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buzzgok

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Everything posted by buzzgok

  1. My favorite memory of Tom was from back in 83. We were practicing on the island and it had been a rain off and on type day. After rehearsal, Tom said that he had a special weather dive for the night. He stripped down to his tighty whities and dove into a puddle. he did the back stroke through the puddle and stood up. The mud had appropriately put a racing stripe on the back of his underwear. There were other "stunts" that I remember and all of them are funny. RIP my friend, you will be missed!
  2. When someone brings up the "good old days," I like to ask them which ones, no valve, single valve, double valve until deemed illegal, valve rotary or the now legal two valve?
  3. Truth be told, I had more "problems" with quad players at whac a mole
  4. I was wondering the samething about the drum equipment
  5. I know lack of funding has been brought up as a reason why corps have gone in active. Most corps have at least three tractor trailers they use for equipment and chuck wagons. Those rigs have saddle fuel tanks that hold minimum 75 gallons of fuel each. so two tanks at 75 gallons is 150 gallons per rig. Now take that times the national average for the price of diesel which is $2.50 per gallon. Now you are looking at a fuel bill of $750 per rig times three which comes out to $2,250.00 just for one fill. That is just fuel to get from point a to point b. To get to point c might require another fill depending on how far they travelled, how much climbing they had to do to get there plus how the driver runs the vehicle. This is just on three rigs, I did not include charter busses in this. Compare this current price to the price of Diesel back in, say 1980 when it was just $0.82 per gallon and not as many rigs being used at that time. Hey Big W, for the record, New Cumberland told Larry they could go out of their way and pay us $50 to do the parade. I, like you was digging for cash.
  6. Think I'll weigh in on this a little bit. I started following drum corps August 1960. I remember corps starting on the goal line and coming across the feild doing drill. I remember horm players using single valve before valve rotary came out. Did I mind the change? No. I remember when keybaords and tympani were added to percussion. Loved the tymps, not so much the keyboards, but I grew to enjoy it so much that I marched keyboards in 1981. I remember the change to asymetrical drill, WOW! I also remember the change from rudimental bass drums to tonal bass. Loved that one so much march bass 2 years in corps. I know the activity we love so much has changed so much over the years. I still love it even though there is one element I think we can do without (singing) but that is my opinion. I look at the current product and wonder if I could do that. My body starts to laugh hysterically at that point. I still love the activity. I marched in the alumni corps for a few years. Was a lot of fun, wish my corps was still around but they are not, oh well. Things change, I remember going to the forum show in Harrisburg and if you did not purchase tickets when they began selling them, you were pretty much out of luck. In the years before they ended the forum show, you could walk up to the ticket booth and buy decent seats for the night's show. Things change. I guess what I am trying to say, is embrace the activity now for what it is but don't forget the our roots. These kids today work every bit as hard as we did back in our days. I know there have also neen a lot of complaints about "broadway style" shows. Well, what do the Bridgemen, Cadets, Velvet Knights and Santa Clara Vanguard all have in common? Yeah, they did broadway style shows back in the eighties. All the shows were well done and I know I love every one of them. Granted those shows would not hold up against any of the shows today but that is trying to compare apples to oranges.
  7. I agree Fran. The high school band I marched with was taught by people who marched in DCA corps. Our drum instructor came from the Buccaneers. He was teaching us stuff that was written for Reading's drumline. Our big thing in band was to have a drum corps style show. This was back in the late 1970's. We went to the BoA finals in Whitewater, WI and saw a lot of bands at that time would give some of the DCI corps a run for the money. A bunch of us drummers wanted to see some of the lines warm up and found a few DCI jackets, most notably Blue Devils and Kilties. As to the original question that was posed, I believe that the cost factor is the main reason you do not see the local corps on the field anymore. Between that and all the distractions that are out there. That is just on the Junior side. On the senior circuit which is what I grew up watching since the tender age of 4 weeks old, there is the same issue of corps that are no longer around that were here back in the day. But again, it is because of time and money that corps went inactive and are no longer around.
  8. IMHO, not a chance. I loved those shows and the way they were performed by the Brigs. Yes, they were Blue Devil charts but they did put their own spin on them to make them their own. On, that note, I really miss the Brigs and would like to see them back on the field. I thought either that would happen or Crusaders would come back when Empire went inactive.
  9. I missed it but I'm not surprised that he did it. I know of only one dive that he failed at. He tried to do a "mother/daughter" dive with the one guard girl and her mother who helped at the souvie stand. Poor mom took the brunt of that one since the daughter had like a sixth sense of not only when he was gonna try but from which direction and she would dive out of the way.
  10. I wonder if the fact that we were referred to as the BD of DCA had anything to do with the snide comments. I took it as a compliment but I know there are a few who resented it.
  11. I remember one night on City Island after it had rained, McShane took his diving ability to a whole new level. He stripped down to his tighty whitey's and dove into a puddle in the middle of the parking lot, proceeded to swim around slowly, rolled over on his back and did a slow back stroke. When he stood up, that was when everyone noticed the racing stripe he had from front to back.
  12. I still remember the first time Tree who sat in front of the shi**er on the bus, lifted up the lid on his cooler and yelled "hey, McShane, I could use a Genny cream ale." Here comes McShane running on top of the rest of the coolers and dove into Tree's cooler and came up with a Genny cream ale in each hand. I sat there and thought to myself, this is gonna be a great ride with this corps!
  13. Well, there almost was a flood a time or two due to styrofoam coolers.
  14. Not sure if Wolf's bus lines would have been able to handle another like McShane. Gotta admit though, he was quality entertainment!
  15. Sorry for your loss Jim, thoughts and prayers to you and your family.
  16. I'm fine. Came off the road in 2014 so now I work as a security guard. I don't miss the weather but I do miss the places we found that had great food. I'm still stunned and speechless about Bruce, RIP my friend!
  17. I didn't drink while posting and I still want a kilt but they are so expensive!
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