Free day mischief

[Mellojaphoney]

I'm with you, kinda. I've never drank or been drunk and never will. I could go into detail with my reasons, but I'd hate to tick some people off.

You are just saying that because you have never done a beer funnel.

[lindap]

Ah yes... Book Em' Dano, 1990 Montreal.

1988- The year of the free day. New Orleans. London. AMSTERDAM.

so many art galleries, so little time

Not sure why this triggered my memory but here goes. 1977 we went to Europe for 10 weeks (July 1 - Sept 14 about) and I remember laundry day August 16, 1977 at a small hotel in Rome, Italy. Woke up early and watched TV in the lobby "Elvis Morte". I was confused and taken aback. Since I was a marching instructor (22 at the time), I took a bus to St. Peters Cathedral, looked around and went back (don't tell anyone I broke the rules). When I got back everyone was getting on the bus. I told Pam, another marching instructor, where I was earlier and convinced her to come with me to the Sistine Chapel while the rest of the corps was sightseeing at St. Peters Cathedral. We went and saw art gallery upon art gallery until we got to the chapel. Helped me get over an emotionally confusing day. Never did get my laundry done, no matter. BTW liked the beer in Amsterdam but that's another story.

[tizzizzailslf04]

I tried Beverly in the old museum a few years ago. That stuff was horrid. It's definitely the kind of thing where you say "This is horrible. You have to try it!"

yea, that was definitely the nastiest thing I've ever tasted

Now that I think about it. We had a competition to see who could chug that stuff. It was rough...

Edited December 8, 2007 by tizzizzailslf04

[lilbari]

Worst free day ever - laundry day in Tennesse in '04. People got drunk, caused mayhem, Ed Devlin made life the next day a complete hell. We did stretch and run in the morning, then ran about a mile after breakfast as punishment, then started to do basics block. It went something like this:

(8 counts into a figure 8 block) "STOP! PUT 'EM DOWN! RUN!"

(we run the equivalent of a 1/3 of a mile or so)

"Get back in and come to set."

::gock:: ::gock:: "NO! Bad horns up! Run again"

This happened repeatedly throughout the block. I think we finally made it through one figure eight block after about 4-5 failed attempts and runs. We were repping at like 200 bpm and doing seven count air at ff the whole time. My favorite quote from the day was when one of our bari players passed out during drill rehearsal and an ambulance pulled on to the field to check her out: "Hey, just march as close as you can to the ambulance without hitting it."

The best part, though? The brass staff decided it was hornline conditioning day during brass block - which meant sprinting to touch trees and lightposts and stuff and then running difficult chunks of the show. It was worse than anything I ever experienced at Crossmen, and I think a lot of the people that went on to march Cadets would tell you it was about as bad a block as they ever went through there. Plus it wins for the sheer hilarity of marching around an ambulance on the field.

I was actually reading through the post and was wondering when someone was going to bring that up. I remember that day, pure hell. Running through sewage is never fun and the first few times we did not even make it past the first 2 or 3 counts of the figure 8 block. Worst part about that day was the fact that there was a show that night.

[Piper]

I'm with you, kinda. I've never drank or been drunk and never will. I could go into detail with my reasons, but I'd hate to tick some people off.

Count your blessings. At least you'll never puke your guts out with a hangover like I did.

[LoveKathyG]

I feel left out. I had my first drink when I was 21 and didn't try beer until I took the Coors factory tour during DCI Worlds in 1978 after aging out. (Couldn't finish it.) Someone please tell me I'm not alone in this.

No, Boo. You're definitely not alone. I seriously never drank on tour. I learned the hard way...got rip-roaring, puking-my-guts-out drunk at 13 and didn't drink again until I was over 21.

My stupidest free day mischief was in Tulsa. Yes, sadly we had a free day in Tulsa of all places. Some of us stumbled onto the campus of Oral Roberts University and put out their eternal flame by rapid fire splashing it with water from the pond it sits in the center of. We got busted by some staff member and chased off camups. Kind of lame but hillarious when you're 14 and on tour for the first time.

[BD2Rings]

Story time. None of these are about free days, but of various memories.

'74 was the first year BD ever made DCI finals. We were staying at a Jr. High campus well down the hill from the Ithaca campus. The hill was more like a cliff, so much so there was even a waterfall with a pool of water. Midnight or later of finals night, there were a number of skinny dippers in that pool, and the beer flowed freely.

Can't remember the year, but I want to say '77. It seems we were returning to California from our first tour, but the season wasn't over. It seems to fit '77 as finals were in Denver. We took a rest stop at some road side rest in Kansas, and about 100-200 yards away was this roadside stand selling fireworks for the 4th of July. We were under strict orders from Jerry Seawright not to buy fireworks. They were not to be taken on the busses. Several people owe Uncle Jerry their apologies. A day or two later were at another road side rest in Colorado. This stop had a small but fast water river beside the rest area. There was even a bridge for a short hike to the other side. Did you ever have a rubber band war while in school as a kid? Well how about doing it with bottle rockets across a river? Crazy but true.

So crazy it happened again in Winnemucca NV on the high school football field. The problem with bottle rockets is that those sticks used to launch them are left as residue after the rocket explodes. After a prolonged period of intermural mayhem there must have been over a thousand of those sticks scattered about that gridiron. Our mistake was in not cleaning up after ourselves, and leaving our mess for the campus custodial and maintenance folks. I don't know if the Blue Devils were EVER invited back to that campus again. Can you imagine having that number of fireworks loaded onto touring busses?

In '75 or '76 I was truly introduced to drum corps groupies. Many of the guys should be able to relate to this story. You meet up with the high school students who attend the school where you are staying. Your corps has commandeered their campus, and they don't really know how do deal with all you foreigners invading their turf. You proceed to blow them away with your sound and they begin to treat you like rock stars. We were in Boise Idaho when this happened big time. Some of the female high school students were blatently competing with each other (friends?) over the attention of corps members. They came back in droves the following year too. They didn't want autographs. They wanted kisses and affection and attention. I never expected this to be a byproduct of drum corps.

Last story comes from '75. This is before corps had food wagons. It was a much more primitive period. Blue Devils had Otto that summer. Otto volunteered to cook for BD and brought along his huge BBQ equipment. I believe he took a 55 gallon drum and cut it in 2, top to bottom. He then used both halves as his charcoal burners and worked his wizardry. When we were on the east coast, Otto was buying all sorts of seafood for us. He would prepare the likes of BBQ oysters on the half shell, sauteed scallops, fish fillets, all sorts of stuff to boggle the imagination. We were very well fed that summer. We shared a campus with the Muchachoes for a night or two, who did not have an Otto. I think they lived on a PP&J staple diet. I have no idea what the Muchachoes really felt about what we had, but I received more than one glaring look. There were a couple of extremely good looking Muchachoes ladies who were willing to forgive and invited a couple of us BD males out drinking with them. This put us in a difficult situation, as neither of us were old enough to drink, yet we couldn't admit this to the ladies. All these years later, sorry ladies. Neither of us were carrying fake IDs, and we were only 16 and 17 at the time. Granted the drinking age was only 18 back then, but we still didn't qualify.

Ok, who else has stories like these?

[84Cadet]

What's a "free day?"

[dkpath96]

I'm with you, kinda. I've never drank or been drunk and never will. I could go into detail with my reasons, but I'd hate to tick some people off.

Well now I know I wasn't the only one that didn't drink and never will. Sure felt bad for those folks who would show up to morning block hung over! (nah, they deserved it.)

Anyhow, one of my favorite free days was in Rockford in June 1996, when a bunch of us rookies spent the day at the mall racing go-karts and almost killing each other. One guy decided to turn his car around and really make things interesting, but he got kicked out of the place for that. That night we watched the movie 'Twister' and it freaked me out, because here we were in tornado alley (I'm from PA and dreaded tornadoes at the time - now I love watching Storm Chasers). Wouldn't you bet we had to drive back to the corps hall (home away from home) that night in a raging thunderstorm. I was just waiting for the bus to be flung off the road by a funnel cloud.

The free day in Boston in '96 was cool - that was my first time there and we did about everything we could do in one day in that city. I remember eating a huge burger at Cheers and regretting it later. The corps stayed at an awesome school in Lynn that had a big lake beside it, and a few of us got chased by a big swan or goose.

Another favorite free day of mine was in '97 when a few of us went to the Rockford Municipal golf course and played 18 holes in the blistering heat. We sucked but it was so much fun. I borrowed a set of clubs from my host family and the only club I could hit well all day was the 1-iron. It's amazing how bad your golf game gets when you're marching corps!

[BD Raggamuffin]

Just a quick suggestion. I know all of us like to drink and party and have plenty of stories about that. HOWEVER, how about we have stories about us being sober and doing something interesting that we may have never thought of doing like jumping into a pool that had a sign saying "no trespassing" or sneaking out past curfew to play truth or dare. So, how 'bout it? Shall we give it a spin?

No. I have great memories of falling in love with a stripper in Montreal when I was 14- and gizzacked on tequila. Another great freeday in New Orleans getting served everyplace we went- at age 16. Then there was New York...Then there was a freeday in my hometown of Chicago when a friend made a key delivery of party favors. What can I say? We worked hard and played hard. AND I WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, almost forgot-our yearly standstill that earned us a freeday at Disneyland. Little pieces of paper and Mr. Toads Wild Ride and the light parade. All the beautiful colors.........

Edited December 8, 2007 by BD Raggamuffin