Puppet

I believe (and my memory isn't as good as it used to be!) the Long Island shot was taken in either Bayshore or next door in Brentwood. The horn rehearsal shot was inside the youth Center of St. Rita's where we had our Friday night sessions. Puppet

Thank you. And on a lighter note: These guys! 1971 Drum line. Back when everybody carried their drums no matter how big, around the field. Puppet

What nice handwriting! I had to learn to type when I was like 13 because mine was so bad! LOL Puppet

It is interesting (and perhaps ironic) to note that most of those "kids" are attendees of Colleges and Universities. What is the age out now in World Class? 24? I'm just saying…Still love the activity…don't get me wrong…but riddle me this: because while I too cherish every show I marched and every winter we rehearsed and all the friendships built; was there a time when you found yourself a seventeen year old on a stifling summer's night in the middle of executing and playing "The Exit" and then waking up in an ambulance being revived after passing our from exhaustion, oxygen deprivation or both? Many of my era can claim that experience. We ate, drank and slept Drum Corps. It was not by any means a summer diversion. Didn't mean to go on this way, because I do understand we live in different times now and words like passion and devotion do not have the same meaning on their face as they once did. It is for that I shed tears. Puppet

How right you are! Sorry to shorten your quote but as you may remember, I was in the first corps to introduce the gene that began the mutation to what the drum corps genus is now. I will never forget the day Carmen Cluna introduced to us the idea for our 1971 Woodstock show! We were flabbergasted. Simulate a riot? Run out of step on the field? The Contras are going to "attack" the American Flag guard? Smoke bombs? Gas masks? And I will never forget the crowd reaction on the June night in Chester Pennsylvania when we unleashed that monster. Entertainment? You betcha! A fluke? Nosireebob! Same thing next night at Blue Rock's show in Wilmington - only that night an electrical storm erupted just as we started the intro to that portion of the show and as if on cue, a lightning bolt blew the sky into almost pure white for almost two seconds and we ran (just doing the show, mind you!) then the sky opened up with a torrent of rain. Our black plumes leaked dye all over our uniforms and we finished the show minutes later completely drenched and literally surrounded by the people who had left the stands! No. There was no going back after that! The production gene was introduced and evolution once it starts, never goes backward. Yeah there are things I would like to incorporate into the shows again. The Color Presentation, for instance. If for no other reason than to speak to the quaint history of the activity - I'm sure there's a way to dance and salute the flag at the same time. Like Dr. Frankenstein said: "It's Alive!" Puppet

Not to belabor the point, but back in the day this was as "grounded" as a drum line got. Everybody in a uniform marched. Puppet

Don't have a bunch of color shots from back in the day but… Assembled and shot just before the 1971 U.S. Open in Marion Ohio. 1 Blue Rock 84.600 2 Madison Scouts 83.150 3 De LaSalle Oaklands 82.150 4 Cavaliers 81.550 5 Des Plaines Vanguard 77.750 6 St. Rita's Brassmen 77.450 7 St. Joseph's of Batavia 75.950 8 Bridgemen 73.200 9 Nisei Ambassadors 73.100 10 Beverly Cardinals 72.950 11 Appleknockers 70.250 12 Milford Shoreliners 67.850 Not a shabby field Puppet

Don't mean to pile on, but after Sunday's bashing I'll bet you're glad to have the Crusaders to turn to. Go Giants! Puppet

You're right! Want to take off some tension? Build a human pyramid! Of course, the sopranos are on the bottom! LOL Puppet

I go back a little further - but the fact that so many corps have simply gone away still hurts What I remember most though are those great shows like the Danny Thomas Invitational, World Open and CYO Nationals, U.S. Open and the like. that's when you would find a mixture of corps like these with scores like this - competition was fierce. Sunday July 18, 1971 Lawrence MA Danny Thomas Invitational 1 27th Lancers 84.450 2 Santa Clara Vanguard 84.100 3 Troopers 82.300 4 Cavaliers 81.000 5 St. Rita's Brassmen 80.950 6 Boston Crusaders 80.300 7 Madison Scouts 78.300 8 Blue Stars 77.850 9 De LaSalle Oaklands 73.800 10 Blessed Sacrament 70.450 11 Argonne Rebels 69.900 12 Spectacle City Mariners 52.350

I just found this: Fran, Herbie, Wiz (Joan) and my converse sneaker Sad to note: We lost Fran (NuNu's little sister) in the World Trade Center attack. Personally, I haven't seen Joan (the once love of my life!) in over 35+ years. And where's Herbie? Has anyone seen Herbie? Puppet

Wow! The early seventies are alive and well! Everybody who marched after 1979 should go get you some - These pre legacy drum corps were much better than you've been told! Especially 1970 and 1971! What an awesome selection! Thank you, Mike! Puppet

Dude, Virtually every human you can see in that photo would have a pack of cigarettes in their pocket or purse. No excuses. It was the early seventies and Tony Randell hadn't started his campaign yet. I'm 59 and am still in touch with most of my corps mates many of whom quit years ago. Oh, yeah - ask anybody who heard our tiny little 36 man horn line (well I think we had about 40 one year!) yeah, I'm proud to say we did "smoke!" Puppet

As I said in another post we had people shoot video at rehearsals and at some of our shows. You can see portion on our Legacy website: http://www.stritasbrassmen.org/home.html Puppet

That's her on the left taking direction from Carmen Cluna the designer of the show. The Moustache is Mike Arato or Snidely or another Mellophony! Heh, heh, heh! Puppet

Yeah - but it was like 1969! Here's one of the Contranimals I cut out of the herd! Nu-nu! Imitated but never duplicated. LOL Puppet

So this came up from another Topic. Nicknames: I still use mine because I hated it so much. So introducing The Mellophonies: I was a card carrying member but I was behind the camera so I couldn't be in the shot. These guys are just three of the five we put on the field that year. First in a series of wacky but applicable names. Our contra line not only had individual nicknames but were as a group The Contranimals! More to come… Got some of your own - let's see 'em because I mean how could we have been so young? Puppet

And what would a drum corps be without the nicknames. I still use mine I hated it so much! But we had a Nu-nu, a Snowball and after the Perils of Pauline show a Pauline! My girlfriend's nickname was "Wizzer" (short for Wizniewski) "side mouth" for his playing style, Konga for his size and it goes on and on like that what a cast of characters! Want to see what they looked like back then? Check out Topic: OMG Could We Have Been So Young? Puppet

Hey there, Jim. I'm pretty sure that during my era, the age out for juniors was 18. Of course I'm also sure there were a lot of kids who didn't want to give up their childhood and marched well into their twenties but we were a CYO organization and our moderator Father Schiraldi was pretty strict. Also it was during the Vietnam era and a lot of guys couldn't stay in because of the draft. Puppet

You're right. That's why I sometimes try to add a historic flavor to my posts. You use the word Legacy and it brings that out in me more. So I found this on another thread, an article from the pre-season of 1971 - Yes, before the internet: Sorry it may be hard to read - didn't know how to make it bigger. Legacy Well, this is part of the Historical Junior Corps Discussions isn't it? Puppet

Got this from the Merriam-Webster: Main Entry: Legacy Pronunciation: \ˈle-gə-sē\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural leg·a·cies Etymology: Middle English legacie office of a legate, bequest, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, office of a legate, from Medieval Latin legatia, from Latin legatus Date: 15th century 1 : a gift by will especially of money or other personal property : bequest 2 : something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past <the legacy of the ancient philosophers> I rest my case. Puppet

None from this camp either. But it raises the question in my mind of where does that place those hundreds of Drum Corps who marched before DCI? Do those 13 deserve more kudos than the others? Why? I grew up in a city that had more competing Drum Corps of Class "A" (that's what we called what is now "World" Class!) status than that group. Isn't this like that saying: "The winners write history"? So what is it now? Technology dictates history? Puppet

You know, I've read this kind of thing in a couple of different threads. And before I go on, thank you all again for the good words about St. Rita's. (blushes) On topic: Now that I give it some thought, I do think we could "march" and compete against today's corps for one simple reason: We were in the process of inventing the genre of the "show." But here's why we went inactive, for the record: it wasn't money as has been alluded to. There was a reason Wes Hobby called us The Cinderella Corps from Brooklyn New York. We were possibly the richest corps of our time. We ran a bingo that netted thousands every week. On tour, we stayed in hotels, we ate in restaurants and we sent our uniforms to the nearest cleaners. One year we did a two week Mid west tour came home and turned around the next week and went to Lynn for the weekend. Background is this: Like the St. Joseph Patron parish, we were kicked out by a new moderator who didn't like (a) The fact that the majority of the members were not from the parish or (b) didn't know or like Drum Corps. A corps without an affiliation, a a place to rehearse, store their equipment, trucks and buses hasn't got much of anything. We hung in there in 1973 - another ground breaking show - but our kids came from all corners of the city and to make the trek out to Long Island was back breaking and the winter of 1974, believe me we all cried when we got the disbandment news. Puppet

I seem to remember from the late sixties an ad campaign for New York City that was comprised of a series of claims one of which was: by population alone, Brooklyn, NY was the fifth largest city in America. Having said that: There were from the fifties to the seventies The Carter Cadets, St. Roccos, OLPH Ridgemen, St. Joesph Patron Cadets who later became St. Rita's Brassmen, The Wynn Center Toppers, OlC Ramblers, St. Lucy's Cadets (I think!? somebody correct me if I'm wrong on any of these) And these were all class "A" corps just from Brooklyn! New York City is comprised of 5 Boroughs (Counties) There were at least four or five from Queens; another couple (most notably The Lawmen) from Staten Island; Manhattan had a great Drum Corps tradition - the aforementioned CMCC Warriors among them; and who could forget the Bronx Kingsmen who spawned one of the great DC urban legends ever! There was this guy in the Bronx who every time they rehearsed would call the cops to complain about the noise: After about two months of this every week, week in and week out, a New York Cop arrives at his door. With the corps playing in the background, the cop asks the guy what are you talking about? That's music, not noise! The guy says, It's noise to me! The cops looks the guy right in the eye and says: What do you want, a little music in the night or your car stolen - at least we know where they all are! Sorry to go on, so. Puppet

As to the topic: The CYO incident was 1973 our last year on the field. If we actually started the show we would have been penalized like 10 points - so Carmen pulled us. I wish I had some shots of that show. I remember the World Open and was blown away by the Purple Lancers' performance. Three Blind Mice in Symphony Hall we did play. Evening With The Corps, a great pre season venue was actually held at the Mosque Theater in Newark until 1969. Thanks for the accolades. Puppet