Will Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Anybody march during these years?? I know this is when Spirit won guard a couple times and also had some pretty spectacular stuff going on. I have seen the 1986-1991 shows and love them! I'd love to hear some memories if anyone has any! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhsalan Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 (edited) Oops!!! I *hate* it when I forget who's logged in!! (See the next post for the removed text here...) Edited May 20, 2008 by nhsalan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justgin Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Anybody march during these years?? I know this is when Spirit won guard a couple times and also had some pretty spectacular stuff going on. I have seen the 1986-1991 shows and love them! I'd love to hear some memories if anyone has any! I marched 85-87, and yes, we won guard in both 85 and 87. Whatcha wanna know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtxcg Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) I marched 85-87, and yes, we won guard in both 85 and 87. Whatcha wanna know? Anything, everything. I'm a fan of the activity's history. Edited May 21, 2008 by wtxcg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugg Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) they certainly changed the face of the artform and i belive alot of the credit should be given to tam easterwood,sal salas[wgi HOF member] and scott chandler[dci,wgi HOF member]! Edited May 21, 2008 by dugg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhsalan Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 You are right, Sal and Scott and Tam were the reasons behind the ascension of the guard program at Spirit. Sal and Scott are both WGI HOF members and Scott is also a DCI Hall of Famer. (I think Sal will be one day as well). NO doubt, had Tam not passed away prematurely, he most certainly would have found himself enshrined with both of his close friends. I'll let Ginger fill you in on details as she lived it at rehearsal with them every day. They certainly revolutionized the activity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhsalan Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) Good grief..........you'd think I'd figure out to actually check the name before I type a mile-long post again, wouldn't you??? **see the next post....** Edited May 21, 2008 by nhsalan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justgin Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) Hmmmmm..........let's see........fun stories from 85..... Well, I was a rookie, so it was a time for me to figure out the dynamics of the group, do a lot of watching, observing, etc. Scott and Tam were hysterical together. The days we could get them to start telling stories from their college days or imitating their piano teacher or the "JSU Marching Ballerinas" were priceless. On a few rainy days, Scott kept us entertained forever playing requests on the piano, or just improvising....he's amazing. We practiced hard, but efficiently, and they felt that quality was much more valuable than quantity. We came in to rehearsals after the rest of the corps, and had an extra long dinner break most days. There was a mall nearby, and we hit it OFTEN. One day we all bought these hideous pants.........black with neon green, pink and orange plaid. In ensemble rehearsal that night, we all wore them rolled up and at the big "moment" in the opener we rolled them down and danced around like fools......those of us who weren't laughing so hard we couldn't stand up, that is. We came back from one of those extra long breaks one time to find out DURING RUN-THROUGHS (!) that they'd changed the feel of the 2nd movement (Concerto in F) to have a "swing" feel. Our pretty, flowing movement no longer fit, and we were a bit out of whack for a bit. I was often a guinea pig for lifts......gotta love being dropped on your head, butt, etc. 47 times while they work out the partner work..... We spent the first day of tour between a prelims and finals show rewriting the entire last movement. We were BITTER about it too! The horns and drums were resting, eating, etc., and we're out there learning filler work because the judges HATED the original ending. It worked though, so in hind-sight I suppose they might have known what they were doing.... I was scared of Sal the whole year. Considering we work together now, I'm sure he'll get a good laugh at that. At one camp while learning drill, I couldn't make my set.........I was running from somewhere around the 20 to the other 45 in about 16 counts. It wasn't pretty. They made a few of us do it by ourselves to see what was going on, and he yells from the top, "Hey! Miss America.....stop worrying about being pretty while you get there, and haul ###!!" I think the next time was when I slid into my spot like it was home plate.......the drill got changed not too long after that. We had an ongoing hackey-sack tournament, and an ice cream man that visited us almost daily. We got to spin pool cues at the beginning of the 3rd movement. Sadly, no one could tell they were pool cues since we had to put a flag on them to make them more visual. But, as just about any guard person who has ever played pool can attest, they did spin really neat!! They were fun, but broke REALLY easily. Tam used to threaten us with our lives daily about breaking them. I can STILL hear his voice when he would clean that work. We weren't allowed to go anywhere in public without being in a boy-girl pair, and we got a good "talking to" about being the best representation of good ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate that much more now than I did then! At DCI finals, the announcer never dreamed that any group lower than 6th place could possibly win any of the captions, so he never looked at the 2nd half of the recap. (They were hand-written back then, and I still have a copy of it!) When it was announced that SCV won color guard, one of our marching staff members went to look at it and see where we'd finished. When he realized we'd really won, he went to Brandt Crocker and demanded that it be corrected with an announcement, but at first they refused. The staff member oh-so-politely (hee hee) let them know that one way or the other, it would get fixed over the PA system, and they could do it or he would. We were completely bewildered when we saw our staff come literally BOUNCING down the sidelines toward us as someone went to take the trophy away from SCV. We had no idea what was going on since they'd not announced it yet. Of course, we were thrilled, but we all felt HORRIBLE for the members at SCV. I can't imagine how awful that must have been. When I got home, no one would believe me that we really won guard.......they'd all watched the live telecast which cut off before the correction announcement. Coming from a little corps where we practiced TONS more hours, 85 Spirit was an eye-opening summer for me. I tell my kids all the time that they have Scott to thank for my rehearsal philosophy and the fun we try to make sure we always have with them. It changed my outlook on what color guard was supposed to be like. Edited May 21, 2008 by justgin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugg Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) the talented tam easterwood was a madison scout both performer and then teacher/writer,he was also a member of the revolutionary chapter 5 winter guard.he taught state street reveiw the Heaven and hell year as well as creating the les miz program for the cadets drum corps in 1989.he also taght the award winning tate h.s winter guard and later became a beloved band director for east coweta h.s..he gave us so much and his creative touch is missed. for more go to dci.org's fanfare,michael boo,"in memory of tam easterwood". Edited May 21, 2008 by dugg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh1109 Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 1986 & 1987 Spirit Guard member here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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