The history of the Westshoremen

[Jaminbenb]

Ben mentioned it earlier, the closest anyone ever really got to it was BD and "Pegasus". I do know when things changed in '82-- many of us including myself became serious students of BD and how they did things and aspired to try and be as much like them as we could in terms of excellence, quality, musicality, and grooviness as humanly possible. I still drive friends nuts with my "Digital Devils" CD's in my car, and listening to so much of it with Rook BITD, I still know all the percussion kicks in a lot of the stuff.

The last show BD did that I really was absolutely sold on was the "Phenomenon of Cool", which was just a huge gas from one end to the other. Got into Brubeck in college when I acquired a large portion of my Uncle's Jazz collection on vinyl and hosted a jazz program on WLVC BITD. Most of my Jazz CD's now are a ton of Kenton stuff-- that, Chicago, and some ska...

Yeah, I turned into a serious Devils head in those daze! Something about the attitude they had to me was summed up in a t-shirt that I guy I marched with in Reading had : PRECISION WEST Getting down on field level with them at DCI East and watching rehearsals, and their show was something to behold...sort of made you think "yeah, these guys get it" One of the things Eric Kitchenman once said after someone blurted out "practice makes perfect" Eric corrected him and said "No, PERFECT practice makes perfect!" Which to me meant... don't do run throughs half azzed, when you are in music rehearsal, don't discount something you think is a trouble spot, etc. Devils exuded that to a higher level, and it showed on the field!

I have the "Digital Devils" recording somewhere, albeit on cassette (cuz at the time I had it, I didn't have a way to copy CD) I also have a cassette somewhere of the concert that BD and SCV did at the Concord Jazz Pavilion called "State of the Art" taken off of vinyl (I do recall seeing the back cover of that with a picture of very young and heavily bearded Frank on his haunches doing what recording people do, getting down and hearing where the sound is generating)

Chicago? Wow, what a band! First saw them in 1979 on the first tour after Terry Kath died (wish I was into them, and able to see them before that) I've been a fan forever and it's one of the few acts that I can drag my wife to go see...All told I've probably seen them about 6 or 7 times, most recently last May in Lancaster I'm not QUITE as crazy into the big band stuff, I do have some Louie Bellson, and at Christmas, I downloaded a copy of Rob McConnells Boss Brass Christmas album...my jazz period went really left field and I got heavily into Chick Corea's Elektrik Band, that was some amazing stuff...but my jazz tastes lean a little more towards fusion and borderline progressive rock than anything mainstream.

[Jaminbenb]

And yes, Derry Township.... Wasn't Boltzie (Bass Drummer early 80's) well known in the corps for his string of traffic tickets in the Hershey area?

Speaking of, when the corps moved in cars from one place to another, that could get pretty crazy. When I had that Wildcat with the 430 in it, I know I was hustlin' as long as it was a straight line.

The one thing I do remember was this. I'd be riding with someone or driving, and we were usually moving at a 'brisk' pace, and the next thing you know, a Ford LTD/big FoMoCo full-size sedan with Larry at the wheel would usually blow by you like you were Granny Smith coming home from church in her Model A. HOW he never got pulled over is beyond me. I think even Dad got passed by him at Warp Factor 85 and he told me about it.

Yeah Boltzie was a ticket machine! Although I think the majority of his tickets came from outside the Twp. mainly because he was a fireman, and knew most of the cops well enough that they let him slide. I was with him one day and he got stopped, the cop came up and just started talking to him, never mentioned that he was doing 45 in a 25, but said something like "slow it down numb nutz" when he was leaving.

Yeah, I remember when we were all on the CB, I forget the official "corps channel" for travel purposes, but when 120+ people move from one place to the other in probably about 50-60 cars it sure was a crazy thing to behold! I had my old beat up Plymouth Volare at that point (81, 82, 83) and that thing didn't move very fast...if I could get it over 60 it was probably going down hill!

[JimF-LowBari]

All I can say is:

1) WIll have to dig out a version of "Icarus" as think I know which tune that was (right before "Winneka". What year do you recommend.

2) Mom had Dauphin County jury duty one year and got a Derry Twp DUI case. Guy had a history with the cops and cops "knew" he was under the influence so.... they never checked his blood level. Guys lawyer drilled the cops a new one on that..... "how many blocks were you from the Med Center.... and STILL didn't make sure with a blood test?". Cops answer was alwasy "But we KNEW it!". Guy ended up be declaired innocent because of the lousy police work. Jury room discussion was: "He probably was but we have no proof". Look the cops gave the jury told mom to stay out of Derry for a while.

[Jaminbenb]

All I can say is:

1) WIll have to dig out a version of "Icarus" as think I know which tune that was (right before "Winneka". What year do you recommend.

2) Mom had Dauphin County jury duty one year and got a Derry Twp DUI case. Guy had a history with the cops and cops "knew" he was under the influence so.... they never checked his blood level. Guys lawyer drilled the cops a new one on that..... "how many blocks were you from the Med Center.... and STILL didn't make sure with a blood test?". Cops answer was alwasy "But we KNEW it!". Guy ended up be declaired innocent because of the lousy police work. Jury room discussion was: "He probably was but we have no proof". Look the cops gave the jury told mom to stay out of Derry for a while.

we only did it in 1982....

I look at Derry Twp.'s cops two ways....yeah they have a rough job because of all of the tourism here, I GET that...but the fact that they harass the local people the way they do is outrageous! Yes PLEASE make sure you're present because a lot of 'out of state' people are pathetic and the way they come into this town and become annoying is a burden to the local people...this isn't like Key West and the Florida Keys where you get a "local's discount" for goods and services....we pay the same amount, stand in the same lines, and deal with the same crap as the tourists...what do we get in return? NOTHING! High taxes, a police force that puts their speed traps on back roads where tourists don't go, and not much else! At least the locals in and around Orlando get a free pass to the parks every year! Heck, I'd take free parking at all of the lots!

If it wasn't such a hassle to move and cause a lot of unneeded expense I'd get the he!! out of here! (But the Mrs. has a 3 minute commute to the Med Center, and she likes it that way)

[BigW]

BTW, there are several "Digital Devils" CD's. Some overlap, I think. They're good to listen to on the Monsoon system in my wagon, and to think and reflect on. You listen to 1976 through 1986 you can hear radical changes in the activity. Writing, clarity, quality, all marked improvments in all areas of the activity. Changes in judging methodology, whether some people like/liked them or not really helped to push the envelope. That was a wave that hit everyone to varying degrees in DCI and DCA. Either you rode the wave and improved and developed your corps to compete with better quality and took more chances to make it happen- or you bit the dust. I can think of a couple of DCA corps that never caught that wave, eventually suffered pretty badly for it, and never got their mojo back. You couldn't rely on inconsistent judging supported by the tick system and hit or miss performances that either really clicked or didn't every week to claw out some success in DCA anymore. We were there when it all started to go that way.

And now back to our normal program, 1982 Westshore. It's amazing how a lot of things have popped up that really remind me of so much of what we went through. Icarus, Alliance going inactive to regroup, Bush hanging on last season like we did in 84 to keep their corps alive. The more things change, the more they stay the same in many aspects.

Ben really hit on Eric's philosophy with the quote about rehearsals. He had an enormous will and desire to be excellent in what he does, and really worked to shape us to be competitors, fighters, and to also desire to be excellent. Dave also had it as well as Frank, it just was more subtle.

I still remember Clifton. I know we were all on edge, and really excited to be there. Westshore usually never got to go to the "prestige shows" in Jersey/NY/Connecticut. It was a prety big deal for us. A lot of us still remembered the snit with the Hurcs over the Fresh Air Fanfare in '79. I'd say we were pretty indignant about things like that. Maybe we weren't beating the old guard- BUT, we had beaten some of them off and on.

We were kind of like a kid in college who comes back for Thanksgiving/Christmas and is still made to sit at the table with the 6-9 year olds instead of the adults. I don't know if it was as much about winning as much as wanting to be viewed as someone who deserved to sit at the good table for the holidays.

We had a good perfomance the week before at Danville, everyone was positive there was a bit of buzz from that show, we knew we were very well prepared, liked our show, we were as good as our corps ever was in late May when we got to Clifton.

The run was pretty tight. I know afterwards we felt pretty up about it, the staff was extremely satisfied with our performance, which took a load off my mind. The run felt right, and I think it was as good as we could've expected out of ourselves.

The real buzz started at retreat. Word was leaking to us that compared to everyone else at the contest, we were dominant. I think most of us had just hoped to knock someone off- anyone, and scare everyone else badly. That was my thought, I think everyone else was thinking much the same thing.

Then, Larry got cryptic when we were on the field in retreat, as Larry would do. He gave us the "just remain calm and stay at parade rest, come to attention regardless what happens" speech, which he only did when something crazy was about to happen. we started wondering, were we dumped, did we win? Larry just smiled and was typically Larry-non-committal. That's when we knew something was up. When they started reading everyone off but us, it was mind-blowing for us, especially when they announced we'd beaten Sky, which we'd never done before. Beating Sun also had us cranked- after their run the season before, we knew how good they could be, and we'd beaten them. But the Cabs? Fat chance we'd beat them in their backyard. Good night, good results, get on the bus and relax and fell good about second, etc.! Okay! Then, they started with the caption awards... which we won a load of. Still, beat the Cabs? Maybe that was why Larry was warning us. Maybe they got us in spite of all the loot. When they announced them in second- we practically went nuts. Frank was on my right, I was on the edge, and we were both crying. We'd actually pulled it off! For that night, we were the best in the world, and by over FIVE points!!!?!?!?!

Then, we knew Eric wasn't crazy. We knew we could compete, and that we'd be rewarded if we just kept working hard and stuck to the plan. I still smile when I see that DCN issue with the huge headline that pretty much said- "EARTH TILTS ON ITS AXIS. POLAR ICECAPS MELT, HELL FROZEN OVER, WESTSHORE WINS IN CLIFTON!?!?!?!" A great moment. I figured we'd be happy to be 4th at the end of the season. We realized we had a crack at the whole enchilada, which was wild for us.

But-- we still had MUCH to learn and go through. More on that later.

[Jeff Ream]

Oooofff! Derry Twp. is NOT a place I'd be doing that! I'm not one to criticize law enforcement, but the way they handle it here is a joke!

Rewind back to like circa- 1980....just got my drivers license that summer, driving my fathers bigazz 1979 Ford LTD (in jade green ) and I'm heading out to Hersheypark to drop off a job application (because I want my own stupid car and not to drive that dang LTD) (although it DID have a rather large back seat....another story for another day... ) (her name was Karen) ANYway.....I'm on my way home after dropping off the paperwork and them saying "don't call us, we'll call you" and I'm at the 322 exit turning onto Waltonville Road. I stop the car, look both ways, (left, then right, then left) see nothing and pull out...Ok, so there's some stones on the road, and the tires spin a little...apparently I didn't see officer friendly sitting off the road a little ways, and he pops on his lights.... so I pull over and he striiiiides up tot he car and starts his "license and registration" BS....so I hand it to him, he gives it a quick glance and goes "do you know why I stopped you SON" (and me being my usual smartazz self is thinking don't call me son) but I behave and go "why no officer, I haven't the slightest idea, please tell me" "Son, you PEALED out at that stop sign, and we don't appreciate that sort of behavior in Derry Twp.!" I said "I'm sorry, but my wheels spun on the loose stones, I'm not really used to driving this car" He made some comment about my father not appreciating what I was doing in his car, and surprisingly I'm staying focused on not being a smartazz I said, well maybe he wouldn't, but he'd know that I spun on the stones...the cop said "what stones?" so I had to take him and show him...long story short he left me go with just a verbal warning...but ever since then I've hated Derry Twp. cops and their attitude! (I don't even drive more than 3 miles over the limit here, you never know where they're putting up a stupid speed trap!)

Derry TWp sucks

[Jeff Ream]

reminds me of retreat in Reading in 90. i'll get there one of these years...

[Jaminbenb]

Ooooohhhhhhhhh yeah! I'll never forget that night as long as I live! I wish I had my copy of DCN still...that got messed up with a whole bunch of other ones when my parent's basement got a lot of water a few years after that, the only drum corps paper that survived was one with my lone picture in it which was in another box (on a higher shelf)

My recollection of it was similar, a big dose of shock more than anything else....Yeah, Larry was being way too cryptic with his "remain calm no matter what happens" speech...I feared the worse because we felt good about the performance, after Danville people were giving us props and all that..and usually when Larry started that mantra, it was usually something bad.

I remember going up to a bar and calling my parents...my father was always a Cab's fan, and to let him know that we had beaten them, as well as Sky, was a big thing! MY mother answered the phone and immediately thought I was calling from a hospital I told her, not yet, but it COULD happen, then I told her, she laughed and said "let me get your father, he'll s**t!" He thought I was lying!

As Dave Krauss used to say "The beer was COLD that night!" We earned it, and you had to thank the staff, they were the ones that put it in our minds that we COULD compete on that level, and the fact that we were more than ready that night is a credit to them keeping us focused!

[Jeff Ream]

I remember Dad calling me from NJ that night. My mom was ###### he called at that time of the morning, but when I told her why, even though she is not a drum corps fan, even she was stunned and forgave him.

and if you did not see the thread in the main DCA Forum, Dom Fulginiti passed away this morning

[Jaminbenb]

and if you did not see the thread in the main DCA Forum, Dom Fulginiti passed away this morning

That sucks! Dom was a nice guy!