The history of the Westshoremen

[Jeff Ream]

well...yes and no on the beer.

see, we took two kegs on every road trip. one for the lot after every show, then one for the ride. Guard bus never had a care about it, but usually when the call came to circle the wagons and head out, the drumline usually got the keg. In fact, all but once.....and that time we stopped on the way home and stole it from the horn bus

[Jaminbenb]

Talk about incentive! Yeah I remember the beer balls....the beer was "Matt's"

Now....remember...this is the "dark" ages of 1982...."craft beers" aren't in vogue, and unless it was of a Miller, Stroh's, or if you had the cash Heineken "vintage" you weren't drinking diddly! (anything of the "Anheuser Busch" vintage was acceptable is you wore white silk uniforms with bell bottoms, or partied with them in THEIR legion) (it gave me the squits )

Anyway....Checking for anything on the subject of this "beer" we won...I found the following "Wikipedia" page:

Matt Brewing Company

So basically...not being of the variety we were used to drinking, most balked at it....but a few of us that knew "it was beer, who cares who made it" We dang well DRANK the stuff! (and the fact that we weren't quite the legal drinking are in most states, it was fine!) (and FREE)

The other interesting thing to me...is after reading through their WIKI page, I see that they absorbed the Utica Club brand off drinks....going way back into my extreme childhood, this was a name that came up rather often, since my grandparents owned a "dairy" (i.e. convenience store) up there, and sold Utica Club products...(that was also where I gained my love of R.C. Cola, and would drink that in a heartbeat over any of the more popular cola's out there)

[BigW]

I need to get back to this- but- more craziness has invaded the Westshore family. I apologize, but I have to go see a friend of Boom and the family at HMC before work. Not good.

[Jaminbenb]

I need to get back to this- but- more craziness has invaded the Westshore family. I apologize, but I have to go see a friend of Boom and the family at HMC before work. Not good.

yeah, read her FB post...not good indeed....been there all too recently!

(and sorry for your loss)

[BigW]

Hey, Ben. I remember anyone who was good to me and to Boom. I do not forget. Jamie Washburn I think never got over how I always appreciated to the end of his days how kind he was to me as a rookie. Ron Church, Dave Pompanio, Dave Rohrer, Fawber, too, though I DO hope there are a LOT more days in Jim, Ron and the two Daves!!!!!!!!

Butch was a great neighbor to Boom, period. And the whole thing is just way too surreal.

[Jeff Ream]

Hey, Ben. I remember anyone who was good to me and to Boom. I do not forget. Jamie Washburn I think never got over how I always appreciated to the end of his days how kind he was to me as a rookie. Ron Church, Dave Pompanio, Dave Rohrer, Fawber, too, though I DO hope there are a LOT more days in Jim, Ron and the two Daves!!!!!!!!

Butch was a great neighbor to Boom, period. And the whole thing is just way too surreal.

yeah I saw it on the news then her post. so sad

[Jaminbenb]

Hey, Ben. I remember anyone who was good to me and to Boom. I do not forget. Jamie Washburn I think never got over how I always appreciated to the end of his days how kind he was to me as a rookie. Ron Church, Dave Pompanio, Dave Rohrer, Fawber, too, though I DO hope there are a LOT more days in Jim, Ron and the two Daves!!!!!!!!

Butch was a great neighbor to Boom, period. And the whole thing is just way too surreal.

All good people, that's for sure!

One of the things that hits a stark reality is while we have been over at my dad's cleaning things out of his house. Growing up in that house had a lot of great memories, and seeing which of our neighbors (the ones that helped create some of those memories) are still there, and which have gone away. One of our old next door neighbors kids (ok, he's in his late 50's early 60's now) lives near me, and a few days after my dad passed away, I ran into him walking in my neighborhood..we stood there for almost an hour talking about our summers, how the "adults" sat at the picnic tables (we used to all bring ours to the middle yard) and drank, solving the world's problems (f---ing Nixon, was a usual phrase that was "shhhh'd" by the mom's) while the kids played in the yard...passing baseballs, footballs, etc. As I look at who's left on that immediate area, the people to the right moved to an adult community, my parents are both gone, the house to the left is empty, father passed about 10 years back, mother is in a home with dementia, the next house the husband is still there, the wife died about two years ago, across the street, same thing. In fact, when I was there the other day moving stuff, I saw a couple from down the street and was surprised, my brother said they were pretty much the only two left from the OLD original neighborhood (circa 1960's they were all Olmstead Air Base workers)and he'd know, he's a mailman in that general area (not his regular route, but he's worked it) But all off them formed what I turned into, and I think I did alright!

The past 20 years that I've lived in Hummelstown/Hershey, we don't see that...most of the neighbors I've had are transient's...either here while in Med School, or just to the point that they are USED to the transient population that they don't really forge the relationships that we all used to have with our neighbors. Yeah, we know each other, and some of us have each others house keys for emergency situations, but it's definitely a different world.... and thinking about it now, back then no one locked their doors, so we usually didn't NEED the house keys we had...

Edited May 19, 2012 by Jaminbenb

[BigW]

I know what you mean on neighborhoods. Things change so quickly in my apartment house but not really around it. Then again I really don't know the neighbors very well.

I got to HMC around 4PM Friday, and was told when I got to the then-empty room he didn't make it. Racing Saturday helped a lot but I was still not entirely on top of things there.

Edited May 20, 2012 by BigW

[JimF-LowBari]

Sorry to hear about the loss W and Boom.... Just got back from seeing my father in law at his (have to get used to saying 'his') place for the first non-group visit since the funeral. Very sureal and it takes time...

Believe Ron Church is back with Hanover after taking some time off, so hope that's a good sign for him. Just have to get to used to seeing him clean shaven.

Edited May 20, 2012 by JimF-LowBari

[BigW]

Thanks- More the loss for Boom, Jim. A friend to me and many others- but also a good neighbor to Boom. Say hi to Ron if you see him before I do!

I figure I'd better get back on track with the story.

There I was, on field in Rome, NY, we have a bit of a loopy practice because we're all trying to win free beer for the corps. We're in the opener, and after the big solo, the triplets kick in, we stand up, and come forward in that elbow to elbow Company Front. Real advanced visual stuff there!

Now, mind you, I know I'm preaching to the crowd here when I say that while you're performing, you're in the 'now' as to what's immediately happening, but in the back of your head, you're preparing for the next 3 or so drill moves and music, anticipating so your timing is ON and not behind.

I'm in this company front moving forward elbow to elbow (hey, pretty much only BD marched in wider intervals back then folks) and my head draws a freakin' BLANK while I'm moving foward and my horn is up.

In 4 years of HS Band and something like 20 competitions there and 44 football games... and a year at LVC with that screwy Marching band and 5-6ish football games... and three years and two shows at Westshore and something like 35+ competitions, this had NEVER happened. I know you guys know how FAST you think when you're performing. Everything around you will feel like it's in slo-mo when the corps is hot and you're hyper-aware of everything. Well, I'm trying to think FAST about what's next and coming up empty under that white aussie hat, realizing that any foul-up out of a company front was going to be noticed BIG-TIME.

We get to the next move point, which for side 1 was a 90 degree flank to the right, of course torso still flat to the sideline and audience (again, typical stuff for back them young peoples!) while maintaining the CF. We didn't have a term for muscle memory back them. ALl I know is that we had to have pracriced that move so many freakin' times that in the back of my mind, I had the correct answer and I just DID it. Pshew! Everything went back into my head for the rest of the show just fine. I had a good show, even with that brain fade/flatulence, and I was back in the groove, I settled in like a vet should and did the gig.

I think you all know why I NEVER said ANYTHING till now about it. No harm, no foul, no ticks, and no getting yelled at.

But, it's why I think I remember that weekend pretty clear. that never happened to me afterwards at WCU over 2 seasons there or at Westshore again. It was just freakin' wierd. My guess is this is not all together uncommon but somehthing one just does not readily admit. I'll blame the beer craze for it.

Anyhow, we win the show by roughly three points. We're all feeling pretty good about it and high-fiving and all ready to get a hold of at least one fresh cold one when Eric pretty much comes up to us with a huge frown, quite unamused, as was his wont when he didn't feel we were up to snuff.

"Well, you came in first place, but did you win the show!?"

"Yeah, we won, we won! Woohoo!"

"Yes you came in first place, but did you really win this show!? Did you all do the very best you could out there tonight!? Was this corps as good as it should have been on that field!?"

Dead silence, and a serious realization hit us for a long moment as Eric realized what he said was sinking in and gave us that rather knowing look he can give people. One of those little 'life lessons' just ran most of us kids over at 90 miles an hour and I think it has stayed with a lot of us 30 years later.

I know while we got our uniforms and gear stowed, I thought about it, but I realized it was also time to at least celebrate a first place, whether we did our best or not.

Yeah that parking garage did have pretty bright flourescent lights, and those guys from Erie were pretty wild. I'm still looking for Matzack or someone on DCP from Erie to give me a refresher course on the song "Two-Ton Tessie" which was a pretty daggone funny corps song that we sang in the garage. I think everyone who wanted a beer got one, a few might have gotten two, but the beerballs were pretty small for a thirsty DCA corps with over 100 people in it. But, they have not been forgotten!

What Eric told us, I think held us in good stead the rest of the season. I'd say we buckled down well in rehearsals and did well. We grew from the experience and those words. More later-- the next chapter in '82 as far as I'm concerned was the Grand Prix-- but I'll try and mention the other stuff in passing later on...