CM76

I always heard, "Present Arms" when the guard/Drum majors saluted during parades, and retreats... wait, what is a parade? Since we were playing, the snare salute during a parade consisted of, "Eyes, right" Either of those would be followed by a, "Ready, to" as in "release", or return to the previous state. I don't believe it was the number two. Could be wrong, but that is the way I understood it.

Bob Fields = Clark Kent! I have a bunch of the blue articles from the Concord Transcript. Those are fun. Did you know that time Bob toured with us led to him being heavily involved with the Crossmen (I think) and his daughter marched. It seems I ran across an article he wrote for DCW or something. It'd be cool to get him on here just to say hi. We did get a lift for the staff there. Re: people watching us practice... I remember thinking the exact same thing in Stillwater. Come to find out, you know who was in that crowd? None other than Todd Tanji - that blew me away...

I'd have been surprised if you didn't end up on your back side sliding back down the hill!

Yeah, corps today have it easy! (Old man voice..) I remember back in the day, we did probably 1000 parades every year. And when we had to follow horses, we marched through it. None of this, marching around it stuff to keep from messing up the shoes. No way! That's how it otter be done.

Looking again... don't think someone is covered by the flag - that must've been when Paul was sick. IIRC the flu/stomach virus went raging through the corps. We were in line walking to the starting line and people were "releasing" behind the bleachers on the back sideline. Was that too much information? Sorry

Of course it makes perfect sense. It is completely rational, logical, and appropriate -- which is why they don't like it. Just teasing a little. Who knows? I never got to play matched grip. It has to be a visual preference thing I guess. Or perhaps the big-egoed snare drummers just want to be different - trying to be elite. Calm down, I can say that cause I was one....

While I was in the Conquistadors, we were taught by SCV people. Bob Kalkofen was my first drum instructor there in 1971. Turns out, in 1978, he was my last drum instructor (snare tech) at BD. Ironic. Anyway, I remember being into SCV at the time. I'd come home from school and put on records and figure out snare parts. I also had the 71 Combine West album, so I listened to the Cavaliers quite a bit too. However, SCV was the be all end all. I know this is stupid, but when I joined BD, I wasn't really thinking of being in the same league and competing with SCV. I just wanted to be in a corps that traveled around the country. Pretty silly huh? I really enjoyed Kingsmen and Muchachos.

Shout out to Dave Tuttle! How's it going Dave?

Lee - Gary, John, Alan, me, Scott, Terry, Jerry, Paul, Mike, Tony - That was our standard lineup. When we took the pictures at the reunion, we lined up exactly this same way. It just felt natural as though that was way things should always be. Funny thing - I remember this photo at Hatborough-Horshem (sp?) It was drill time, we were stopped while they were fixing sets. I saw on the little hill on the front side of the field, someone pulling up their camera to take a picture. I quickly yelled, "TEN HUT", and snapped to attention for the photo. Everyone else was like, "What?" "What are you talking about Charlie?" So they just ignored me. Except, see, Silverstein is dressing center. Oh well, I tried for a classy photo...

I don't distinctly remember only 9 snares that evening, but that doesn't mean much, my memory is pretty trashed. I do remember some flu going around but not sure which year/show it was - seems like Peterson got it bad. that could be this show. The other possibility is back then we marched closed interval. If you look just to the right of the flag on the right end of the snare line, it looks like there might be a left hand stick showing... One things for sure...over the years, I never really remembered this show, but it was a HUGE deal for 27. Lancer Legend posted about how great it was to win that show, and later on, he bested BD as an instructor. That is cool - I'd like to meet him one day. Maybe I can get to Allentown... I believe it was right after this we received the new uniforms -- at that point we felt like a million bucks. I'm sure it came across in our performances too.

I'm dusting off my brain cells trying to remember.... What I felt during 76-78 - 1976 satisfying win. Margin of victory was large, swept all captions, seemed a clear win. 1977 a win is a win, but it was, to me, certainly less satisfying. I felt only lucky to win, not like we were dominant or anything-wasn't it only .10 over Phantom? As we left the field, I looked up in the stands over the end zone, and I saw all the Etobicoke-Oakland Crusaders drumline yelling down at us because they had beat us in drums in prelims. It sort of took the glorious edge off of winning. I wish they had made finals, I would've rather had the chance to compete and a decision one way or the other. 1978 I believe we happened to win Allentown, which was wierd. As they were going up through announcing scores, they announced caption winners. We won zero captions, but placed like second in everything. Since the other corps had flipped-flopped caption wins, I thought at the time there was no way we won, and was bracing for a third/fourth place finish. - Then, at finals, we were only .35 out of first, which is nothing in the tic era -- 4 measley little errors.... If they're going to place us third, then make it very clear, by 1.5 -2 points or something. As it was, I always felt that any of SCV, PR, BD could've won. But, I distinctly remember thinking..."I'm glad I'm not Phantom." I completely groaned over their scenario. Certainly I don't condone classless behavior, but with our culture, and the emotion of the activity, I understand how easily it happens. Although our era perhaps had more emphasis on dignity and military bearing, there were reports of mayhem and foolishness at retreats. read: fist fights, brawls, and near riots. For those that feel everyone needs to deny their emotions with all this, I say, let the winners enjoy and process the emotions from winning. Let the runners-up grieve (sp?) and process their emotions. Let those who have been offended by classless behavior process their grudge, and then everyone....LET IT GO! Just give everyone space to be human, for cryin' out loud.... Steps off soapbox.

Because the camera is looking straight on at the bead of the stick in the left hand. And, I got to march in between Scott and Alan! Good times - definitely

Sarcasm on: Gee, I’ve never heard other countries refer to Americans as arrogant and classless. I’ve never heard news stories about arrogant and classless American celebrities, athletes, businesspeople, politicians etc. Sarcasm off: Why should we expect kids to magically change into something else just because they’re in a drum corps? What we really need is a committee to watch all the corps, the staffs, parents, and fans in the stands. All classless acts should be posted on a forum and tallied through the end of the calendar year (To allow all classless acts in response to any Finals results and the fallout resulting thereof) at which time the winner will be announced. This would be the responsibility of the Committee Against Classless Acts. Hmmm... what would be a good acronym? Sarcasm? Maybe just a little.

The Mechanicsburg.....Plumbers

Thanks! It is good to be here. Actually, as I think about my friends who are now gone, I feel fortunate to still be alive. I am floored it has been 30 years. I suppose I am officially historical now. lol I miss, as they say here, "All y'all"