MikeD

When Garfield let our great drum instructor George Tuthill go after the 71 season a LOT of the drumline quit and moved a town over to the Hawthorne Caballeros, where he was also the drum instructor. I decided to stay with the Cadets after a couple of months, so I went back and played baritone. I would not play in the drumline under the new guy. . . . . Fred Sanford. 😮 But I did get to play horn under Don Angelica, and I had brass class coming up in the fall semester at college, so it worked out.

You guys were a great bunch of people. I was in Garfield from 70-72. I remember just what you wrote. Very classy group of people.

Concur with that! I had a knee replacement 4 1/2 months ago. PT is done, but I go to our gym (live in an adult community) 6 days a week to continue on my own. My PT guy helped me create a routine. I am still not fully recovered. Feels like an elastic band across the front of my knee. But…getting better.

Mod hat here… Please do not make disparaging comments about individual posters. That goes against DCP guidelines.

On my personal favorite list for sure! I played a concert band arrangement of the finale complete with piano and pipe organ at a church in NJ. It was amazing. The marching band I taught from 1994-2018 did the finale in 1995. John "Screetch" Arietano did the wind book and I wrote the battery book.

First time I saw the Kilties was at the 1969 VFW Nats finals. A carload of us from the GSC corps I marched with in North Jersey made the drive to Philly. Our DM drove, as she was driving age. I was not yet 16 (October 69). They were National champs in 69, edging out the Cavies at finals. This is some film of prelims with audio added...the audio might be finals (not sure). It is not synchronized. Start at 2:25 to possibly hear my first live exposure to their Syne. 1869 Kilties

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One of my favorite symphonies! Plus, the concert had another of my favorites, Lea Salonga! Would have loved to be there.

At least when we submitted our request for approval, no mention of visual was requested at all, just the wind/percussion charts I wrote.

Around 2010 the band I taught and arranged for (winds and percussion) decided to do a Bernstein show. We used parts of Chichester Psalms and the Mass. i had to send their representatives the arrangements ahead of time as part of the approval process. There were no issues with the charts.

He was also a VERY nice person. I was Asst Band Director my first years teaching, and we hired a professional to do a master class and concert with our jazz ensembles. In 78 we brought in Clark. Unlike some of the people brought in, he was a very caring and nice guy. He even shared a “mumbles” number with a student. The kids loved him!

Dr Baggs was a great band director in the day, as you noted with teaching Don, who took his spot when Dr Baggs became a principal. His son Bernie Jr was a very good friend of mine in college. He ended up being in my wedding in 77. I taught his marching bands at 3 HS where he was band director from 80-93. Bernie Jr participated in my senior recital in college, so I invited Dr and Mrs Baggs to my recital. Just as I was getting ready to go on stage for my first piece, a timpani solo, Bernie casually says to me “you know, my dad was a timpanist in college”. So there I was…a drum corps guy who knew Dr Baggs as one of the great judges of all time…going on stage to play a piece on his primary instrument…very scary. Luckily it went well. Whew!!!

I think the person must be convicted of a relevant crime to be placed on the list.

That is great Frank! Just today, we buried my brother-in-law at a military cemetery in NJ. The Reservist, who did an overall great job with the ceremony, just held a bugle to his lips in the back of the chapel, and a recording played Taps. Two young Air Force gals performed a flag ceremony; they did a great job.

True. The Blessed Sacrament church in Newark stopped supporting the Golden Knights, and they moved to Union NJ their last year. Happened a lot.

I am sure there have been. I am in NJ, and I can think of several over time, mostly long ago. The newish law passed that requires districts to report on people being let go for bad behavior (no more “passing the trash”) instead of just being forced to resign has helped a lot. It used to be that unless there was a legal case a district was not permitted to say anything about a teacher leaving, or the teacher could have sued!!!

There are around 25,000 high schools in the country. Just about every possible scenario you can think of is covered someplace. Sticking with corps style competitve bands, there are thousands nationwide. Some few are at the BOA finalist level (whether they are part of BOA or not) all the way down to the raw beginning bands that do a competition or 2 for the experience. There are many local circuits that serve geographic areas. They have their own rules and give bands lots of opportunities to compete. Some circuits overlap areas giving bands more options. Competitive bands tend to have one show that they use at contests and games. Kids come from band programs primarily, plus the guards. In some schools, marching band is mandatory…it is what they do in the fall. The last band I worked with, from 1994-2018, had a volunteer marching band. We were very small, between 45-55 including guard. We drew members from the 3 concert bands and 3 orchestras. Marching band was 100% after school. We competed in 6 or 7 competitions plus performed at almost every game. Some bands have large staffs, while others (like my band) have small ones. All of our staff members had to be vetted by the Board of Ed substitute teacher process which included background checks with the state. The board had 4 paid positions for marching band, director, asst director, guard advisor and percussion instructor. The band parents usually added $$ for a pit instructor position. Again, given how many schools there are, there are probably as many stories as there are schools.

That would be the Plebes, a feeder corps.

I marched Garfield from 70-72, and not very many members came from Garfield. We came from small GSC corps all over north Jersey, plus some from parts of NY.

In my era, we used to see members of some of the top junior corps kiss their wives and kids when they were getting ready to line up. 🥸

A number of Garden State Circuit corps merged in the 70’s to stave off folding. The Livingston Imperial Guardsmen and Dukes of Old Bridge merged in the early seventies to form the DIGs for a few years. They went back to just the Guardsmen name. I marched with the Guardsmen in 68 and 69, and I taught them in 76. The Wayne Monarchs and Greenwood Lake Lakers merged in the middle of the 76 season, coming out as the King’s Regiment in Wildwood. I wrote and taught percussion. KR came in 2nd in the GSC in 77, the first full year.

While working I got certified/recertified on CPR/AED as I was on an emergency response team in my building.

Mod hat here i have hidden a few posts that qualified as personal attacks between posters. As everybody is aware, those types of posts are not permitted per the guidelines of DCP, They also run a thread off the rails and cause such threads to be closed. Please remain focused on the thread topic and not other posters.

Mod hat here. We often go off topic to a degree, and that is ok. Please get back to the topic in the thread title now. This is not the thread to discuss other corps/people, nor is it a place to discuss things not related to the overall topic.

You got THAT right! 👍