vintage rifle

That musta been one of those new fangled busses!!! :P We never had any either! 500 miles??? No problem. :sshh: :sshh:

Thanks, thanks, thanks! Geez I hated those parades! The worst ones were when one corps followed another, nothing in between. Once, I can't remember where, rain was threatening, so we went and did the parade in street clothes. We kept hearing the comment that they couldn't tell which corps was which. We always had the flags in front (actually the rifles were in front), but they were usually all the rookies. The ones with seniority got to march in line with the hornline. That was the place to be. And even there, it was elbow to elbow. ^OO^ ^OO^

Definately old school 1. Black all-wool uniform with a "bucket" for the metal pole (with spearpoint) 2. It didn't matter if your flag was in your face, your hat being held by your teeth, your arm lying on the field - you did not move. 3. Never knowing there was a horn solo during that slow part until you listened to the RECORDS, because you were, yes, in the back. 4. Knowing if you were on the "starting line" or "finish line" side of the field. 5. Swiping traffic cones in construction zones. It still makes me sick to see how corps set up: talking, stretching, moving all over the place.... tell me another performance art that warms up physically in front of the audience. Tacky tacky tacky.

The first story sounds too much like a drum movie (Which one could it be???) to be real.

We had tryouts to get into the B corps. Remember, you only had to be 12 to join back then. I went to the A corps when I was 13 or 14, and there were plenty of us that age. It was different then. Age-outs had been in 7 or 8 years, rather than th 2 or 3 now. I had 7 years in, and still could have marched three more years. Of course we looked young in the 70"s ...we were young.

OK, this comes from a while back.... You're right on the point of the flags going to present with the flag and also saluting. Redundant. Just dip the flags to present. Rifles: we did a few different things. 1. go to present arms, 2. stay at right shoulder and salute the weapon (right arm horizontal with fingertips just touching rifle, 3. Queen Ann salute: go on one knee, and flip rifle so it is behind the right arm, 4. while marching, spin with left hand and salute with right. I also don't care how much dancing is in a show. At retreat, when the American flag is there, guards need to act the part: GUARD THE COLORS. Hope that helps.

God forbid if your little leather thing ripped in a show, and it did happen quite a bit. We called the cups Buckets, and ours were held in place with a belt around your waist too. Talk about interesting tan lines. In 75 or76 we had metal poles, and the buckets had a steel lining....it sounded really cool in the first few bars of the closer....you can still hear it on the CD. Buckets were also handy because our uniforms had no pockets. A quarter would fit under the liner, so you could get a pop after the show. (a 25 cent pop??? Does that tell you how old I am??)

You spin a flag. Wimpy girls is sparkly "bathing suit" costumes twirl a tiny little baton with rubber ends so they won't hurt themselves. (sorry, I hear it already) Mean, strong, and talented women spin and toss rifles that have sharp metal ends on them and are capable of smashing bones of an untrained "twirler" trying to manipulate the most deadly of all equipment. That doesn't sound too biased, does it???? :devin: :devin: :devin: :devin: :devin: :devin: :devin:

That's it! Execution! Being able to do a 7 is impressive. If you have to shuffle to the side four steps to catch it with a wobble destroys the skill of doing a 7 in the first place. It doesn't mattter if you're marking time or prancing around.

Marching band (HS and college), winterguard (it was not an option - if you were in the corps guard, you did winterguard), and drum corps.

Yep, it was comp guard at Western Regionals in Concord. Pass in review was the first command, and we had nightmares worring if we would hit the posting buckets. I also don't remember a single guard there. None were familiar at the time. Anyway, even if some were "ahead of their time" they lost big time. That was my point.

Join me on a trip down memory lane.....(sorry) We showed up at west coast winter guard in either 75 or 76. The other guards were in great sparkly costumes, doing dance moves, and , OMG, the had recorded music. We hand never seen that in our whole hick lives. We knew we were dead because we had on our normal summer corps uniforms (boots too...what is it that some of you have with the boots?????) and no music- just the rhythm of marching and equipment. Anyway, we knew we were toast. The B guard went out and did their show. The crowd went nuts. The A guard went out . The crowd went nuts. Both guards won every single caption and award in sight. Point? The more things change........ Even then we saw this change coming. Ok , fine, it was entertaining. It couldn't stand up to precision and equipment work. I'm not suggesting we return to the 70's for crying out loud. But, from the stands dance looks sloppy, and most I don't want kids to see. When the guard dances, they disappear. All anyone sees are tosses....there is a lot out there that is cool without being a 6 or 7. All things will eventuallly ballance themselves. Maybe guard will to, but I sure would like some guard show their unique tallents, not their assessets. guard member/instructor for 32 years.