How do you feel about Breaking Ranks?

[euphjock]

In '04, a cricket tried to break the ranks of the Magic of Orlando contra line (in the block next to me and the Scades) at a full retreat somewhere on the east coast.

That cricket got eaten for his insolence, and the contra player spent the rest of the retreat vomiting all over the turf.

I'm not sure I've ever laughed harder in my life.

I think some coffee went up my nose when I read that!!! Hilarious!

[JohnZ]

When each member is responsible for their own instrument they take pride in that instrument and want it kept in better condition than they got it. Some of these new Yamaha drums you see are custom jobs that cost more than your typical stock Yamaha marching drums. What if you ran through, knocked one over and some how it was damaged? Would you still be saying "it's so dumb. It's like a corps is insecure or something"?

Here is another way of putting it. What happens if you run through the drums like you did, you trip and fall, and land so hard you get injured? What are you going to be saying then? The same idiotic, moronic, sophomoric comment you managed to spew from your mouth?

and yet you have some folks here defending their 'tradition' by blocking the offender with their instrument, going so far as to do a 'horns up', putting that instrument in harm's way and potentially causing injury to the offender.

something's not right with your argument.

Edited July 11, 2007 by lipsprain

[LegalEagle50]

If it's an emergency like stretcher on the way to the ambulance or a horrible need that needs to be fixed I might let you through. It's normally NOT that far to the front of the line or the back of the line.

A girl from Crossmen passed out on the front sideline after the show in Allentown Sunday. She wasn't moving. The ambulance cart was trying to get through Blue Stars to help the poor girl. They wouldn't let the cart through even with the EMT shouting "Medical Emergency".

I think there needs to be exceptions and this was one of them. I hope the Crossmen girl was alright.

if that is true it's very sad to see how far we've come in the last 12 years.

i was part of a ranks breaking incident in '95 due to a medical emergency that almost led to a fight. i still feel what went down between the two corps was b.s. and i can't believe we haven't moved past the whole breaking rank thing to a point that certain things are automatically considered a reason that this is ok.

i have to ask every single one of you who feels that you might or would not move for emergency personnel ~ if you found out later that that person died because of your inaction would you even care? would drum corps tradition have meant that much to you? would you ever be able to wear your uniform again with the same level of pride you had before?

[bluecoats88]

Here's a vivid memory for you.

1984 Champaign IL, 4th of July Parade (a VERY long one)

The parade ends and the corps is "two-ing it up" and moving toward the busses.

A man in clown costume begins to walk betweek hornline and drum line, honking his little bike horn and smoking a cigarrette. Snare line vet says "Hey clown - GO AROUND!" The clown hears him and says "huh?" and then speeds his pace - honking the horn faster.

next image:

Snare drum stick flying through the air and bouncing off a giant red headed wig.

I've never seen a clown swear - before or since.

edited for spelling. Thanks Bishtom!

(Have you ever been in a parade dressed as a clown?) j/k

I remember that one ken. Do you remember coming off the field at US open in marion (don't remember the year) but someone started cutting through the corps between the horns or guard and the drum line. Must have been 6-7 sticks go flying at the guy.

[cowtown]

Wow, bad@&& Bandos, I never knew

I’m betting I could bait a corps into a law suit while leaving them with a few holes on the field for finals – just make sure the camera is rolling my friend, maybe I could even sue them out of existence then go after DCI’s coffers

Its win-win

Then I’m going to Disneyland, and then maybe Knott’s Berry Farm and a quick trip to Magic Mountain

*prints out thread for as evidence for the trail of the ridiculous nature of bandos gone bad

[dciguy01]

Here's a story for you...

2004, we get finished with our show and put the horns in retreat block. I volunteer to guard the block for the night. Cap Reg gets done performing their show and lines up next to us. Out of nowhere, a guy I had marched with in high school comes up behind me and says..."BILL?!?! Is that you!! HEY!!"

I turn around immediately and I see the guy in uniform....IN OUR BLOCK. I said "Hey (name removed), nice to see you. By the way, please step out of our block."

The kid went on talking as if I hadn't said anything. I asked him again, this time more forcefully as if I was still his drum major in high school, to PLEASE MOVE FROM THE BLOCK. He had no idea what I was talking about, but he did figure out what I meant and learned a valuable rookie lesson...and also not to enter MY horn block :)

Edited July 11, 2007 by dciguy01

[bluehull]

Wow, bad@&& Bandos, I never knew

I’m betting I could bait a corps into a law suit while leaving them with a few holes on the field for finals – just make sure the camera is rolling my friend, maybe I could even sue them out of existence then go after DCI’s coffers

Its win-win

Then I’m going to Disneyland, and then maybe Knott’s Berry Farm and a quick trip to Magic Mountain

*prints out thread for as evidence for the trail of the ridiculous nature of bandos gone bad

You obviously have a lot of faith in the legal system. It is also obvious that you have led a sheltered life!

On your way to Knotts Berry Farm, I'm sure there will be some bikers on the way. Don't let them get in your way, while you are cutting through their line be sure to let them know that they will deal with your lawyer, after they have said hello with a spud wrench! Of course by that time you may have some memory problems too! Have a nice trip......

[cowtown]

You obviously have a lot of faith in the legal system. It is also obvious that you have led a sheltered life!

On your way to Knotts Berry Farm, I'm sure there will be some bikers on the way. Don't let them get in your way, while you are cutting through their line be sure to let them know that they will deal with your lawyer, after they have said hello with a spud wrench! Of course by that time you may have some memory problems too! Have a nice trip......

I don’t know which is most disturbing; your comparing a drum corps to a bikers, cutting people off in traffic to cutting people off on the sidewalk, your almost justification of a violent attack that would led to brain damage (blaming the victim ie: she was asking for it)

So if I break ranks of a drum corps I should expect a wrench to my head and some brain damage because the kids in corps are too stupid to think about the consequences of their actions and how it might effect their lives, their corps and DCI – and you are cool with that?

Kids today, and these band kids are often sold to me as mature, responsible and the leaders and the more I interact with them, the more horrified I am. Now why am I to support drum corps kids if they promote such idiocy or their staff promotes it?

[KFanti]

I remember that one ken. Do you remember coming off the field at US open in marion (don't remember the year) but someone started cutting through the corps between the horns or guard and the drum line. Must have been 6-7 sticks go flying at the guy.

Yeah - i think so - I remember Mark Newsom involved in that one.

We were so "tough" - but we couldn't break 70.

LOL

As far as the breaking ranks issue - I'm pretty sure I agree that it's something you can't expect everyone to know. Someone in uniform trying to cross another corps - that's different. They should know better. But a clown? An old lady? Little kids? I hope the modern day response should be a polite explanation. We live in a Lawsuit Happy society now and I don't want to see a drum corps (or an individual member) get sued into poverty because they "upheld the integrity of our single file line".

However, I think the cricket mentioned above deserved to be eaten.

Retreat blocks are sacred!

[overthehillDM]

if that is true it's very sad to see how far we've come in the last 12 years.

i was part of a ranks breaking incident in '95 due to a medical emergency that almost led to a fight. i still feel what went down between the two corps was b.s. and i can't believe we haven't moved past the whole breaking rank thing to a point that certain things are automatically considered a reason that this is ok.

i have to ask every single one of you who feels that you might or would not move for emergency personnel ~ if you found out later that that person died because of your inaction would you even care? would drum corps tradition have meant that much to you? would you ever be able to wear your uniform again with the same level of pride you had before?

Right on, Liz!

I think we tend to get a bit extreme in our little sub-culture called drum corps.

I believe that ranks shouldn't be broken...but within reason.

A medical emergency is a NO BRAINER! If that actually happened, and it was my corps that prevented the medical personnel from fulfilling their duties, I would be very upset with those responsible for the lack of human compassion.

For people that aren't familiar with the tradition...

A polite, but firm, "Sorry, but would you please walk around our unit?" is in order.

If there's still a problem, it isn't necessary to go "Neanderthal" on people. That's not what this activity is about, is it?

By the way, I've been involved in drum corps since 1976, and I made a mistake this past Sunday!

After our performance, I was about to walk down the hill to the bus area, when I stopped and saw the pit exiting the field from one of the competing corps. I stopped, and even assisted the keyboard players with their instruments, I guess there were at least 8-10 of them.

After they passed, I walked down the hill. I was exhausted from our performance, had just given a 20-minute interview with someone, and just wanted to get out of my uniform, which was soaking wet with perspiration.

As I reached the street, I proceeded to cross it, when a young keyboard player informed me, "Please don't break our ranks!"

I didn't even realize that I was in the middle of two of the same people that I had just seen at the top of the hill! I looked at him, quite startled, and said, "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't realize what I was doing! And I turned back and returned to the side of the street that I had started from. End of story.

I was upset with myself for not being more aware, but I was also impressed with the way that I was spoken to, by the young keyboard player. It was firm, but polite.

He handled himself extremely well, and with pride, and dignity, as he upheld a long-standing drum corps tradition.