BD2Rings

My last year marching was '77, and I thought Tholo was already drum major. Maybe 2nd banana, but still a drum major. Am I wrong here?

We've got 3 posters here from the Blue Devils, and no, we are not going to engage in Cavaliers bashing, no matter how tempting. Right guys? Right? Uh, where did you guys go? Uh, right?

I was approached by ladies from the Muchachoes, & Blue Rock, had a few little group flirtations with the 2-7 guard, lusted over perhaps the entire Crossmen guard, and always enjoyed girl watching the Blue Stars in their hot pant shorts. But I can't say I ever raided another corps. I don't remember ever persuing females in other corps (maybe this was my loss), as the 'We hate you, you hate us' mentality was too pronounced. The competition level between Concord and Santa Clara was intense. There was no inter-association between corps members at all back then. One of our '76 tenors, a fellow named Rich, had a sister in the Vanguard CG that same year. Rich wrote an essay that was posted on the DCI web pages a month or three back. Anyone who hasn't read it, really should. It paints the picture well of what the social air was like back then.

That's the guy, thank you. It seemed the norm in drum corps at the time was 'We hate you, you hate us'. The competitive nature kept members from corps away from members of other corps. It seems it was strongly frowned on. For whatever reason, Doug Tholo and a few of the Blue Devil baritones breached the divide, and we thought to ourselves of times past 'Well that was stupid'. Now here we are all these years later, actually trying to co-mingle. How many years did this take us?

Bingo! You must have read my hum above. While I've got a Scout's attention, it was rather rare for members to make friends between corps back when, but some of the Blue Devil bari line made one with a Madison bari in '74 or '75 ??? who later became drum major. I can no longer even remember his name. Care to help here too?

The early show from that year, Madison played a tune that was sung by Diana Ross, and I can't remember what it was. Help me here. It was part of the scrapped show, and was the original closer. Funny I can still hum the melody, but I can't give it a name. da da dahhhhhh, da da da da dahhhhhhh, da da dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dahhhhh, dah dah dah dah dah dahhhhhh, dah dah dahhhhh.

I can't remember ever feeling like that. I would always step off with confidence, and enjoy what I was doing. This was odd for me, because I usually suffer from some degree of stage fright. Not with the Blue Devils however. I was well trained, and ready to go. I knew I had the backing and support of everone else in the corps, and that I could depend on them to pull their own weight. I always seemed to have this optimism that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. I could have felt that the corps was only as good as the weakest link, but the corps as a whole always seemed to rise above that. Even in front of 30,000+ people, or however large things got, I had the knowledge that we were going to be OK. Maybe that is why I enjoyed drum corps so much. I knew I was being judged, and mistakes would be 'ticked', but I never felt that I would be singled out. I was part of the larger group.

'74 was my first year, and I took a liking to the Commodores. I took a liking to just about every corps, but the Commodores ......

1974 was a very long time ago. I can't even remember the first show I marched. It was some rather small event in northern Califiornia. Most of that entire first year has become a blur for me. I seem to remember most the feelings I had toward our competitors, like the Commodores, Blue Rock, Vanguard, Troopers. I do remember my first DCI finals however. It was in Ithaca New York. A week or two before finals, we were scoring 83 something, and our expectation due to this, was that we would place right in the middle of the pack, about 7th. We had beaten the Oakland Crusaders, and expectations were high. Pretty good for my rookie year. It was not to be. Our scores dropped rather dramatically over that last week or two, and we barely squeeked into finals, in 11th. Finals night, we were OTL before the sun was even down. It seems the crowd was still filtering in. It was still the biggest crowd I remember performing for, but I never had the feeling that this was it, the end of the season. I had become so accustomed to tour, I could have continued for a couple more months. That first year, when you have to learn what tour is, the only way to learn is to do. That first year ended with a small disappointment. I, if not the corps, expected to beat some of the corps we had previously beaten. Oh, well. The crowd seemed casually receptive of us, but went bananas when the Muchachoes took the field. I felt we, as a corps, still had some barriers to knock down before we would be accepted. Things were better at '75 finals, and we owned the field for '76 finals. That was a special night. I wish it were possible for everyone to know that feeling at least once. With all the work, effort, sweat, and the emotional roller coaster ride of drum corps, it would be nice if everyone who marched knew what it felt like.

Blue Devil Legend smirks at my comment, and with good reason. I was never blessed with romance or even a good case of mutual lust in four years of tour. I acquired some groupie attention over the years, but that never went to the bus. My comment still holds true, but your understanding must change. I meant that what happens on the bus, stays on the bus. I was aware of other activities while bus bound, just that it never involved me, and I won't name names.

The rush hit several times in one night. The night was DCI finals, '76. At the end of the OTL, I looked up at the crowd. Franklin field in Philly was something special. It was stands stacked up, close to the field. None of this super sized stadium for baseball with spectators stretching for acres in all directions. They sat in a wall that seemed to go straight up from the near the field edge. I don't remember the size of that crowd, but I would guess 30k+, and they were vocal. When the results were announced at retreat. There was a certain enormity of the event. San Bruno, CA '75, beating SCV for the first time. I can't remember the show, nor even the stadium, but I do remember the significance, and the feeling of beating the champions from the preceding two years. We were now contenders, whereas the previous year was the first that we had ever even been in finals. This was an organizational landmark of some significance. The pride of being part of it.

Oh, the trip down memory lane. My first year marching: 1) Warm ups were largely done before we entered the field. We were given the standard horn & drum warm up, but that was very limited and a group effort. No individualism here. 2) The field entrance was almost part of the drill. We marched in and had a specific process to set up for OTL. The most pronounce entrance I can remember was done by Blue Rock. The came in in a block. The show in San Jose, CA, the field had a very small backside, and their rehearsed block entrance did not have enough room to execute without stepping onto the field (a penalty). The drum major had to be creative just for the corps to set up. 3) Did not require the corps to enter from the side of the field. Most corps chose to enter from the backside. 27th was the exception. They chose to enter from the back left corner with their Crown Imperial. For the impressionable rookie I was, I thought this was sharp. They also chose to exit to the back right corner to Danny Boy. Oh, the memories. I was an emotional wreck when I saw the alumni do the '94 show. Good stuff 27. 4) Color guard wore those knee high military style boots. I was so impressed to see Santa Clara's rifle line do the bottle dance in those boots. Determination raised to some power. 5) Symetrical drills. The sopranoes were on one side of the field, and the baritones and middle horns shared the other side. The contras seemed to share mid field with the drum line. Whatever the sopranoes did, we did the mirror image better. 6) Color Presentation. This was still a required part of every show. I look back on this with some humor now, as our production number was from Porgy and Bess. Presenting the colors to Porgy and Bess just doesn't have the same impact as say Madison's 1976 Stars and Stripes Forever. 7) I have nothing but respect for Gayle Royer, but the Vanguard organization did not allow females in the horn nor drum lines. I would like to think this was a contributing factor as to why Jim and Bonnie Ott came to the Blue Devils. I believe it was a large factor for Bonnie, and I don't really know about Jim. They had previously been with the Stockton Commodores. 8) A big corps had 10 contras. We must have been very small. My first year we only had 3, and I don't think I ever marched with more than 6 or 8. Without regard to the year marching: 1) Knee high marking time. That actually started to dimished while I marched, just not with Blue Devils. What year was it that we were introduced to the 'Bridgemen Shuffle', where they barely moved their feet? No hard feelings. I can't imagine that corps doing knee highs while wearing those long banana coats. Just would not have worked. 2) The stare. This started when the corps lined up to enter the field. Nobody allowed to break ranks. Don't care who they were. This is now our turf and you are not welcome here. We didn't even break during retreat to visit friends in other corps. It seemed very few of us had friends in other corps anyway. We seemed very much our own entity. 3) Rifle lines. Now I don't ever remember our guard using or even attempting to use real rifles. I don't think that ever happened. They had the standard wood stock that had been painted white, and had the leather straps that gave the slap sound when the rifles were spun. I will give the rifle line credit here, as they were good. We had a weekend camp one year on Treasure Island. For those of you not familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a small island in the middle of the bay, called Yerba Buena. The Bay Bridge goes through (yes bored right through) this island. The 1920/1930 something World's Fair was to be held in the Bay Area back when, and Treasure Island was built (land fill) adjacent to Yerba Buena. After the fair it was converted to a Naval base for the U.S. Navy. The Blue Devils were allowed on base for this weekend camp. I remember vividly, our rifle line doing their rehearsals, of standard and double spins while a sizable group of navel honor guard members watched in amazement. I was so proud that our navy was in awe of what our rifle line could do. Good job ladies (yes the color guard then was all female). 4) Sometimes the flags weren't called flags. Sometimes they were pikes. 5) Uniforms. The classic BD Tuxedo uniform was supposed to arrive before the beginning of the '75 season. It didn't. I think the first show we did in black 'T' shirts and such. When we did get them, they were very well received. 6) I must be a newbie, as I don't ever remember going through an inspection. Is my memory fading here. 7) Ticks. A whole different way of judging. Every corps had a perfect score in all captions except GE before they stepped off. The competition was to see who could complete their show with minimal damage. Those were the days my friends, we thought they'd never end.

What happens on the bus, stays on the bus.

We were at retreat at the Pizza Hut Invitational somewhere in Kansas in the mid 70's. Standard retreat formation is for the baritones to be somewhere in the hinterland, with only the contras more hinter. The ceremony was blessed with a streaker running along the track across the full front side of the grandstand. I couldn't see a thing, and didn't want to. All I could hear was the crowd response, which was oddly like the Blue Devils 'Space Music'. The laughter proceeded from one side of the stands to the other, like a vocal wave. A slightly modified version of retreat.