Jaminbenb
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Posts posted by Jaminbenb
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Ok...what happened with the situation that Skee is talking about? I know I have my own grudge, but I never knew that people were turned away right at the onset of the alumni thing?
I mean Skee is one of those "I don't care, I just want to play" kinds of people... I remember my last days with the Chocolatiers when he stepped in and ran the drum rehearsals (with a drum on his back) Then he was in everyone's almuni group several years running!
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YES. Blue Coats. USAFA Flight of Sound. Crossmen. Bucs Alumni. Yankee-Rebels Alumni.
Stuff I will always remember.
Hell Buddy Rich, too! THAT was a fun evening! I just remember when Rickie Lee and I were standing out on the back steps and when he walked in we got to say hi and shake his hand! (which had more callouses than you could imagine!)
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Yeah...always loved the old Forum shows when you'd see all of the performers up in the rafters after they played! Couldn't think of how many times I stood up there, or was able to sneak down front on the sides to catch people.
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This weekend's weather is ending up as a bust!
Last weekend was weird.... I was at a scuba diving trade show out in Secaucus, and I went to the seminars on Friday night in a pair of shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt...Saturday in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt... I wasn't there Sunday, but a friend that was out there wore a winter jacket, and was freezing his butt off going between the building with the exhibits, and the building with some of the seminars!
My wife looked at me when I was packing and said "we're only going overnight" She apologized!
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Heck, I remember the concerts back when I marched...We went to the Forum, Buc's and Crossmen's shows...and all three corps were always there.... Forum usually had at least one of the service academies....and as other corps came and went we had other ones.... I did it one year with the Chocolatiers who, at the time was only a parade corps, that did exhibitions during the summer.
I remember one year they had Buddy Rich playing a show!
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LOL... I remember when I was walking into the Allentown stadium that night getting ready to go to work for Finals, someone handed me one of those "Cab Buster" flyers.
My first thought.... this might not end well.
Never got any repercussions from it, but some of us thought the same thing...OK...it was funny singing on the bus a few times...but when the big sign was made, and people were passing out the little pictures...It got a little over the top....
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Yeah I don't remember the specifics. I thought it was kinda dumb
Whatever works... The whole "Cab Buster" thing we had in 1984 was dumb, but it had it's moments!
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Somewhere along the way in 89 or 90 we were in Mt Joy every other week and we had to take the Salunga exit on 283. It became a rallying thing and worked its way to into the song
k....
Then I wasn't far off base with the 283 thing! I just know that I see a few people saying that here and there...
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'splain the "salunga" thing? Not sure I know what that one is about. (To me it's an exit off 283)
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Ben the option to do parades or other shows was brought up many times..... Membership didn't want to do it. No way old strap a drum on for even a 2 block parade anymore.
The Westshoremen A guard and Sr Guard still compete in TIA. In fact the seniors finally beat The Guard, an off shoot of the Classics from Allentown family this month for the first time ever. Ironically The Guard started with mainly members of Westshores guard in the 90's. There was a rift about 8 years ago and people split to start Westshore
There's always the 37th Regiment!
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I didn't get the email. The possibility of this was used as a guilt maneuver to get me to play, which I refused.
I have seen the corps fold in 72, 84, 94, 98, 2001, and now 2016 since birth. After processing and a huge post on here to follow, my conclusion is unless someone has the time, desire and money to run it like a successful business, it's time to put it to bed. Goodbye (again) the corps that led to my birth
I'm still puzzled why someone just didn't either pick up a full time corps, or even a full time alumni? The fact that it was a successful "once every concert season" thing just made no sense...but ok...
Is that indoor guard still going?
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Sounds like my "serious" drumming days...I can't even last 10-15 minutes on my set anymore. (and trying to read music? no way!)
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Got the same email.
Very sorry to see it end. But the corps had a wonderful run. The best one-performance corps in the business.
Thanks to Brian Gochenour, who talked me into suiting up after I spent the first few years as a "roadie" helping my wife Barbara and the rest of the pit set up stuff, I got the chance to be part of a pit percussion ensemble for the first ( and probably only...LOL) time in my life. And I must say... for a part-time corps, it was a #### good one. Even with me occasionally mangling a piece of equipment.
My fellow pit-crew members.... all great people, and I had a blast hanging out with them. Rehearsals, show days... always fun.
Even had a chance to play some golf (Par 3 course near the York show site) with my pit partner in crime Paul Geiger. The two oldest people in the pit... out there teeing it up at 9 AM on show days. Then listening to the youngsters in the corps talk about how long a day it was for them.
So.... thanks, Brian... and thank you to the Westshoremen for welcoming me as part of their family.
I'm just surprised you never grabbed a horn..... Tell Mr. Geiger I said "Hey Weasel!"
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Wow....got this email last night right before I went to bed:
Greetings fellow Westshoremen!
As most of you know, the Management Team has been meeting at the conclusion of every rehearsal. Several weeks ago you received an email indicating the need for replacing a number of people who announced they would retire at the end of this years performance weekend. The management team met again following the March rehearsal. Members were invited to join that meeting.
Following discussions, the Management Team voted to cease all operations at the end of this years performance in York on April 9. This extremely difficult decision was reached after careful thought and consideration of many factors in addition to the need to replace some key people.
The Westshoremen Alumni Corps has been quite unique in the world of alumni organizations. Our schedule, consisting of very few rehearsals, and our all-volunteer staff to name just two. For the past ten years the Westshoremen have been dazzling audiences and other corps, usually prompting the question, "How do they do that?" The answer is quite simple: it is the combination of your dedication and talent.
To all the members, staff, schools and other drum corps who have helped and supported the Westshoremen during these past years, THANK YOU! A special thank you to the young people in the corps who, while they never marched in drum corps, have been so much a part of keeping our performance quality and quantity at the top. We hope we have introduced you to something that has been an important part of our lives for so very long. Perhaps one day you will get 'the bug'; we will be there to cheer you on!
What remains is one more weekend with the Friday night rehearsal (8th) and the rehearsal and performance day on Saturday (9th). We have had three great rehearsals and will have a full drum line and nearly 60 horns for this final performance. We will be wonderful. There is something to be said about 'GOING OUT ON TOP'!!!
THE MANAGEMENT TEAM -
For the record, I found out we didn't make prelims in 84, smiled, shrugged, and drove back to WCU pretty satisfied anyway, so I wasn't one of those folks who stayed for finals.
When I get to 84, I'll talk more. Looking back, I find I enjoyed 1984 a LOT more than 1983, a LOT more, even though the 1983 hornline by far was the best freakin' horn line I played with. I look back with a certain amount of bitterness about 1983 for so many reasons.
That was sort of my attitude with 88 Reading... ok, we made prelims, but we were in 10th.. so I had the distinction of beating everyone and being BEATEN BY everyone!
(you can do that when you marched in two different corps that competed against each other)And I can probably admit that THAT was one of my favorite years to play! No pressure...got a cool front side line gig with an old friend, and learned something new! Winning years were stressful, as we found out in 82...the fact that once we started losing in 83, a lot of us started enjoying it more! (and that pi##ed off a bunch of people that felt that we had to have the title and that this was IT for their drum corps career... I was ready to retire (for a while) and knew that 83 was IT for me...so that fact that I was done-done made it better....
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Forget what happened but we were not happy coming home and each bus came up with a song. I liked the H is for one better as ours had a bunch of verses we couldn't remember the order.... Each verse started with "Here's to you Hanover here's to you" done twice then mine was "You think your colors keen, but it looks like mucous green". Figure I'd come up with one referring snot.... Memory of "mucous green team" or something...
Frank Filipelli got me in the parade corps. Watched Sky practice before the Hershey show and Frank "talked" me into joining. It was "#### you, get your ##### ### to practice or I'll ##### find you". Sounded like a threat from anyone else but from Frank...
And decision to do Prelims was made 4th of July between parades at a MD park.And in 1985 all I could think of was "#### could we have used half the people who marched Reading last year" just really was a cluster for a while. And lot of raw nerves.....
The fact that a LOT of people scattered was crazy! I think we had former members in pretty much every corps except the Hurricanes! It was crazy being on retreat and seeing people we marched with the year before in other corps...heck, someone should have gathered us all up for a group photo!
99% of the problem was no one believed Hershman, and when he was done, he was done, and we were screwed!
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I've never said this before in here, but it's time.
my rookie year was 89, and even then two or three people were still there from then and #####ing. Well, as a rookie, due to bloodlines, I got away with a lot because, well, everyone knew I knew everything LOL.
so at Danville in 89, I hear a few of these ######## #####ing about the 84 stuff. So I turned around and said the following:
"wait...you want to ##### about people leaving, when they tried to stay and keep it going and it fell apart around them? So they're ######## for wanting to march SOMEWHERE, and because they chose the closest option to home they're ########? #### you and your 15th place when you all got so #### faced after the Reading show you threw up on the field at prelims and disgraced the uniforms! They almost won the whole #### thing....just like you had the 2 years prior!"
Needless to say, this rookie had a little heat. They went #####ing to Bowman, and god bless Tree, he looked right at them and said "well is he wrong?"
Rook has ben and still is a huge mentor to me. In Fact I'm thrilled to announce here he just got elected into the NJA Hall of Fame! Rick was Superman, and Ben was always a great resource for drum corps, Rush, and just fun! I'll never hold it against them or anyone else that left. I lived through a smiliar situation in the 98 attempt to keep it alive, one that altered life long friendships, and quite possibly could have landed me in jail on finals night in 98, because I almost decked someone for bashing those who went to Reading in 98. Why? The admin team wouldn't listen, wouldn't listen, and boom, right after Serenade what could have been a decent corps went inactive, and never really recovered for it's last few years.
I'll never tolerate that attitude, so feel free to tell me who they are, I'll gladly say a few things. Funny how they probably trashed Hershman after he sold everything, but now probably suckle up to his credit card at the bar
ROOK!!! That's great news!
I think I've told you some of the culprits over the years...One person, I will not speak with, and he tried sucking up to me on FB a few years back, and I wouldn't just because of some of the nasty things he said and did (He was an indoor "cross town" rival, that I never really DID like back when we were working together at one point... I think he "used" Brian for some leverage, but that's a whole 'nother story) And as I said, several people have made up, but just aren't quick to be friendly when we see each other. In fact out in Indy several years back at DCI, (just looked, 2009) I waved at someone to be nice, and they just sort of gave a half hearted "oh crap it's him" wave back and quickly scurried away... my wife asked who the heck was that, and why did they run? And I told her it was probably the "84" incident coming out. She's like "get over it already!" hahahaha!
Well one of the things that was interesting was when Bowser went back in I think 86, and it took people a while to get used to the fact that someone they hated was actually back marching with them again...Erica (his ex) once told me that she was told to "hate" us by a few people because we were traitors...and she was like "why?" Funny stuff!
As far as the Buc's song...we used to sing it a lot, and with more fervor than we EVER did at WSM!
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One of the funnier comments I heard was using Jim Neidinger as the example of someone who had "loyalty" and that "he came back from the Skyliners." When I ran into Jim at the Reading show and saw him back in the WSM uni, I asked what happened to Sky...he said he left a while back, it was getting to be a pain to get to their rehearsals, and that he stuck out like a sore thumb! I think there a another reason, but my brain isn't as good as it once was....
I spoke with someone years later who said that a few people weren't quite as against me until 1988 when I went to help Reading out when they were really struggling...Their attitude was "he wouldn't help us, but he went to help them!" Fact of the matter on that one was I got talked into it by Kevin Reimert at the Hershey show...Kevin and I marched in the Chocolatiers together in 78, and had been good friends all along, we looked at it as a "reunion" of sorts from those daze, and he said I could play keyboards! (which I always wanted to do) And the fact that there was no pressure was even better!
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LOL speaking rivalries .... when I joined Hanover my mom thought it was hilarious.
"Didn't you used to sing songs about them?" Yeah... but she didn't know..
1) How obscene parts of them were....
2) I wrote part of one of them......
And man was I disappointed that Hanover didn't have any songs about Westshore.... seriously I was bummed....
H is for the headache that you give me.......
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Weird part with 1984 was being in the 6 week corps and hearing the following:
"They left the corps #### them"
"The corps did not exist when they joined Reading, how could they leave something that did not exist"
Response was this TOTALLY blank look like the anger turned off the thought process.
Same person with the blank look joined WSM Alumni after swearing they never would for reasons I won't get into. Saw the person at the first year they joined and had that hand caught in the cookie jar look. Still talk to this person but rather not anymore for a few reasons
That's the thing....when I left it was "potentially" a parade corps, and according to Rosito (who's father still had the truck parked on his property) there was nothing going on from the point of that last practice the day of the Danville show until the six week thing started getting mentioned.... What some people never really realized was that I had no plans on even marching in 1984 at all! I got a call after it was learned that Larry sold everything, and Dan Bowman was setting up a meeting... my father said "you should at least go and show some support" then Brian talked me into just being a "body" until things got off the ground. (Hell, I played snare, toms, bass, whatever) I just got into it (and the band I was playing with didn't really take off) so by the time that day rolled around, I was into it, and thought I had to do something to keep occupied...
Well, the people that made some remarks at finals that were in the back stands were all familiar voices...but....The few nights before when they played at the Reading exhibition, and I know I've talked about this before, it was the first time that I WATCHED the corps since 1978, and the first time I ever saw them with the black and blue uni's (78 were the old Devil tops) and it was a definite emotional thing for me. I mean, I spent the prior five years pouring it all into that corps, and of COURSE I was going to support them as a fan at that point! (but I wasn't about to leave Reading in a lurch six weeks before finals) And people needed to realize that...
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I've heard the story though how GP helped with getting folks to have you on board, Ben.
Also, psst. Found 1978 and 1979 Guardsmen up on YT.
For the most part the people in the drumline were all thrilled to have us fill things out...truthfully, I knew a decent amount of people that were there, just from seeing them over the years, (Not to mention knowing a few from the prior year (Dave Hall who was in the pit the year before was a constant person that I talked to, as well as one of the keyboard girls that didn't march 84) Steve and Morgan went over a few weeks prior, so they were all ready for us.a FEW horn people (those that were there there a long time) were thrilled to be able to use us to fill things out in both the drumline and hornline...but there were a few that were more or less rookies during the 82 & 83 season, that just didn't GET the whole thing, and decided that since we beat them the few years prior, we were the enemy...that was taken care of rather quickly by several people. GP was another that welcomed us with open arms... I'd known George for a while (he knew me, but didn't really know my name, but the fact that I've been around for a LONG time, and we've crossed paths over the years) so he was happy and surprised to see me when I was standing on the front sideline that first practice... he was on his podium, looked down and went "HEY WAIT, I KNOW YOU!" And said welcome! And he asked what happened at WSM.
Rickie had a little bit of a transition because of what he went through as serious rivals during the 1978 season...so there was a little time of adjustment for him to actually put that coat on when we were getting fitted for our uni's. But once he got into it, he acclimated rather quickly.
What really got Bowser and I acclimated to being "ok and accepted totally" was when we taught them the "Hurricanes" songs on our first bus trip together, and they THEN knew were were fun to be with!
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Evidently, George, and I frankly have a disconnect as to why they would be, and I was contemporary to the situation that caused it. It was the right choice to make, period, and I see no reason why anyone would have any reason whatsoever to criticize it.
Ben is a real goombah to me from corps and always will be- so did Steve Rook, and he's also a real goombah. Doing Bucs never changed my feelings and affections for both of them.
I had a talk in 1981 with Cam Bruce (I'm still feeling upset over that loss) I still remember about this very subject and he really opened my eyes then and even though I never left the Westshore realm as a Drum Corps performer, It led me to respect and understand anyone who did and why doing things like that could be an important game changer for anyone who did for their betterment.
Yeah...weird, but what can you do...some people just seem to have this thing about "rivals" and don't want to be friends. I've always gotten along with people from other corps, and had a great time partying with them! The fact that someone would leave to go to a "rival" never bugged me, and never will. I remember people being told "oh they march with _____ so you can't be their friend" over the years, and I've always cried "BULL___!" to that attitude.
But not sure if you remember George, I wasn't exactly welcomed INTO the corps with open arms...a few people still had a chip on their shoulders because we were above them the past two years, and some had a little attitude towards me, and some of the others, until they actually got to know us. When I went to Danville after that "last practice" I really didn't go with the intention of just joining..although I had an offer to consider it from someone after a parking lot jam session with Reading's line after a concert... but when i got to Danville, I ran into Skee, and told him what was going on, and he immediately introduced me to Robbie, and said "5th tom"... Skee was my high school drum instructor, and this was a big deal to him because he (as he said during my senior band banquet) that I was one of his "success" stories...he took a "Two left footed bass drummer, and turned him into a top notch DCA tom player"....So him getting me into Reading was a good thing!
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People are still ticked off? after all these years?
Yeah...a few.. I went to one of the Forum shows a few years back, the year before they stopped, and had one or two people actually see me, and turn away to avoid me because of things they said a few years earlier when I was considering doing the alumni thing.
I also overheard a conversation at DCI the year it was in Maryland about me being "one of those a--holes that left when the corps 'needed' them"! Yeah...that's it!
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Hey, what she did before we met is none of my business!!! LOL!!!
Seriously.... Crossmen 1980-81... 'Shore '82... Bucs '84-87... then Cabs Alumni (and a couple of years with Reilly Raiders, 2013-14) from 2010 on, I believe.
Yeah, she was well rounded! (and I'm not talking about her spandex shorts!
)Always had fun with her....those guard ladies (and some gentlemen) went places together which was always cool....
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The history of the Westshoremen
in DCA All-Age Corps and Alumni Corps Historical Forum
Posted
Yeah... I have a few times when I sit and "veg" and read some of the FB drivel....I HAVE learned who to keep as friends, but not have their comments in my news feed... one person I knew from my old neighborhood posted her every move all day...."had my coffee... took the dog for a walk... watched a little bit of The View... Rosie gets annoying...." YIKES SHUT UP!!!!