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Drum Corps and the Kennedy Funeral, Nov. 24, 1963


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From one old man to another Puppet - this is a place where we have more in common that we are different. Race - religion - male or female - it didn't matter. If you were in my corps, we found a way to take care of each other through thick and thin. Years later - if my coworkers worked half as hard as my corps friends (or any corps for that matter), we'd be in great shape.

A great 27th friend of mine once said - "we're a cult" - meaning the activity - not necessarily our corps. One thing I always knew - we were a disciplined gang that used music, marching and our guard to expend some positive energy towards a common goal - to kick another corps' butt.

And now - all these years later - it's ok to say to tell each other that we respected the Brassmen, or Bridgemen, or Bucaneers for their espirit'd corps and performance. Of course - I'd never admit that 40 years ago !

3 cheers to us, and to those we love that are no longer with us.

And that's what I'm talking about.

Thank you.

Puppet

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Found these on the net

drums58.jpg

Rodney is 2nd from the right.

Gosh, this is an amazing picture.

And the video was hard to watch. I was only 5 at the time, so I have just vague memories of seeing the funeral coverage on TV. Yet it still breaks my heart, I guess because the raw emotions are captured so vividly.

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Wow. Some very interesting and thought comments posted. Yes. You might say that, as an activity, we are a cult. Each of us is interconnected by virtue of shared experience,

I have the pleasure of calling many of these percussionists friend. I marched with most of them at one time or another in Archie, etc. Watching them in their element is such a pleasure for an old horn guy.

One man who also played the muffled drum at the Kennedy funeral was John Bosworth. Look him up on Google to check his lineage. Probably one of the greatest rope drummers ever.

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I remember playing those same "muffled snare" parts on my Gladstone practice pad, and my step-mother telling me to stop, because hearing it made her sad.

I was nine, and vividly remember Ruby shooting Oswald, live on TV. Seeing John John salute his father's casket, as it passed. The black boots, backward in the horse's stirrups. Sad time that seems so long ago...

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I remember playing those same "muffled snare" parts on my Gladstone practice pad, and my step-mother telling me to stop, because hearing it made her sad.

I was nine, and vividly remember Ruby shooting Oswald, live on TV. Seeing John John salute his father's casket, as it passed. The black boots, backward in the horse's stirrups. Sad time that seems so long ago...

It's amazing what a difference being a few years older makes. My sister is three and a half years older than me, and she has very vivid memories of this time . . . including the fact that it was the first time she'd seen our mother cry.

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It's amazing what a difference being a few years older makes. My sister is three and a half years older than me, and she has very vivid memories of this time . . . including the fact that it was the first time she'd seen our mother cry.

I was barely six and all I really remember is asking if my Saturday morning cartoons would not be shown. Too young to understand but old enought to realize something really big was going on.

A few years later (edit: June 1967 according to Google) one of the networks televised a multi part explaination of the Warren report and for some reason I watched. Still remember the slow motion film clips of a bullet going thru jello to show how Connelly and Kennedy were struck by the same bullet. To a kid in elementary school it make no sense to me as jello is really soft but thought I was too young to understand. Later I found out a lot of grown ups had the same idea. Think a lot of my current cynicism comes from that.

Edited by JimF-3rdBari
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Jim- The Warren Report never really convinced me...Without going into any detail, I believe there was some sort of collaboration between the mob and LBJ, deep, deep behind the scenes. :thumbup:

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I agree with both Jim and Mark. I'm older than you guys and can remember in great detail where I was and what I was doing when the word reached our office. Even the smallest details are vivid.

That the Warren Commission Report is flawed is almost a given to a majority of Americans. That there was a conspiracy is a probability in my opinion. Arlen Specter has never given me one thread of proof otherwise.

Tragedies have that effect on the conscious as well as subconscious minds and we will remember those events like they happened yesterday. Much like Jack Ruby's assassination of Oswald before the eyes of millions of TV viewers.

Edited by Jimbalaya
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:thumbup:

I am like SO many others who remember where they were at 12:30 CST on 11/22/63.

I will always remember watching all of the news coverage and being mystified by the all-service honor guard as they guarded the casket at the Capitol. My dad and I watched how the guard went from standing at attention to parade rest in 10 minute increments IIRC. I even tried to mimic those guys, because being able to stay 'motionless' for that long was SO COOL. Watching the funeral was tough for my dad, who was always proud of the first Irish Catholic President.

Little did I know that 10 years later, I would have a chance to join that unit while in the Army..The Old Guard. I turned them down..I wanted to keep my hair, and I liked the post where I was stationed.

Still, it's neat to see the connection to the drum corps family at one of our country's defining moments.

Pat

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I was barely six and all I really remember is asking if my Saturday morning cartoons would not be shown. Too young to understand but old enought to realize something really big was going on.

That's pretty much how it was for me. And the kids. The kids stood out to me because . . . well, they were kids like me. So they caught my attention, but I really didn't understand what was happening.

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