drmr27

Since we are talking '70's and shriners Int'nl. CNE stadium was a beautiful place to march. Turf that felt like an expensive carpet, and the acoustics of that place were, well as we say in Boston, Wicked pissa! If you ever find a recordng made in that stadium, well, you'll know when you hear it. I can actually recall marching (and winning) that show in 1971. Thinking that every performance that we had done up to that point held the excitement of a sweaty 10pm run through behind Northgate shopping center. But, that night in Toronto we clicked and I think about halfway through that performance we all knew we were in for one #### of a year. WO at Manning bowl (a 15 minute drive from our home practice site) was a great place for us too. We considered it our home ground. A hot day with thunderstorms rolling through right at the beginning of the show, 727's flying low on approach to the airport, we rode there in yellow school busses or drove our own cars thanks to our legendary 27 brand of cash flow. Somehow riding home as world champs in a bus with "Revere Public Schools" painted on the side is one of those special memories. All things considered, Manning bowl was an armpit, but it was our armpit! Boston College Stadium and the CYO nationals: 27's personal portal to ####! 'nuff said. Time for tonight's little pill. Hmmm... Zoloft or Cialis? Hmmmmm..... Steve "Read the history of the 27th Lancers in HoDC volume 2. I spent many hours making it all up... I mean painstakingly researching it."

Come on Charlie, as the left coast Groh representative, you should know that we were placed on this planet for greater tasks than adding up some simple numbers to come up with someone's age. Speaking strictly for myself, aging is inevitable, growing up is an option I have declined.

Thanks Cousin Charlie, Guess I can add a few things here. I Left 27 after the 1974 season and kicked around teaching a few class C and B lines around New England. In 1977 I got a gig assisting the Ghost who was caption head with the 21st Lancers... Yes! 21st! They were a feeder organization for 27 from Norwood, MA (my hometown) and they ended up splitting away but kept the name. Working with the Ghost was an intense learning experience for me. A lot of the legend is true. His given name was Bill Linnen but he dropped that many years earlier and was far more comfortable being called Ghost. He had the habit of appearing and disappearing without warning. He was a thin, small framed guy, balding with a LONG gray beard. During breaks in rehearsal he would lay down in the grass and his beard would point straight up into the air. He said it was drawn there by the spirits in the greater megalithic cloud... He was very friendly and easy to get to know, but still a mystery. He did play with Boston in the 1960's, he often talked about the architectural advantages of a properly designed and built teepee. His teaching and writing skills just knocked me out at the time. He was able to get a line of relatively young kids to play like pros and could motivate people without ever once raising his voice. He believed that visual presentation was very important but meaningless if you didn't have good music and musicianship behind it. I don't know what happened to him after that year. I hope he went up to Vermont or NH and set up housekeeping in a teepee. I always thought he would be as much at home with wolves and bears as he would with a drumline. If he is still with us today, somewhere in the north woods, he must be well into his 70's if not 80's. He's probably making hand drums and flutes and teaching squirrels and rabbits to make music. Steve Groh

I marched in the 27th Lancers Timp line for a few years in the early 70's, before I defected to the Tom line. I always got a real kick out of the musical approach of one voice being split up for four, and eventually five people to play as one. Today's bass lines have perfected some of the techiques we worked on back then, listening up and down to achieve a "single voice balance", never stepping on your bro by releasing on top of their attack, etc. We used one leg on the drums in rehearsals so we could lean on them but never used the legs during shows or parades. I think a lot of us who are in our 40's and 50's remember that every time we TRY to bend over and tie our shoes these days. I occasionally connect to Diceman and listen to some of his 70's recordings of us and our competitors and cringe when I hear how bad our tuning was on some recordings. I can also admit after all these years that I secretly thought Boston's timp section was better than us, every now and then that is. (Are you listening Paul Gowern?) Boston and 27th were probably the best (technical) timp sections in the east in the 70's. I also got a kick out of Anaheim, SCV and Cavaliers. Reminds me to call the Chiropractor for an appointment.

I agree Nancy. I loved playing the Chicago medley and would have loved to play NINER-TWO ten years later but they have this stupid age rule thing. "It's my dog's world, I'm just here to open the cans..."