Fran Haring

There's a video of Matadors' 1977 DCA Prelims performance out there (YouTube, I think... and it's a bit jumpy in spots). It's everything that DCA was/is supposed to be about... hugely entertaining, quality corps, and the "star power" of Jim Centerino and Ritchee Price. Plus a great visual design by Bobby Hoffman.

Heck yeah!!! IMO the most entertaining corps in DCA that year. Their Madison Square Garden performance in '77... they almost tore the roof off the place. And great people, too!

Nice to hear the news about the Lancers. They are terrific.

Empire Statesmen, Matadors, Minnesota Brass... the three I miss the most. My definition of "entertaining" has always been "I would pay to see that show again." Those three corps fit that definition, for me.

Dumb question perhaps, since I know next to nothing about tour logistics.... but how do corps handle fuel supply/costs? By that I mean... do they contract out or pre-pay with a supplier, pay as they go at the pump, or something else?

Wow... since I've never even had a one night stand, I had no idea that two-nighters involved such a relatively small amount of time and alcohol!

Sad news. An all-time icon.

That, and Disco Demolition Night... two events that will live in baseball infamy!

Very sad. A fixture on the DCA scene for decades.

25-cent beers with every-other-seat social distancing. Lucas Oil Stadium... guaranteed half full. .

Overdue for both inductees... congratulations to them! I only wish we could have heard Mike's induction speech. I'm sure it would have been epic.

April 25th. The perfect date.

Yes and no.

Yep, even before I moved here!!! "Cheese Wiz, wit." LOL

Absolutely. Saw the Raiders from NJ the year they won Div. 3... I think they did music from Jesus Christ Superstar. 16 horns or so. They were great!!! A clinic on how to design a show for a small corps.

I moved to PA in September, so I am still getting up to speed on Pennsylvanian. I still retain elements of my previous dialects... Baltimorean (AKA Baltimoron) and Jersey Guy.

Rest in peace, Frank. I always enjoyed my conversations with him. Good man.

Heh... one visit it literally took me as much time to find a spot in that garage as it did to drive there from my house in the Baltimore suburbs. 😂

I recently received a notice from Johns Hopkins that I am eligible for their vaccination list, since I've been a JHH patient in the past three years. So perhaps there will be a couple of trips back to Baltimore for me in the near future. I hope so. Now... if I can just remember how to navigate the JHH outpatient center parking garage. LOL

That's a big one here in Chester County. The county commissioners have been practically begging the state to supply more vaccines.

I hear that, Jim. A snail's pace in several parts of PA, including where I live. I'm so far down the eligibility list that I wonder if World War 3 will break out first.

"I'm going to leave the room now. You didn't see me here, and this conversation never happened. Finish them off."

Yeah.... DCN writers were not shy about sharing their opinions. LOL A story about that... 1980, the DCN publisher (Andy Uzarins, I think it was) covered the Boston Cup combo DCI/DCA show in Boston and basically tore us (DCA's Long Island Sunrisers) apart in his writeup. 1980 was a rebuilding year for us... coming off two straight DCA titles in 1977-78 and a third-place finish in '79 a bunch of veterans retired... and he seemed to take delight in the fact that we were crushed by the Hawthorne Caballeros by a wide margin at the Boston show. Cabs won, we were second. Just the tone of his article.... it was like he went out of his way to tell us that we had no chance at winning a title in '80. I was Sun's co-PR director in 1980.... so I and my PR partner sent a letter to him, telling him that hey, guess what.... we #### well knew at the start of the 1980 season that we were up against it, and that he could lay off belittling us. LOL. I don't remember if we ever heard back from him, and maybe we went "NYC metro area" on him a bit... LOL... but it felt good to get it off our chests.

One of the things I remember most about DCN (Drum Corps News) back in the day was its "letters to the editor" page. For a while... not sure if they eventually changed the policy.... the letters from readers were basically un-edited (except for profanity and things like that) and un-screened.... DCN didn't check to see if someone was using a fake name, or was writing stuff that wasn't even close to resembling the truth, or whatever. (And I confess... I know some folks who sent letters in under fake names. 🙂) As a result, that page was like the Wild West. All sorts of crazy stuff there.

I've been a contributing writer to DCW at various times since 1983. I thank DCW publisher Steve Vickers for the opportunity!