JimF-LowBari Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Ahhh sight reading.... (going back to the Frank D post). My first night with Westshore on the CV stage I get handed a bunch of music and I'm thinking "Oh ####" as I didn't know fingerings (#### trombone players). Hey at Keystone we had one sheet of one piece of music (Janis Joplins "Move Over") which was almost all whole notes. Memorized that sucker the first practice of the 8 or 10 I was with KK. Anyway first night at WSM, guy/vet next to me (about my dads age) hands me a pen and sez "Here kid... no playing until you mark your music". I gulp and start marking as fast as I can with Nate Wards cheat sheet. I finish and he sez "That's how a lot of us started... welcome to Westshore kid!". #### can't rememebr who it was or if he stuck around. PS - KK horn was an ultra rare 2 horizontal piston tenor Bari. Never even took a pic of the horn as I didn't know it was rare, guess it was an old WSM-BS horn. First few months at WSM it was a piston-SLIDE that smelled like Swamp Thing had it. Every other week Larry would practically beg the Baris to stick around as the horns are coming... really.... maybe next practice.... Edited January 31, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) To Jeff and Ben, YES. That being said, there was some serious ToB activity BITD/late 70's in Chapter 4, mainly because that area was a bit remote from the CoB shows. Williamsport, Shamokin, Shik, Lock Haven, Bald Eagle-Nittany (Perhaps THE best small band in the US in the late 70's), Crestwood (I think Chapter 4 at that time still included NEPA), and Lewistown were all pretty active in ToB and all of them were at worst reasonably successful. Lewistown got more involved with ToB as time went on in the late 70's, I think because we had more success, the shows were closer, and we were seeing Jim Prime, Sr. a lot on panels, which was a big help to us as kids and also trying to figure out how to get better. Ralph Fair was also very helpful to the Lewistown program in terms of trying to get the visual program competitive and out of the visual scoring gutter. Musically, we were quite respectable, no embarassment there. You'd see the Harrisburg bands mainly in CoB at that time, with some occassional crossovers. Heck, we even went to some PennFed (what is now PIMBA) BITD as did even CV when a show was somewhat close, and they were back them in the Johsntown area- not too horrible a trip from Central PA. The main point is- a goodly number of the Westshore kids were competing a lot (5-7 contests) in the fall, and learning from good judges who then were also judging DCA as well. We weren't 100% ignorant when we came to the corps, which was a real advantage for us, I think. I don't think every corps in the NE quite had that going for them in that time frame (Reading excepted- they had WCU as a feeder more or less), BUT-- the other corps had long term vets and older, hopefully more mature people who learned from the school of hard knocks how to win. Wyoming Area was ToB in the mid-80's. This I know, I did drill design for them hmm, around.... 1984/5!?!?!? And THAT, is another rather interesting story.... By the Mid-80's, things were getting wierd with Cavalcade. I won't publicly name names- but when one of the NEPA powerhouses staff members who was a friend and classmate of mine comes to me at WCU and tells me they scored a 9.2 out of 8 in a subcaption at a big Cavalcade contest in the Philly area -- no typo there, yeah, a 9.2 out of 8. I won't name publically who goofed, we got along with him well at Westshore in period (I think he partied after shows with us at least once and was a GREAT partier) and I like the guy very much personally. Ben and crew- I'll name names when we finally can get together some time over dinner.... I remember being at the Lewistown show in 79, and standing to wait to go on the field, and up walks Wyoming Area's band...now as a little background, that summer I was at my grandmother's house in Exeter, PA (a block from the school) and was my usual bored sh*tless self...my aunt said "why don't you go over behind 'Atlas' (Atlas chain co.) and watch the band practice, you like bands don't you? So I was OUT of there like a flash! I wander up to the field, (wearing a Westshoremen shirt) and one of the instructors is Bruce Fausey (whom I didn't know at the time) We struck up a conversation, and pretty much compared notes on who we knew, etc. he said hang out have a good time, and if you see something out of place, don't be afraid to speak up. So I hung the whole week...and ended up meeting the person I would end up marrying that first day (although that would happen MUCH later on in life....)(ironically...both of our families went back YEARS, and I'm beginning to think it was an arranged marriage ) Anyway...so fast forward after that week to the Lewistown show...the three "hot" drum majors walk up and give me hugs (the boys in my drumline were like they also were stunned because about 10-15 minutes earlier, I got a big hug and a kiss from a rifle I knew from Williamsports band, who was in WSM as well...forget her name...but I got a LOT of "street cred" that day!) anyway... so I'm shooting the breeze with a few people I knew (Lisa included) and we go on...end up beating them by a few points, and we head out to another show...as time went on...I talked to Lisa and she was all "stupid Cavalcade, we usually do ToB...docked us a point penalty for something yadda yadda yadda, we should have beaten you etc...that's why we dont' usually do Cavalcade...it was funny...I found the program my mother bought, and as she usually did...marked the scores in...I think we beat them by more than their little penalty... She hasn't brought up that little incident since...And unless I want to sleep downstairs with the cat..won't! Edited February 1, 2012 by Jaminbenb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 82? yeah the Dorritee factor was HUGE for the hornline...the Robb factor was HUGE for the drumline, and Eric (you gotta have purpose) showed up, it was O-V-E-R for everyone else! Yeah, the "Dead weight" left some of the old school players were gone..and the new kids were starting up and going crazy! As I remember, the entire attitude of the corps changed, and suddenly those of us that were newbies a few years earlier, were the seasoned vets and LOVING it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 by the way....if any of you have old TOB programs, we're looking for regular season scores from back in the day too. if it's not on www.tob-info.net and you have scores, zap em over!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Bruce Fausy, a real blast from the past- haven't seen him in years! Last I knew, lived in the Sunbury area and a friend who was a low brass player at Shik ran a dog grooming shop that took care of his dogs. I'm unsure what happened to him, I'd have thunk that I'd have ran into him in one way or another at a show somewhere after 1990ish.... Didn't he march Bucs for a bit in the late 70's, Ben!!?!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 by the way....if any of you have old TOB programs, we're looking for regular season scores from back in the day too. if it's not on www.tob-info.net and you have scores, zap em over!! I'll see what I have in my archives at my parents.... no promises, not sure what and where a lot of stuff actually is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Bruce Fausy, a real blast from the past- haven't seen him in years! Last I knew, lived in the Sunbury area and a friend who was a low brass player at Shik ran a dog grooming shop that took care of his dogs. I'm unsure what happened to him, I'd have thunk that I'd have ran into him in one way or another at a show somewhere after 1990ish.... Didn't he march Bucs for a bit in the late 70's, Ben!!?!?!? Not sure when he marched Bucs, but I can ask him! He found me on Facebook. The last I SAW him was in 2000 at DCI in DC. Before that I think I saw him in 1988 marching WSM. Crazy dude, to say the least! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Hey! Yeah, when band season hit and I ended up in West-by-God-Virgina all fall driving 250 miles one way- I kinda have to leave the Drum Corps Planet. Luckily I did get Aaron Lichtenwalner to do one run with me which was a godsend. Doing that alone, especially at night, even when you're a night person can be tough. Deer, foxes, twisty roads, trying to figure out how much gas you got and how far it will get yah- all crazy. I know like every goofy place to fuel up out there. Little Sandy's Truck stop makes a good buckwheat pancake. Some groups are learning, working hard, getting better. Some.... it will take time. It's like a time capsule out there once in awhile. Stuff you haven't heard in literally decades like Larry Kerchner's "My Favorite Things" get heard- albeit the fire hose got taken to it, which irked me. Boom played that I think one year at LHS and THEY could play the 4 against three for God's sake as well as the 10-8/mixed meter stuff. Anyhow, I hope Chris is starting to feel better, Jeff, and again, congratulations. Jim, come and say Hi! I almost had to beg an Ultratone off you or someone, I ended up getting my left middle finger slammed by a nasty box on the sort slide. Very slight fracture on the very tip, bad cut, if it was the right one for second valve- I'd have needed a piston-rotor horn. As for Alumni Corps, It felt GREAT. When I play, I feel alive. So, so alive. I missed a couple notes and scared Dave, but I hit more than I missed. The charts are coming together, and I have to say the 4 guys on Bass Drum with Ream for all being different from last year and the past few were pretty good for just getting together. Anyhow, back to 1982, where a lot of good things happened to us. I've been thinking a lot about it. I have to wonder whether DCA/ the Drum Corps community figured that we'd be happy being at the bottom of the top in DCA. It's not a bad place to be. But we wanted more as a group. We were hungry. We'd beaten Reading in 1978 at some shows- beaten the Hurcs at some shows, really competed hard with Sun in 1980 and managed to come out on top- and even been close to the Cabs at finals in 1981. It was obvious we were close-- and that inside, we knew we could do it, but how? There were staff changes and a fresh approach. I discussed this before. Horn-wise, Frank Dorritte gave us a distinctive voice that we loved and bought into. Dave "Who!?!?!?" pushed quality and attention to detail, and we all stood there and nodded, and worked hard. Eric Kitchenmen took the time to show us EXACTLY how to march, and worked us hard to make it internalized. Everything was about quality, and caring greatly about quality. The once-just young guys in Percussion were now experienced young guys that moved into more demanding spots and pushed themselves with Robb Muller. A lot of us 'kids' were experienced kids with 4 or more seasons under our belt, and we got more young guys like Frank Magel on board, who we worked into the crew. We wanted to be GOOD. We wanted to be in that top group in DCA and compete! We had the people who understood how to get us there of we just, as Gary told us to do, listen to them. It wasn't easy. I see mroe and more over the last couple of years with some bands how some kids wilt under any mention of a problem. You who know me know after what I went through the last thing I'd do is get all over a kid who screws up, but it seems in this era with a lot of HS programs, the kids wilt and curl up in a ball if anything's remotely said about anything being remotely wrong. And, well, you know where those programs end up- at the bottom, of the barrel, and then, what kills me even more they sit there wondering why they get clobbered by 15 points! We were pushed, and at times pushed hard. Dave never yelled, but the horn sectionals were INTENSE, EXACT, and could be a real mental grind. It had to be right. Everyone had to be right, and on the same page. Every detail was gone over carefully with every note. Fran mentioned awhile ago that because there was no internet and no really fast communication, people really didn't know what was going on with us that winter. We didn't have a fella like Tom Moore dropping a friendly press release telling people we'd went to a west-coast-style of jazz, and that things were better than ever, and that we were excited about the upcoming season and performing for everyone. We knew we were better. We knew the music was a lot better, we knew we were marching a lot better, but where we were at- we didn't know. We just kept working hard, harder then we had been, and we knew we were getting more done at rehearsals, and knew more of the show, and knew it to a higher degree than we had known it over the winter. But what would that add up to? We didn't know what anyone else was doing, either, other than that they had to be working hard and learning as well! Looking back, we began to get some hints about ourselves from Frank, speaking of Bruce and Terry and the Milton guys. I've been at it for 21 minutes now, and my fingers are a bit rough. I'll talk about what Frank told us ASAP, which got us thinking...... I think one of the things that puzzled people more than anything else in early 1982 was that we were READY the first show...usually you fit the drill to the closer in the day of the first show (usually Danville) and you got a second chance at Clifton..but I think the fact that we were ready pushed us over the edge the first few shows. Years later when I was in Bucs, a few people mentioned that show and said they were just putting the finishing touches on things (which as I recall was the normal way they did things...84 and 85 they were still trying to fit in the ending of the show at the first shows..in fact, I remember trying to memorize the tenor parts to the exit number on the ride up to Bridgeport) But the feeling was that we were WAY ahead of the pack at that point, and had a little more momentum for the beginning of that season than everyone else, and I'll STILL contend that the "regional" in Rochester was an anomalie with the fact the Hurcs won that one?!?! (we won't even go INTO what happened in Verdun) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 by the way....if any of you have old TOB programs, we're looking for regular season scores from back in the day too. if it's not on www.tob-info.net and you have scores, zap em over!! The books with my scores in them would have all been Cavalcade...I never marched in a ToB show. (and I didn't get programs or log scores once I started teaching) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Ahhh sight reading.... (going back to the Frank D post). My first night with Westshore on the CV stage I get handed a bunch of music and I'm thinking "Oh ####" as I didn't know fingerings (#### trombone players). Hey at Keystone we had one sheet of one piece of music (Janis Joplins "Move Over") which was almost all whole notes. Memorized that sucker the first practice of the 8 or 10 I was with KK. Anyway first night at WSM, guy/vet next to me (about my dads age) hands me a pen and sez "Here kid... no playing until you mark your music". I gulp and start marking as fast as I can with Nate Wards cheat sheet. I finish and he sez "That's how a lot of us started... welcome to Westshore kid!". #### can't rememebr who it was or if he stuck around. PS - KK horn was an ultra rare 2 horizontal piston tenor Bari. Never even took a pic of the horn as I didn't know it was rare, guess it was an old WSM-BS horn. First few months at WSM it was a piston-SLIDE that smelled like Swamp Thing had it. Every other week Larry would practically beg the Baris to stick around as the horns are coming... really.... maybe next practice.... I remember seeing a piece of music Bowser had way back when we were in the Chocolatiers, and it had all these "symbols" and "marks" over the notes...I asked him WTF?!?!? He said it was for the people that didn't know how to read "real" music, it was "drum corps" notation. he said that the majority of the horn players didn't know how to read so they learned it that way. The music came "pre marked".. IIRC, he also said that most of the stuff that they "stole" from the Rebels (through Bill Tabeling, who was the horn instructor at the time) was like that as well. Bill Tabeling story....I met him when I was with Hershey, and the few years after that he went back into judging. Whenever he'd be on the field and he saw me, he used to stick his tongue out at me, it was hard not to crack up. Funny man! He was also at my high school graduation. He was good friends with a family of a girl I went to high school with, and I ran into him after the ceremony, it was hilarious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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