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Key to the Sea 1983 - my first drum corps show ever - Bridgemen, Garfield, SCV, BD, BAC, 27... I'm drooling just thinking about it!

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This is an easy one. Being left Behind at the stadium 1971 US Open. The bus pulled out without me and my seat mate didn't say anything. Went to the judges table and they made an announcement over the PA that I was stranded and needed a ride back to Wesleyan Univeresity in Delaware Ohio.

Believe it or not, I distinctly remember this. I was sitting in the stands at the stadium outside of Marion (they didn't move all prelims/finals to Marion until 1972). I heard that announcement about someone from Sacred Heart being left behind.

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Except, I think, the banquet that year was at the corps hall.

Not a chance, my ageout year - it was at Wonderland. George B didn't get the building until the spring of 78. Your ageout year - 78 - was probably at the corps hall. I didn't attend that banquet - but was at the 79 banquet which was at the corps hall.

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Being in control of the bus stereo and cranking the Kings:

This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide

Awesome tune! Use to listen to that every weekend I came home from Seneca Army Depot and drank at the Bowery Cafe. Ah the memories...Oliver Street....Soos'.....the women.....I was young.....single......

This Beat Goes On*

(Diamond- Zero)

Hey Judy, get Trudy

You said to call you up if I was feeling moody

Hey little Donna, still wanna

You said to ring you up if I was in Toronto

I have lots of friends that I can ding at any time

Can mobilize some laughs with just one call

Like a bunch of lunatics we'll act till way past dawn

Sure we'll be rockin' till our strength is gone

Yeah This Beat Goes On

Hey ladies you crazies

Me and Zero request you in the Mercedes

And then we'll ride so zoomy inside

The sky's the limit this time I'm Switchin' to Glide

I don't give a hoot about what people have to say

I'm laughin' as I'm analyzed

Lunatics Anonymous that's where I belong

Sure cause I am one till my strength is gone

Yeah This Beat Goes On

I have lots of friends that I can ding at any time

Can mobilize some laughs with just one call

Like a bunch of lunatics we'll act till way past dawn

Sure we'll be rockin' till our strength is gone

Yeah This Beat Goes On

Switchin' To Glide*

(Diamond-Zero)

Nothing matters but the weekend

From a Tuesday point of view

Like a kettle in the kitchen

I feel the steam begin to brew

Switchin' to Glide

Energy can be directed

I'm turning it up I'm turning it down

Even love can be affected

Harmony's the sweetest sound

Switching to Glide..Balancing in my head..inside of me...

taking the glide path instead.

Everybody gets the no-no

Hear it ringing in they ears

Lots of ways that you can go GO!

Look around NO disappears

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Not a chance, my ageout year - it was at Wonderland. George B didn't get the building until the spring of 78. Your ageout year - 78 - was probably at the corps hall. I didn't attend that banquet - but was at the 79 banquet which was at the corps hall.

You're correct. Still trying to forget 78.

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You're correct. Still trying to forget 78.

Did we even march in 78? Or was that all just a bad dream? I remember in February of that year practicing at Revere HS and thinking how talented we were with a full corps and that we had a real chance to win. Just goes to show you what a bad show will do to you.

Marching memory has to be the 77 CYO Nationals. I will always remember fighting with Shirley Whitcomb before we set up about how bad Harvard Staudium was -- no room on the sidelines for the drummers and Jim Hager and Dustin yelling at me to do something about it. Typical Jim in those days, made me earn every bit of my stay. But winning CYO was a great culmination to the end of a growing two weeks that started with humiliation (remember Bridgeport CT show and waiting the 30 seconds between numbers in complete silence so we wouldn't go undertime? People were yelling at us to go) and ending with a day of days.

How great it was to start the day with the TV crew (The beautiful Robin Wright) then perform so well at home and have so many people confirm, (Bobby Hoffman told me he was at the top of the stadium and said it was no contest, that everyone agreed when we were done we won.) During the retreat, the DM of Madison, whose name escapes me but was a friend back then, stopped to congratulate me, and stepped from the front of his corps as they marched past and stood beside me as we realized both his corps and Anaheim were parading past at the same time in confusion as to who should leave the field. We stood there dumbfounded saying nothing watching the insanity before us, until they were both gone. Then he just turned and shook my hand, shook his head with a grin to acknowledge the bizarreness of the day (corps never came back like we had), and said, "Congratulations. We heard you guys were awesome today." It was vindication and proof of the respect we had earned from our competitors in such a short time. It was moments like that when you realized you were part of something bigger than yourself, and you were tied to 127 other people and you felt you could accomplish anything.

Edited by O.P.
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A few, off the top of my head:

1971 World Open Finals: I was a 13-year-old kid, sitting in the stands in awe of the junior "super-corps" of that era: 27th Lancers, SC Vanguard, Blue Rock, Troopers, Kingsmen, Garfield, etc. What a great show that was!

1972 DCA Finals: To this day, that remains one of the best drum corps shows I've ever seen....... the best senior corps of that era at the top of their game, and a serious throwdown between the top five corps: Caballeros, Skyliners, Buccaneers, Crusaders and Hurricanes. Five great corps. And the other seven finalists weren't too shabby, either!

1978 DCA Finals: My second year with the Sunrisers.... we were defending DCA champs, and had put together a great regular season, winning a bunch of shows, some by wide margins, and losing only three times (twice to the Skyliners, once to the Caballeros).

To make a long story short, we had a rough day at DCA Prelims in '78..... we were late for our report time, basically rushed onto the field, and never quite got settled in. Soooooo.... we ended up squeaking out a win by .05 over the Caballeros at Prelims.... ironically, it was the same margin by which we won our first DCA title in 1977, over those same Caballeros.

Bottom line...... and no offense meant to the Caballeros, who...as usual, and to their credit........ had continued working their butts off and pushed us right till the very end of that 1978 season....pretty much everyone in our corps figured that the Cabs had taken their best shot at us in Prelims, we had done our worst show in many weeks... and we still had won Prelims.

We just KNEW we had one more great performance in us, and quite frankly, when we were at our best that summer, we were unstoppable....it was just one of those magical years that corps can have from time to time. So, as far as we were concerned, the pressure was off.

In my six years with the Sunrisers, I'm not sure I ever saw us as confident as we were that night in 1978, walking into J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown for Finals. Not cocky at all..... just really relaxed and confident. And we NAILED our Finals performance. The first perfect score in DCA history in a General Effect caption that night.... a 10 in GE Brass. Caption awards for Brass, Percussion and GE, and a nearly 3-point win. That was a great night!

Fran

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the announcer was the ONLY announcer I think the CYO Nationals ever had - Dominic Bianculli.

Oh man.... he was great! With that classic "Boston sound." :beer:

Fran

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Did we even march in 78? Or was that all just a bad dream? I remember in February of that year practicing at Revere HS and thinking how talented we were with a full corps and that we had a real chance to win. Just goes to show you what a bad show will do to you.

Yes, the beginning of the season in 78 was the worst. I remember Jack Cash wasn't marching yet when we did the Bayonne show. He said he covered his head during the Tower of Power ballet concert. If I'm not mistaken, in Bridgeport we lost to a corps in red that you (O.P.) should be familiar with.

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