Roger Ellis

I played trumpet in school band thru grade nine, then attended a technical high school that did not have a music program. Several of my friends from school were in a drum and bugle corps, and they worked on me for a year before I finally went to a practice and joined the corps. My only regret is that I wasted that year. I marched on and off in various senior field and alumni corps from 1966 until 2003.

Jack Keller

Gary Wood and Steve Cooley!

The Cadets - 14th in 1978 in DCI Prelims. The rest is history.....

CYO Nationals - 1975 - Boston College - one week before DCI in Philly - Hawthorne Muchachos and Madison Scouts head to head - a hot summer night if there ever was one. I was there.......

Got a brand new horn yesterday, an Andalucia Advance Series Phase III in silver plate that I won in a contest. It is sold as a Bb trumpet and also as a Bb soprano bugle. It is a large bore (.469) and has a large, heavy bell (the same bell that was used on the King K20 soprano bugle back in the day). It is a BIG change from my everyday trumpet that I have been playing since the fifth grade, an LA Olds French Model. The Olds is a lightweight, bright sounding horn that sizzles. The Andalucia has a much different sound, and can really generate volume. The Andalucia is sensitive to the mouthpiece that I use. It sounds a lot fuller and richer with the 5C that came with it than it does with the mouthpiece that I use with the Olds, a Stork LDS4 that is roughly equivalent to a Bach 7D. I have never played a Bach Stradivarius, but I am told that the Andalucia plays much like the Strad. I would be interested in any thoughts or comments....

Slow day in February, one year later: In the 1960's and 1970's I marched in Senior shows in cities including Dunkirk NY, Angola NY, Hornell NY, Waverly NY, Ithaca NY, Latrobe PA, Carlisle PA, Hershey PA, St. Marys PA, Meadville PA, Saratoga Springs NY, Montreal QUE, Salamanca NY, Jamestown NY, Pittsburgh PA, Johnsonburg PA, Altoona PA, Emmaus PA, Hamilton ONT, Binghamton NY, Warren PA, Sudbury ONT, Endwell NY, Gowanda NY, Hamburg NY - just to name a few:))

Gary Wood and Steve Cooley!

What BigW said. I wrote and did photography for many years for Drum Corps News and Drum Corps World. Your first effort is better than most of the stuff that I wrote after years of working at it.....

Hi Tom. I went on the Drum Corps Hall of Fame cruise in the spring of 1988 and played with the Empire Statesmen that week, so I am (very) marginally qualified to comment here. I do remember Vince having a meeting with the membership toward the end of the cruise. He said that it was time for everyone to decide if they were in our out for the upcoming season based on the rehearsal and performance schedule. He said in more or less these words - "it's simple - every Saturday and every Sunday from the time we get off the ship until Labor Day - no exceptions". At the same time, he created an environment where people did not want to be anywhere else. You were wise to offer a differentiated alternative.

For my birthday last November - a custom designed championship ring to commemorate my membership in the 2002 DCA Mini-Corps Champion Erie Thunderbirds.

The Brigs won four titles in a row and DCA has remained competitive. The Sunrisers had three two-peats and DCA has remained competitive. The Bushwackers won six times in an eight year stretch and DCA has remained competitive. The Caballeros finished in the top three positions 34 times in 50 finals appearances, and won nine titles, and DCA has remained competitive. The Skyliners put together a 31-year run never finishing lower than seventh and DCA has remained competitive. Somehow I think that DCA will survive the current streak that the Bucs are on and will remain competitive.

Gary Wood out front on soprano with Steve Cooley.

Boy do I remember that show. I marched it with the Hamburg Kingsmen. The track was much smaller than a standard football field front to back, and we never practiced on a smaller field before the show. Our instructions were "take small steps". The temperature was over 100 degrees F and the track felt like walking in about a foot of quicksand. The drill was a shambles, and it was very hard to play. Finally, we were wearing authentic West Point grey wool jackets. Good for winter parades, but not for a show like this one. Ugh.

Drum Corps Midwest had a senior division for a number of years.