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OK... one aspect of the drum corps marching experience is..... the post-rehearsal, pre-show shower.

NOT rain showers, but the shower rooms at the local school, rehearsal site, show site, wherever.

From my marching years, I remember cold showers, hot showers, so-so showers, clean shower rooms, not-so-clean shower rooms..... the whole nine yards.

Soooo...... here's an invitation to share your "drum corps shower experiences" here.

1) My Sunriser friends who marched in the mid-70's have told me that the showers for the Yankee Rebels' show in Baltimore, at the old Eastern High School, were the stuff of legend... quite possibly THE coldest showers in drum corps history.

2) The showers I remember most vividly were the ones at the Fresh Air Fanfare show site in Hamden, CT. The water temperature was fine, but the water pressure was so intense that the water came out of the faucets like sharp needles. I mean, those #### showers HURT... especially if you had any sunburn or windburn after a long day of rehearsal. Ouch.

Fran

Edited by Fran Haring
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this may be embarrasing but after rehearsing all day and being a drummer and having loosened up my chops i never took a pre show shower. about half our drumline followed suit. man the smell on the starting line was something else. sorry but true. :unhappy:

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OK... one aspect of the drum corps marching experience is..... the post-rehearsal, pre-show shower.

NOT rain showers, but the shower rooms at the local school, rehearsal site, show site, wherever.

From my marching years, I remember cold showers, hot showers, so-so showers, clean shower rooms, not-so-clean shower rooms..... the whole nine yards.

Soooo...... here's an invitation to share your "drum corps shower experiences" here.

1) My Sunriser friends who marched in the mid-70's have told me that the showers for the Yankee Rebels' show in Baltimore, at the old Eastern High School, were the stuff of legend... quite possibly THE coldest showers in drum corps history.

2) The showers I remember most vividly were the ones at the Fresh Air Fanfare show site in Hamden, CT. The water temperature was fine, but the water pressure was so intense that the water came out of the faucets like sharp needles. I mean, those #### showers HURT... especially if you had any sunburn or windburn after a long day of rehearsal. Ouch.

Fran

To this day, I doubt that any venue's showers come close to the Baltimore Yahkee Rebel's showers at RFK Stadium. Standing in that shower on a 90+ degree day after 12 hours on a bus and 6 hours on a field was like a cross between an ice storm and a fire fight. Ice pellets ripped at the skin until you were pretty much totally excoriated. It was excruciating. Made one not be in a huge hurry to go find your wife or girl-friend immediately afterward either. (Except that you were finally clean and not stinky).

Baltimore takes it hands down.

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I never had the "pleasure" of using the showers in Baltimore, however, the showers in the stadium at Hershey were no slouch when it came to dishing extremely cold water at an almost unbearable rate.

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Having marched for years and been in many different showers in many different schools, here are my top 3:

1. Allentown - J Birney Crum - after the hike up the hill and then walking in to what looked like 1970's bad movie set, the showers were like ice from the faucets. There were some that had the shower head and some that just had the pipe coming from the wall that just shot water out at you. And the temperature was always 2 degrees above freezing.

2. Mifflinburg HS - Lewisburg DCA show even though this school is probably like a AA-AAA sized school the locker rooms were left to be desired. The locker rooms doubled as storage for the smelly football team gear that was left after the school year. One shower room was even used to put stuff in. But I do have to say that the temp and pressure of the showers were wonderful.

3. Clifton NJ - forgot what high school - but I don't think I need to say anymore.

Just my take. There were others but those are just memorable ones.

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My reccollection of every shower was cold, and there was a lot of shrinkage (which is probably why the guys in the guard never hit on me! :unhappy: )

But seriously...

The one that always stands out is Carlisle, PA where the door opened up to where the "spectators" were walking in to the show, every time the door opened "HELLO!" I also remember someone swapping the "mens" and "womens" signs at least once or twice a year.

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My reccollection of every shower was cold, and there was a lot of shrinkage (which is probably why the guys in the guard never hit on me! :unhappy: )

But seriously...

The one that always stands out is Carlisle, PA where the door opened up to where the "spectators" were walking in to the show, every time the door opened "HELLO!" I also remember someone swapping the "mens" and "womens" signs at least once or twice a year.

YEah, and because YOU swapped the signs...one year the Cabs drumline walked in on us !!! can you say SCREAM?!? I mean that's how bad we scacred them !!!

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The only specific showers I remember were from Jackson, Mississippi in 1993. One of the few times the corps truly wanted really cold showers and they were burn-your-skin scalding hot. It was horrible. That was a really long finals week.

And then there was Albuquerque 95. For some reason where we were staying that year, Blue Knights didn't have access to the locker rooms after the show, just restrooms. Of course there was a huge rumbling from the corps but most corps members just dealt with it. About a dozen of us in the guard overheard the drum major say he was going to look for someone with a key to the locker rooms, so we grabbed our shower stuff and went up and sat on the sidewalk near the locker rooms waiting for him to return. After about 30 or 45 minutes we still hadn't heard anything from him, but we did hear the sprinklers come on behind us on the baseball diamond... YUP. We took a shower in those sprinklers. It was really dark out so we weren't worried about being seen and pretty much most of us completely disrobed for the shower. It was quite fun. Imagine our surprise when an AMTRAK passenger train came barreling down the tracks directly behind the field with lights blazing right on us. :tongue: I can't even imagine the surprise the passengers on that train must have had when they saw us. It was hilarious!!!

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