buzzgok
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Posts posted by buzzgok
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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?
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On 9/21/2017 at 1:51 PM, BigW said:
You had other reasons, too.
Wanna talk about that whole incident with the jacked up water pistols in Games?
Truth be told, I had more "problems" with quad players at whac a mole
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On 9/19/2017 at 12:48 AM, Jeff Ream said:
i did that to Hershey Stadium for a few years
You are not the only one who did that!
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1 hour ago, BigW said:
I didn't want to burn the Borough too bad, my friend.
'specially since I'm playing and singing at one of the churches there this morning.
It figures after I moved out after 21 and a half years they want me there now and again
Just didn't know if you remembered or not
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On 7/10/2017 at 2:54 AM, Melissa said:
Guess it would be too much to hope there were any of the kanstul G baris left 4 years later?
I was wondering the samething about the drum equipment
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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.
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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.
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6 hours ago, Fran Haring said:
With all due respect to the OP, I'm with Jay on this... he is correct.
Marching band to kids today is what the "local corps experience" was to us back in the day. Heck, there are several high school bands today, in particular the ones in the Bands of America circuit, that would give many top drum corps a run for their money.
Local drum corps and marching bands are/were a good thing. I grew up in that "local corps" era, as did Jay... but it's just a fact of life that times have changed.
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.
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On 4/1/2017 at 4:01 PM, BigW said:
Mike laid it out simply- We played jazz in the West Coast style and our selections were also in that vein. To me, it's a rather refreshing contrast to the traditional East Coast Swing era stuff and that more swingy style.
Here's a loaded question.... Was it a problem for the Brigs when they were using Wayne Downey and pretty much re-exploring all the great Blue Devils charts for their shows?
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.
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On 3/24/2017 at 2:04 AM, Jeff Ream said:
were you there in 92 after the Allentown show? most of the corps had only "heard the legend", so Tree, myself, my dad and a few others took a big cooloer and filled with 10 different kinds of beers....but only one can of Strohs.
we got him to finally agree to go for a dive and ###### if he didnt get the one can of Strohs
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.
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On 3/19/2017 at 9:29 PM, BigW said:
Mel Stratton wrote the drill for Westshore that season. One of the three people I mentioned was all snippy and snotty about Mel because of his affiliation with BD, which I was rather disgusted and taken aback by. Several of us were pretty honked off about those comments.
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.
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On 3/10/2017 at 9:41 PM, BigW said:
Well, it was a known thing about Styrofoam coolers and that they never held up on a bus for more than a weekend at best. People were warned, and if they didn't listen, so be it.
Again, for anyone outside the activity reading this, Drum Corps took place during all of this. Just a rather pointed reminder that amongst all the buffoonery and goofball incidents, the Westshoremen beat everyone in DCA at least once at Finals during the 1979 to 1983 period and placed no worse than sixth (yeah, Bucs, Cabs, Sky, Empire, Sun, Hurcs, so on and so forth....). Tom could play. We all could play. We may have been a bit nuts, more then a bit dysfunctional, but we had top end talent and a lot of desire.
The best part was the we were all family
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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.
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8 hours ago, Fran Haring said:
He certainly elevated cooler diving to an art form.
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!
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On 3/5/2017 at 3:17 PM, BigW said:
I don't remember Tom ever doing anything damaging in a bus unlike the incident on Bus 2/Ogre Bus with the can of shaving cream, which Tom had nothing to with.
Well, there almost was a flood a time or two due to styrofoam coolers.
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22 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
kids today hear stories of McShane and wonder how he made it to 30 LOL
all that diving he did certainly had something to do with it
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4 hours ago, Fran Haring said:
Of all the Box 5 crazies in drum corps... and we had more than our fair share where I marched... McShane is Box 6. In a class all by himself. LOL
Not sure if Wolf's bus lines would have been able to handle another like McShane. Gotta admit though, he was quality entertainment!
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On 2/24/2017 at 11:00 AM, JimF-LowBari said:
If you two did meet it was 1979 or so.
Sad timing thou as dad passed last night. Went to dinner, got home and got something from the garage. Between the garage and house his heart went. If there is a way you want to go this is it. Only found out as I call every Thursday and he didn't answer.
So if you see my name in the Patriots Obits.... it ain't me.....
Sorry for your loss Jim, thoughts and prayers to you and your family.
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On 2/11/2017 at 3:58 PM, BigW said:
The question is Scott, Where did you go? Been thinking about you for quite awhile and hope you're okay.
Ran into John Stauffer at the Turkey Hill up near 22/39, he's looking great!
More later on something a tad exciting for me, been waiting about 20 years or more to get a hold of something like this and it's not a British-style Baritone, either.
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!
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Holy disappearing acts Batman, where did everyone go?
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And Ruth's cymbals.....
My old percussion toys....
A bunch of old McDonald's flags....
Do they spell ei ei oh?
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Hah! Still rolling around the old pages...(365) talk was about Scott wanting to know where to get a kilt...and we renamed him "Scotty McHumm! PRICELESS!!
(I think we drank a lot when we posted BITD)
I didn't drink while posting and I still want a kilt but they are so expensive!
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Ahhh.... I'm out of the loop as usual....
no comment!
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was going to be there on Sunday but work calls
The history of the Westshoremen
in DCA All-Age Corps and Alumni Corps Historical Forum
Posted
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!