) a championship at Whitewater, WI, in August of 1972 for two very selfish reasons: to make money for their organization (DCI) and to prove or justify their position to drum corps contest promoters that they were still the best drum corps which, in turn, would justify their new philosophy of large appearance fees, rather than competing for prize money as the rest of the activity still had to do at that time. Also remember, DCI member corps boycotted the World Open (one of the sponsors was Fleetwood Records) and some other major contests in 1972 (Danny Thomas Invitational, South Milwaukee's "Spectacle of Music," etc.) for two reasons: they had to compete for prize money like everyone else did (no guaranteed large appearance fees) and they were at war with Fleetwood Records, among other recorders, and wouldn't let themselves be recorded or sold on records by them as had been the practice for the previous two decades. During 1972 these 13 DCI member corps were very selective about which contests they would appear in. You either had to pay big money to get them to appear in your contest or they had to feel that your contest was worthy enough to have them in it. Some national organization!

DCI did exist in the summer of 1971, it was called "The Combine" which was organized in the fall of 1970. The Combine actually consisted of three regional combines, east, west and midwest. This looser knit organization of three combines morphed into DCI after the 1971 season. Same corps, same philosphy, just a different name.

You're right about the total show concept starting in the 1950s. May have even started earlier. Anyway, the Racine Scouts played an entire show of music from "South Pacific" about 1950. Heck, Garfield Cadets played a lot of music from West Side Story in 1962 and what about the Hawthorne Caballeros? They've been playing shows of mostly Spanish or Latin music since at least World War II. The reality is that both the Madison Scouts and the Chicago Cavaliers did nothing out of the ordinary in 1971 except introduce the drum corps activity to its newest general effect goimmick and that's all it was viewed as at the time, a general effect gimmick. The gimmick was the use of costumes and characters in costumes. I find it difficult to think that this was some great leap in artistic evolution, in fact it was widely despised in the activity during 1971. The only reason that the Cavaliers show is even being discussed today is because of their novel use of a clown during part of their show. This was nothing more than a copy of the Racine Scouts wedding scene which they played out while playing "I'm Getting Married in the Morning" only a year or two prior. Let's not give these two 1971 shows more credit than they really deserve. They didn't win nor were they all that well received among the fans in the activity. These two shows were discussed at length in the drum corps activity and in publications at the time. The reality is that drum corps at that time was still about drums, bugles and M & M and who did those things the best. G.E. was only a ten point caption on VFW sheets. When people who marched in drum corps around 1971 talk about the great corps shows of that era, these two rarely come up. It's the great horn lines and the great drum lines that are remembered, not some clown or "Alice" running around on the field. What did it all lead to? WGI on a football field! What we have today is a situation where the musical members are beginning to get in the way during these artistic performances. Plus there's only so many ways that a musician can bend or hold his body while playing. It won't be long before they'll be playing recorded music and we'll just have 150 or so members dancing and carrying on for ten minutes on a football field. Can't wait! Let me comment on the role that VFW and American Legion Posts played financially as I think that there's some misunderstanding among those in the activity today. VFW and American Legion Posts were nothing more that sponsors in name only for most of the junior corps in the activity. One had to be sponsored by one to compete at a VFW or American Legion state or national convention contest. All drum corps since the beginning of time had to fund raise in order to survive. To explain this more simply, after World War I the American Legion rapidly embraced the drum and bugle corps activity mainly as a means to provide color, music and interest during their many convention parades. Field contrests evolved from these parades because in only a few short years there were so many American Legion Post and Auxiliary drum corps in these convention parades that they couldn't figure out who the best drum corps was. With parades being hours long in some cases it was difficult for judges to remember how good earlier corps were in order to compare them to the later ones in the parade. The American Legion solved this problem at their national conventions by having their drum corps "parade" by a reviewing stand set up usually in a football stadium after the parade. Judges would then rate them as they marched by one after the other. Rules evolved from this point. What I'm getting to is that all of these drum corps that were allowed to compete in the 1920s and early 1930s at American Legion and VFW conventions were those under the direct auspices of an Americcan Legion or VFW post and were composed of WW I veterans. In the later 1930s as the number of American Legion drum corps started to decline, the American Legion tapped into the interests of other civic and fraternal drum corps and created a "sponsored" drum corps class at thier contests. The Kilties were a YMCA organization, the Madison Scouts were a Boy Scout organization, however they could be "sponsored" by an American Legion post to compete in that posts name at a state or national American Legion convention competition. So there never was a load of money coming from any American Legion or VFW post to any drum corps that was outside of the scope or membership of the SAL, American Legion or VFW Posts membership. And even then these SAL, American Legion and VFW Post drum corps had to do extensive fund raising on their own to survive. For example, in 1950 Racine's American Legion Post 76 voted to eliminate all funding for its own drum corps, the Boys of 76. Funding by Post 76 had been minimal up to that point anyway, so this loss was no big deal. However, Post 76 graciously allowed their drum corps to still use the Post for practice and storage. Most of the American's Legion contribution to the activity was not financial in the early days. Contrary to popular mythology, American Legion and VFW Posts had many very talented musicians and leaders who were involved with their posts drum corps or band. These guys volunteered their time and talent to oversee the organization of many civic and fraternal junior drum corps throughout the US during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. In fact the Boy Scout activity utilized the American Legion extensively during the 1920s to help them organize and "train" their drum corps. Also contrary to DCI's continued philosphy, the American Legion and VFW supported even the smallest and least talented drum corps. The American Legion especially embraced the concept that drum corps was a wonderful youth activity and they would do all that they could to contribute to it. As the drum corps activity began to "bite the hand that was feeding it" in the 1960s, American Legion and VFW Posts began to disassociate themselves from the activity and channel their members time and money to American Legion baseball and other youth programs. About 25 to 30 years ago minor league (semi-professional) football attempted to follow DCI model. There are minor league football leagues throughout the US and it was thought that it would be better to bundle the best teams from each league to form a super league. It was thought that this new super league would draw huge numbers of fans and a ton of media attention. There was little care or concern by these "good" teams about what would happen to the other lesser talented teams except that maybe some day, if they got good enough, they could be considered for inclusion in this new super league. Boy were they wrong! They quickly found out after just a few seasons that attendance didn't increase at all nor was there any increase in media exposure. These "elite" teams begged to be allowed back into their local and regional leagues because they didn't realize the financial gain necessary for them to continue to afford all of the travel and expenses caused by traveling on a national level. In fact even today some minor league football teams have had to turn down the playoffs to determine the national champion because they can't afford to travel nationwide. Exposure. The drum corps activity today would have to realize 10,000 to 20,000 fans at each of their 50 or so contests this summer in order to get the exposure that the drum corps activity did at just one American Legion national convention parade held prior to WW II. It was not uncommon for these national convention parades to have between 500,000 and a million viewers during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Each parade was filmed by the news media such as "Parade Films" and afterward these news reels were shown in movie theaters throughout the US. Attendance at an American Legion National Championship finals during this era was always in the 20,000 to 50,000 range. This is not bad for an activity that used single-piston or even valvless bugles and no color guard except for an American squad of only a handful of people. I guess what is sucessful and what is better is all in how you look at it. Ford's Model T, as archaic as it was, could be considered far more successful than any of today's models of automobiles because many more were sold than any of today's models, however, todays vehicles are more luxurious and far more technically superior. The big difference between automobiles and drum corps is that even though automobiles have evolved too, it was due to consumer demand, not some group of corps directors jamming their ideas on creativity down our throats. Automobiles are still automobiles, drum corps are real close to not being drum corps anymore. DCI just doesn't get it, it's about the fans! No fans, no drum corps activity. Ironically when drum corps was dominated with non-musicians playing valveless or single piston bugles there undoubtedly were far more people involved in the activity, far more media exposure and far more fans in the stands. It was a popular, thriving activity at that point. Obviously "better" (different?) isn't always more successful.

Interesting discussion about whether or not drum corps died in 1971 but I have to disagree about the idea that DCI was started by drum corps as a means to allow the activity to evolve outside of the constraints that the American Legion and VFW enforced with their rules. The way I see it is that when the "Combine" was organized in the fall of 1970, it was solely a business decision. A business alliance was formed between a handful of the top drum corps to further their financial interests. The founders of the "Combine" and later DCI could have cared less about the rest of the activity otherwise they would have included them from the beginning. Their theory was that if the top drum corps bundled themselves as a package they would be more atrractive to show sponsors. It would result in larger audiences which would make more money for show sponsors which in turn would result in more money for appearance fees. It was felt at the time that people only really wanted to see the Cavaliers, Madison Scouts, and other top corps, and as a result it was felt that a bundled group of top drum corps would be a very attractive option for show sponsors. The other main reason that the "Combine" and later DCI was organized was because it gave the organizers control over some aspects of the activity which they previously lacked. The top corps now were in the position to make their own rules and train and hire their own judges. Important to remember, after DCI was organized only a handful of drum corps controlled the activity by making the rules and training and hiring the judges. Never under DCI was the whole activity ever included in decision making. I also have trouble understanding how DCI can claim that it was organized by the drum corps activity. That simply is not true! In fact, some of the top corps in the country were excluded from the "Combine" and DCI simply because they were not liked by the founding corps directors. I believe that the main reason that the DCI Championship was originally organized, held, and was open to all drum corps was because contest sponsors wanted to be sure that they were getting the best bundle of drum corps, not some also rans. It was common back in the pre-DCI era for corps to come and go and having a national championship was the only way for the DCI limited business partnership to determine which corps were going to be in the DCI bundle to be offered to show sponsors the following year. This became especially important as the Kilties, Des Plaines Vanguard, Hathorne Muchahos, St. Rita's Brassmen and Blue Raiders made DCI finals in 1972 and they were originally snubbed by the organizers of DCI. Although this was somewhat embarrassing to the DCI founding corps, having their own championship now provided DCI with a mechanism to determine who the drum corps were going to be in next year's bundle. To think that the drum corps activity as a whole was so fed up with the American Legion and the VFW that it couldn't wait to get out from under their wings is really false. Many good corps in the 1970s never competed at a DCI contest such as the Racine Scouts. The whole cadet corps activty and most of the smaller corps didn't either. DCI wasn't set up to accomodate these lesser corps nor was DCI an attractive opportunity for any but maybe the top 25 or so corps. In fact, and Brian Tolzman can correct me if I'm wrong, but probably in the neighborhood of 400 drum corps didn't compete at the 1972 DCI Championship, so that would hardly indicate that the activity was embracing and flocking to DCI. Also the 1971 VFW Nationals held in out-of-the-way Dallas, TX was one of the best attended VFW Nationals by top corps ever including "Combine" corps. If the organizing DCI corps had such a real problem with the VFW as DCI claims, it was only because they couldn't make their own rules and hire their own judges. It's good to be king! So, in my opinion DCI initially was all about the top corps controlling the rules, judges and maximizing the amount of money they could reap from the activty. There was little to no concern about what was good for the activty as a whole. That's why almost nothing is left of it. Another comment, with over 40 competing bands in Wisconsin either during the summer or in the fall, why would anyone think that any of the handful of Wisconsin's DCI corps "need" to add woodwinds to get more people involved in the activity. Bands already have a very viable and growing activity of their own, why would DCI think they need to expand their instrumentation to include woodwinds in order to give woodwind players the opportunity to enjoy a competing band. Let's see, I can play my flute for the Phantom Regiment for $2,500 tuition this summer, or march in my high school band for almost nothing, get a half credit for summer school, keep my part-time job and see my significant other all summer. If you want your drum corps to convert into a band, go for it! There are plenty of circuits for you to compete in throughout the US and Canada. Why impose this on the whole activity. I would hope that many of DCI's corps would opt out and become members of DCA when DCI decides to add woodwinds. Also it is thought that adding woodwinds to drum corps would add fans. Did anyone ever do a study on this? I go to band competitions and I rarely see a drum corps jacket or shirt being worn at one except if there's a drum corps in exhibition at one. For the most part the fans in the stands at a band contest are family, friends and and recent band alumni. The stands certainly are not packed with drum corps fans and drum corps alumni! I see far more people wearing band jackets at drum corps shows. Band people seem to enjoy drum corps; drum corps people don't seem to enjoy band contests as much. So why add woodwinds expecting to gain fans? I don't think it would happen, band fans are already attending drum corps contests. I could understand a "need" for the drum corps activity to add woodwinds if the activity was losing large number of fans to the band activity, but that is hardly the case! Also I could see a "need" for the drum corps activity to add woodwinds for creativity or opportunity if there weren't already hundreds of competing marching bands throughout North America already. Besides, how much more creative can a drum corps be as a band than any of the other existing bands?

It was, of course, mostly about money. New uniforms were definitely needed by the Kilties for 1974. The red jackets with the yellow McLeod plaid tartan and kilt uniform dated back to 1949 while the blue jackets with the blue Anderson plaid tartan and kilt uniform dated back to 1957. My uniform that I wore from the fall of 1966 until the spring of 1972 when I got drafted was a vintage 1957 "blue" uniform. My jacket was starting to show quite a bit of wear by then and my blue Anderson plaid tartan and kilt didn't seem to be as brightly colored as newer replacement ones were. In the fall of 1973 the red and the blue jackets that were still serviceable were repaired, dyed black and rebuilt and the yellow McLeod tartans and kilts were retained. New tartans and kilts from the yellow McLeod plaid were then made by corps mothers to finish outfiting the entire corps. In 1949 the Kilties replaced their red Royal Stewart plaid tartans and kilts (Worn with green battle jackets), which had been their uniform since 1934, with yellow McLeod plaid tartans and kilts. The green battle jacket was worn for a while longer with the yellow McLeod tartans and kilts, but by 1951 it was replaced with a red battle jacket. This uniform was now worn exclusively by all members of the Kilties until 1957. Funny, some old drum corps fans that I've talked to only saw the Kilties in the 1950s and only remember them wearing their "red and yellow" uniforms. In 1957 two important things happened with the Kilties organization. First the YMCA allowed the Kilties (Finally!!!) to change their age from 10 to 18 years old to 14 to 21 years old, like all of their other competitors, and a feeder corps, the Kiltie Kadets, was organized for 10 to 14 year olds. The Kiltie Kadets first uniform consisted of the Kilties old red Royal Stweart tartans worn with a white shirt, red shorts and a blue cumberbun. Meanwhile, in 1957 the Kilties were given a gift by a local resident of blue Anerson plaid tartans and kilts and blue battle jackets. The Kilties as a whole corps began wearing these "blue" uniforms on the field of competition at night where the judges and spectators decided that they were just too drab. Soon thereafter the Kilties began wearing their old red battle jackets with the yellow McLeod plaid tartans and kilts on the field of competition and their "blue" uniform during the day in parades, prelims and exhibitions. This was the practice for only a few years when, because of the Kilties increasing membership, there was a need for additional uniforms. To solve this problem it was decided around 1961 or 1962 to combine the two sets of uniforms, again to save money. It was decided to outfit the members of the color guard in the old red battle jackets with yellow McLeod tartans and kilts and to outfit the drummers and buglers in the newer all "blue" uniform. A year or two later the drummers were outfited in red battle jackets with blue Anderson plaid tartans and kilts, leaving only the buglers in the all "blue" uniforms, thus resulting in the colorful uniform combinations that the Kilties continued to wear until the end of 1973. So, throught their history (1934 - 1982) the Kilties only wore three different plaids: the red Royal Stewart, the yellow McLeod and the blue Anderson plaid. Two the Kilties parents club picked out, one was a gift.

Yes, that would be Jim Camerata to his right. Jim Seeger would be the bass drummer behind Camerata.