Drumcorpsbrat

Wish I could figure out how to upload a couple of pics!!!

Rest in Peace Dan. Our thoughts and prayers to Kay and the rest of his family. He and Kay were such wonderful people and I remember them well. Last I saw them was here in Erie for the American Salute show we held. They just never change; Ablsolutely timeless. Even though I was a little girl the last time I had seen them, I easily recognized them both at the show. His round face just beaming. That is how I will always remember him. In a sense I had grown up with them. From the Hamburg Kingsmen years thru the Johnsonburg Diplomats and so on. As a little girl I always looked forward to seeing them at the shows. Just great people they were. God speed to you Dan. May you go swiftly on on the wings of angles.

Today is the day we honor and remember our VETS for their sacrifices in the name of FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY and our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS! I Thank you!!!! You have protected our country with the ultimate sacrifice; your life. You have taken up arms to protect the rights of not only your citizens, but those around the globe. You are our men and women in uniform who lay it all down for us. YOU ARE OUR HEROS! We should also honor and remember the families who sacrificed so much for the name of FREEDOM too. To you, I am grateful for your love and support of our veterans. If you love your freedom THANK A VET!

[video clip code removed - it won't work here] May have to change my opinion of the Renegades. I saw them for the first time in 2003 and was NOT impressed. Their field show bored me to tears with the Block formations. This year I am entertained even though it was a short clip. Good job!

Well, again my husband is out on the road and unable to make the DCA weekend party. He is however, blowing up the phone trying to get the results from last night. Will someone please post them before he drives me nuts?!?!?! Last year he had his Butt planted at the computer the entire time to get all the scores and mini corps news. If anyone can give me a bone to throw to him of the mini corps placements and scores it would be GREATLY appreciated. Otherwise I am going to have to disconnect the phone or go hide out in the barn where my cell gets no service!

Sorry Gene. I spelled it right in the beginning but must be so tired I missed it the secong time I typed it. Oh well, I was up at 4 Am and by 8 had cleaned 7 stalls, fed dogs, fed cat, did 2 loads of laundry and was ready to drop but had too much to do the rest of the day. LOL It looked OK to my tired eyes. Heck after working tonight until 11 PM it took me a few minutes to even find the mistake. Maybe finals isn't what we could handle but Regionals would be nice. I just get a little peeved when people think Erie is too small to handle BIG events. As I said before ...We aren't THAT small of a city. BTW... It was cool to see how you talked about the soccer tournaments we hold here. THEY ARE HUGE!!!! You should come catch a game sometime. We practice right around the corner from your house.

Perfect examples of GREAT HOSTS!!! I can't believe how many people sat in their seats through that lightning and down pours waiting for the show to go on. INCREDIBLE!!!!

The air fares would be cheaper to fly into Buffalo, Pittsburgh or Cleveland and not into Erie but the difference isn't THAT much. Certainly cheaper than renting a car and driving now that Fuel is so high. The drive would be 1 1/2 to 2 hours from those locations. I90 or I79...Pick your poison both roads suck because of construction this time of year. hahaha As for the hotels??? OMG!!!! We have so many to choose from. Erie hold HUGE soccer tournaments here that bring in THOUSANDS of people. There are at least (quick count from the phone book) 44 motels in the Erie area. These don't include all the Mom and Pop joints. As Gary said there are also a bunch being built. Erie is a GREAT place to hold a large event like DCA because you have the I79 access to the south and the I90 access East and West. However, Gary is also correct about the parking situation. It is hard to park there and the walk could be long for some. I pose this question to that though. What about shuttle service from the Bayfront park and Rides to the Stadium? I don't see why that couldn't happen. Every other large event in Erie sets that up. Besides, what other purpose do those silly little trolleys have? PITTSBURG??????? Those people come up here to enjoy the lake and get away from that city. CLEVELAND???? Ummm YUCK! Just my 2 cents on this. Erie is alot bigger and has more to offer than a lot of people give it credit for. AND, as thovse who have been here for the past couple of shows can attest, we are GREAT hosts. Not only as a corps but as a city all the way around! We aren't some hick town!

This is horrible! I am sorry about the set-back Cru, but I would not put too much faith into the "system". If found, these people will be charged with a few different counts and then given a slap on the wrist. They will walk away with a "cool...That wasn't so bad attitude" and they will never change. No matter how much you plead with the courts for a harsh punishment they just don't care. Trust me....After my 14 year old son was beaten and robbed I saw just how crappy the "system" is. You would be better off to find them yourselves and give them a little DC justice. Use them to line your field and march all over them. I hope this can all be sorted out soon and that all will be good. I hope they find the pukes that did this too, but don't get your hopes up too much that there will be a stiff penalty. The law and the courts in this country are set up for the criminals NOT the victims. Just keep saying what you said last year!!!!! WE GO ON!!!!!

As I read down I guess the answer is NO but Tom didn't really want to have them anyway. He just wanted to PLAY! It had been two years since he had touched his horn with the exception of Silvercreek parades in 2006 and 2007. So fingers crossed the Target account will come through for him so he can get back to it.

Tom was there...His account had cut backs...Tom is gone now. Had to go back to over the road. He is on his way to Nebraska right now. Last week was Massachusets to Georgia, Georgia to Conneticut, Conneticut to Illinios, Illinois to Colorado, Colorado to Utah and finally Utah to HOME! Nice huh? RUN RUN RUN!!!! Well, hopefully the Target account will come through and he will be able to come back, but until then...Over The Road is where he will be.

Good luck to our T-Bird Family. We will be thinking of y'all. Wish things had turned out differently and we could go but....Family and work first. Safe travels everyone!

Thank you. I saw this one but it seemed to be the only one of the HAMBURG, NY Kingsmen. I think my Dad was with the Erie Thunderbirds in 1970 unless he was still serving his last year in Vietnam but I can't remember. (For some reason I think we were still living in California so I am guessing he was still in the service in 1970)

Hey as long as y'all are looking up and posting old DC pics....Does any one have any of the Hamburg Kingsmen of Hamburg, NY (1971-1975)? I had a couple and don't know what happened to them and I know my Dad has one or two but I'd like to get as many as I can to put an album together for my Dad of all the corps and all the years he marched. I have to dig out my list of corps and the years so I can see if any of you have the other ones I need but I figure this is a start since it was my Dad's favorite corp to march with. He even named his hunting camp "camp Kingsmen" and the sign has the little fat king on it...LOL If you do can you please PM me and I will get you an email address to send them to? Thank you!

Ooooops, was that you? Sorry. (Sorry officer...It's I80 not 80 MPH?????????)

Hmmmm...I Never marched with a field corps. I only played with an alumni corps. I was raised with DC and was dragged along to every show my Dad did while I was growing up. My mother dutifully took all of us kids and we sat around the practice fields and then through the shows EVERY weekend. I understand the thrill of the shows and the music and LOVE a good show. What I don't understand is when spouses will choose DC over family responsibilities. I think this where alot of marriages have trouble. As long as the spouse who is doing DC understands that there are times (due to lifes little monkey wrenches) that DC isn't an option for them due to finances or because maybe there is a new baby and "Mommy" could really use the help then there shouldn't be a beef with the activity. (all of us kids were planned so that we didn't interfere with the DC season) It is a release, like a pool league or a dart league for some people. I think that when people become SO involved that they don't care about their spouses feelings or what kind of strain it might be financially then that is where alot of NDC spouses become jaded towards the activity. I know how angry I got when my husband would say "I'm GOING!!!!" and here I was , the only income at the time and working my butt off to keep things afloat and HE WAS GOING? Fortunately, I have a man who would think about it logically and then back down and make the right decision. Open communication makes things alot easier for NDC spouses in my opinion. This year my husband was excited to get back into the activity, on a limited alumni version, and was breaking his neck to get home on the weekends to make rehearsals. He got to a couple of them but then, life got in the way again and his job situation made it so he can not do it this year either. He was making plans to get to the Harrisburg show and was stoked. Now, he and I had a conversation about this the other day and he said with going back to Over The Road he knows DC is out of the question and well....Maybe next year. This is an approach that I think a lot of NDC spouses would LOVE to hear but all to many DC members get that electricity in their blood and just don't take the time to think about the over all picture and only think about that "high" THEY will get from DC. Be a team player WITH your spouse and I am sure the NDC spouses will WANT to take the time to understand your love for the activity. (Just my point of view.)

Hmmmmm....May have to save some money and make a vacation of this. Drive down Thursday, Stay with friends in either, Canton, Gainsville or Roswell, go to the shows, PARTY and take the rest of the week to recover for the drive home! Yep, sounds like a couple of shows we should look into going to. I really miss living down there.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! No doubt! Wow Gene. I can't believe how big you said the drifts were in your driveway but Mom and Dad said it was terrible in town too. The wind must have been just right. Hope you are staying warm. Even though practice is cancelled I will still be driving in to Erie today to get the kid. I am dreading it but so far our road looks GREAT! I can even see pavement already! Gotta love Crawford County PENNDOT!!!!!!!! See y'all at the next rehearsal!!!!!!!!!!! (if Tom gets home...He is back to over the road again)

Above is the side of our house this morning...The cars are a Kia Sorento and a Chevy Impala The Impala this is what fell on it from 5:45 PM to 10:30 PM Last night at 11:00 PM Couldn't get in or out my door.

Snowed all day yesterday out here in Springboro, PA, but I still was crazy enough to go down to the fire hall for a reverse raffle. (was 4 away from the top 5 going for the grand prize of $1000.00 so it was worth it) While being there only 5 hours about 12 inches of snow had fallen in that short amount of time on top of the already 18-20 we got earlier. I got home and couldn't get in my driveway the snow was up over the bumper of the car and I had been plowed out earlier by a front end loader. The snow was drifted up against my door to chest level . See you in about a month when it is finally melted. LOL

Tried for half an hour to get this from our web site and it never rolled over to this phot. Thank you for posting it here. It is now on the Thunderbird myspace page!

I have the large version on the wall and I have taken a picture of it with our digital. If you have a smaller one that I can scan that would be great. I need to upload the pic I took of it and see how it came out. Trust me, Tom would not let me forget to put THAT on there. LOL See ya Sunday!!!!

This has been a week long project with lots more to come. Roger was kind enough to email us pics of the Shoreliners to add to the site. He said he was going to send more soon. So Gene, did you set up your myspace account? If so we will get you added to the friends list. Please tell Pat that I want to get together with her and get more pics if possible. I really need Meadville T-bird pics. As of now I don't have any. Thank you for taking time to check it out.

Added the link!

BUMP!!!!!!!!