Paq

This was the centerfold for our Seneca Optimists' 1977 corps yearbook. It folded out in 4 and was a pretty hilarious depiction of his version of what may could be happening under the chute done by Canadian drum corps artist Paul McCusker

Well Kelly - not entirely off track since you (along with a number of other girls) were remarkable Seneca Optimists via St. John's who showed up in Seneca with that incredible St. John's work ethic, willing to do anything asked of them without attitude and always with that killer sense of humour that was a staple of being in St. John's. It was a great marriage of corps members (no pun intended). It worked well because I remember most Seneca kids were from pretty tough backgrounds as were the girls in St. John's and with that came this dogged determination to "let's do it". I so loved teaching you guys and have the battle scars to prove it.

Wow thanks for that pic. Great find and taken by Bruce Lindsay -- another great name from that era. Emery sent me his pic in uniform from Fort Dix I believe... that's how he broke the news to me. We wrote back and forth while he was in Vietnam (I still have the letters which at time were extremely intense). When he got back from Nam he tracked me down but we really never saw each other again. So this is bringing back a flood of memories. Thanks for that.

So what about the Lakeview Shoreliners. When I was in St. John's Girls we competed against them quite a bit and they were a junior corps.... I became good friends with a snare drummer, Emery Swan, who got drafted to Nam.... I heard later they went senior. What's up with their status? Anyone know?

Close up of hornline playing under the chute. 1977 High up shot

The Conga's in 1977 Left conga is Buffalo Bob (with pants) and next to him Jim Kane who told me they weighed 60 lbs.

Here's the parachute without the hornline underneath??

Len has the most wicked dry sense of humour and most people don't get him...and he's an awesome horn player starting out in the Midlanders with Sam Kays and Al Murray... He did indeed teach marching with Seneca in '78. He also marched in the Kingsmen Alumni Corps the past 2 years playing lead baritone. (He had marched in the Kingsmen in '75.) Tidbits on Len Courtis.

Yep you're right ODBC - Len was one of the bare bums up there....which is how I got the pix...I know Stuart Bentley is as well and since I don't know the rest of them from that position I'll have to leave it at that.

WOW - thanks for making this a discussion. In the Fall of 1975 Peter Byrne (who was Seneca's horn instructor for all three short years of Seneca's existence) asked me and my ex Gilles to come to Toronto and teach the Toronto Optimists (we were living in Montreal and teaching Les Chatelaines after being heavily involved in their reformation). We did move to Toronto and were there only a few weeks when the Toronto Optimists/Seneca Princemen merger was announced. Debbie Miller and I became fast and close friends and teaching the guard heightened when the Seneca Princemen showed up in our ranks. Those girls had a good start on what we trying to do. All of the newly merged corps was very hungry to do well and the teaching staff was extremely close knit making it a wild and fun ride. Once the corps got going many kids from Quebec showed up (having a couple of French speaking instructors helped). I believe one year there were about 6 kids from Quebec including Johanne Briere who played snare. 3 of the instructors -- Peter Byrne (horns), Sam Kays and Al Murray (drums) who were all Canadian had marched in 74 Kingsmen. Kingsmen was a huge influence (and believe me the uniform was not a coincidence). Being called Banaheim was a pleasant surprise. The girls in the guard were just the best to teach---extremely hardworking...a wonderful rag-tag mish-mash of "take no prisoners" girls. As Kelly said lot's of girls showed up from St. John's (my original corps in 64-72) and it was a wonderfully wacky cross town rivalry/friendship with Oaklands... In fact Debbie Miller who taught the rifle line shared an apartment with her sister Cheryl who taught Oaklands flag line. Ken Mulgrew who had lost his hand in an industrial accident (after someone turned a machine on while his hand was in it) had his hook configured to continue playing and there were many wacky incidents with that hook. The parachute was a major feat in getting the entire corps underneath. One thing people may not realize is that the guard captain had to pop up thru the hole in the middle and spread her arms out to anchor it, as it had a tendency to want to take off eh and if weather was windy it would lift up. Many times the guard captain had to be anchored by people under the parachute holding her legs down as well Fast forward to 2006/7. Now living in Los Angeles, I knew it was the opportunity 40 years in the waiting to march with the Kingsmen in the Alumni Corps, and met many great people and Kingsmen legends... 2 other ex-Seneca signed up Mhairi Cumming (flag) and Jim Kane (conga/tymp also brother-in-law) made the trek from Toronto to join the KAC... but 1977 came back to us when we met up with Carl Allison of the Freelancers who in 77 had a a rivalry with Seneca always barely above or below each other...he said the Freelancers would cringe when they would hear the crowd cheer for the parachute since he felt the parachute was our "ace in the hole" and they may have beat us more often if we didn't have it. There was a great tease back and forth with the ex Freelancer and ex Seneca (Banaheeim) factions of the KAC. I have the parachute. After the final show in 1978 and we were told the corps would be over - it was a sad ending and I was about to get into my car and drive away... I was parked next to the equipment truck and saw the parachute sitting on the ground all by itself in it's cheap sleeping bag duffle. It looked quite sad all by itself...so not unlike picking up a stray kitty I snagged it and threw it into my car. I moved to LA in December of 1978 and could not bear to leave it and so it drove across the continent with me again, the 2 of us driving thru many towns previoulsy visited together--like a couple of old retired farts with our memories. It has made very few appearances since but the most incognito one would be that I wore it for 2 years to the grand Hollywood Halloween parade of weirdos and freaks on Santa Monica Boulevard on Halloween night as a costume. Since I'm 6 ft tall anyways my friend fashioned it as a dress and with high heels and a train it made quite a presence and I was photographed by the media (okay I had rubber rats and snakes etc hanging from it as well) I will post photo... One more thing -- the Mt Rushmore event had a little more to it than sitting on Lincoln's nose with the police helicopters swirling above. Pictures were taken from below with a zoom camera and the corps kids up there had their pants down and were mooning. So there are bare bums off of Lincoln's nose. I have those pics and haven't really showed them in 40 yrs for fear of someone thinking it disrespectful. Those guys did get down and did not get discovered hmmm. Thanks for letting me blab on ..... I'll post some pics shortly.

Is that not one kick-### take no prisoners photo? I love it. Drum corps at it's best. You were the bomb Linda.

Seneca Optimists - 1978 - It was one of those long slow painful deaths... Lots of members left after 77 which was our best year in our short life, either aged out, burnt out or whatever, so the whole year was a scramble to stay afloat... We did everything we could, including absorbing members from the hard working Peterborough Krescendos who were having a tough year as well.... (great kids and staff) but we needed way more time to bring it all together. Really for me it felt like we fell off the bridge earlier in the year and fell into quicksand... and even calling out for help (more kids - more staff) couldn't save us. We never really were able to get out of that quicksand as Denver closed in on us. #### it was a hard year. The kids and staff were extraordinary in their efforts, worked like dogs till the end...but we were toast by the end of that year. After Canadian Nationals which was usually first week in September we were told it was over. I remember standing by the equipment truck and feeling a whole lot of mixed emotions...so I looked down and next to me was "the parachute" sitting on the pavement in it's duffel bag.... I picked it up and threw it in the trunk of my car, snagging an awesome souvie....I've slept on it ever since (just kidding).

St. John's Girls in the 50s and 60s was sponsored by St. John's College which, at the time, was the only Catholic HS in the City of Brantford. Oddly the twist happened when a second Catholic HS (named Providence) opened in Brantford in the late 60s and it was an all girls school, leaving St. John's as an all boy school. So funnily, St. John's All Girls Drum Corps was sponsored by an all boy HS. We wore the school's colours, green and white and were given the school as a practice facility and were told how short we could wear our skirts (in the early years). This of course started to fall apart by the late 60s and big time by the early 70s.

Wow Sue I love that line.... It applies to so much not just in drum corps either.... Thanks

That's hilarious.... I read the book "Children of Sanchez" and the whole time couldn't get the music out of my head, and until I finished that book I had the longest episode of "song stuck in your head"... and the book was excellent, although I did hear the movie, well...not so much.

No Linda your guess is spot on as to where Seneca's parachute is. The chute is out of the bag and has made a few interesting appearances.... one being the Hollywood Halloween costume festival (2x) and for other assorted purposes previously mentioned on this forum!! Great to see you on here. You are certainly a Canadian drum corps icon.

More Seneca Optimists

Seneca 1977 with hornline under parachute

Depends where your hotel is????? I kid - I kid!!! :P

I disagree with you completely about "bad" neigborhoods in LA. There is a reason why cable & phone companies don't allow their repair vehicles in these neighborhoods after certain times of the day, and cabs are reluctant to pick you up in these neighborhoods at certain times as well. 27SoCal is correct in what he pointed out and coming from a resident hits it home even clearer. The touristy areas are probably the safest because there is police/security presence, but at all times be street smart and use common sense as you would any crowded place (locking cars and keeping bags close to you, etc). I have lived in Venice for 30 years where the beach is the largest tourist attraction in California after Disneyland. it is a trippy place and a lot of fun, but at night the actual beach area gets kind of seedy. During the daytime, especially on the weekends it's a blast with an unbelievable large drum circle playing in the sand, street performers, shopping, basketball, oh yeah and the beach too. Hope everyone enjoys their time whatever they choose to do.

I remember this film when it was first made and now it has surfaced in it's entirety on good ole Youtube - Just search: "1973 Competitive Drum Corps".

Someone suggested that the Kingsmen Alumni Corps come onto the field in their socks and put their shoes on. Great idea but not too practical

Yes Keith - you missed St. John's Girls, who are I believe, one of the few corps still left in Ontario (although they are now co-ed). I marched those years of 1965 to 1972 and have some very fond memories of all the corps you mentioned -- lots of friendships that still exist.

After our first year of marching in St. John's Girls in 1966 my best friend and I decided to post a letter in Drum Corps News saying we were looking for pen pals... WELL we both received tons of letters and we kept up with the letter writing through most of our drum corps marching years. Since I stayed with drum corps (she dropped out in '69) I eventually met some of those pen pals when either our corps crossed paths, or we made it happen.... BUT some I never did meet. A few of them sent me their pictures which I kept in an album. So jump forward 30 yrs and along comes the internet. Since I still remembered some of their names or had their pix I looked some of them up again and voila. I've even re-connected with one who I've still never met in person. Some of the people I can remember marched in corps like VK, Cavies, Mello-Dears, Lake View Shoreliners, Bleu Raiders, Troopers, Fitchburg Kingsmen, ND-Ettes, Derry Patriots, Speigelaires.... One guy, who I had become good friends with :) ended up being drafted to Vietnam. I wrote to him all through his time in Nam. I met some pretty unforgetable characters and since I'm marching again you realize we're just one big giant family.... B)

The Shrine in Toronto. Always the first big show of the season (around mid-June) and held at Varsity Stadium.... one of the true beautiful old classic stadiums...gone now :( ...but you still can't walk past it's location without pause.