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The history of the Westshoremen


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And...since we're talking about it, here's what I was planning on posting when 1984 came around...some of it explains why I don't do alumni :shutup: I just typed some of this stuff earlier, but here it is....

Caveat Emptor: In all cases I eliminated names of offending people, and I’m sure that some of you MAY figure out or even know exactly who I am speaking of, please refrain from naming them publicly, I’m not writing this to drag them through the mud, as it were, I’m just stating the facts as they happened. Some people have made amends with me, some haven’t, some, I just haven’t spoken to in the time period of “then and now”. But this is part of the story.

After the end of the 1983 season…I was at Bowsers house hanging out, and the perennial subject of “you gonna do it again next year” came up….usually I said “yeah, wouldn’t miss it for the world” but this year was different…after the run in 1982, and the letdown of the previous season, I did some soul searching, and decided that I was done for a while! I had a few “bands” I was working with, one was just all out jamming, another did Rush, Yes, UK, and (oddly) Grateful Dead! (Terrapin Station is AWESOME to play, and more PROG ROCK than JAM BAND) and I was sitting in with a friends band when his drummer couldn’t make it playing oldies and country stuff…just enough to keep me happy, playing, and put a little cash in my pockets to keep me in heads and sticks. So I was done! I figured I could take a few years off and always go back.

One afternoon, as I was finishing up a jam session, enjoying a beer and a smoke with the bass player, my father came down and said I had a call, it was someone telling me about a drum corps meeting the next day, I said to him “Eh, I’m not going back for next season, I’m taking a break… so I picked up the phone and said hi and was told; Larry sold the equipment and Westshore is technically for all intents and purposes ENDED/FOLDED/ DONE!!!! I WASN'T going to go but my father figured I better go, show support, and if anything make it look good for anyone that was potentially thinking of joining to let them know that “yeah there was a corps”…which was what whoever called me pretty much asked. But I WASN’T GOING TO COMMIT TO MARCHING!

So I went, showed support, and even agreed to show up at the first practice. Brian asked if I’d be a “drum captain” and I said “sure at least for the duration”. I made no bones about it, and I told him; I was not interested in marching at this time, but I really didn’t want to see the corps fold, so I’m here until at least I know that the corps will continue. So I went, I played, I learned music, I mentored newbies, I talked it up, and I made it all sound good…while this was all going on, I was getting back into the routine, and eventually looking forward to practices as I had for the previous five seasons (well six including Hershey) So we did the concert season, I had a blast playing drum set to Explosions, and was looking forward to fielding a corps…yeah we were small, but mighty! Not knowing the issues that were happening in the hornline, with what apparently was a power struggle with a few select, the drumline was thriving, and having a fun time. After one of the parades, we had a jam session with Reading’s line, and I got to know a few people in their tomline (and drumline) . In fact one of them made mention that they were at least one short, but had room for two. But I blew it off, and just enjoyed the fun we had. After that parade and the next few practices, people were dropping out like flies, a few headed to other corps, a few just gave up, and a few were never heard from again, at least from my perspective.

The “fatal” day at City Island when Dan Bowman announced that Westshore would not field a corps, they would try to continue on in SOME capacity, to be revealed at a later date, and that we should go help out the other corps that are still in need of bodies, and he read off a listing of who he’d been in contact with, and their immediate needs. That day also happened to be the day of the Danville show. My plan was to go home, get a cooler and some beer, and head up to just enjoy the show… God KNOWS how long it’s been since I had the opportunity to do that! Thoughts of marching somewhere else crossed my mind, and I figured what the heck, I’d talk to Skee and see what my options were at Reading. Being reluctant to march at all that year, and going through the whole winter/spring season, I wasn’t ready to just go back home, and forget about it, and I remembered the invite to Reading’s tomline. When I mentioned this, Bowser was “no freaking way man, I’m not joining Reading!” Ok, let’s back up….Craig was ALWAYS complimentary of Reading, he was in AWE of (the late great) George Parks, he LOVED their shows, and was always hoping that we’d be on in such a place that he would be able to WATCH Readings show, he knew a few people in their horn lines (Smoothie being one from 1980) and asked for fingerings on certain tunes, so he could play along….closet fan? You be the judge…so I’m wondering WTF is up with him? I asked, “Ok, after all these years, you watched, studied and drooled over Reading, why now that we have a potential opportunity to join for the heck of it, and you are hedging?” He said that when Joe Santoro, who was one of our DM’s at that point left, (For Reading) they offered Craig his DM spot! I said, OK, you go ahead and DM for something that doesn’t exist at the moment and have fun marching in the parades, if they even get to DO that, from what I saw at this practice, 75% of the people that showed up (and there weren’t many) already said they were going to try to march somewhere else, unfortunately, at least for THIS year: WESTSHORE IS DONE! I’m going to finish the season out at Reading.” He thought about it, and on the way back to my house he said, “yeah, you’re right, I think they killed it today, ok, I’ll come along”

When I got there, I found out that Steve Rook, and Morgan Case had already joined and were marching that night (I think Rook may have sat out, but I’m pretty sure Morgan marched) I talked to Skee, and he re-introduced me to Robbie. Robbie said come to Buc field tomorrow, and we’ll talk, I have a tom spot and a few “pit” spots open. (whatever pit was??) During this time, I think Rook talked Rickie Lee into joining (If I’m wrong Rick, feel free to add…This was a heck of a long time ago, and some details were fuzzy) But the thing I saw when I got there was that there were a few people from Westshore already plugged into the show, a few horns, the two drummers I mentioned, and a bunch of guard people (which are pretty much transients from my experience, which is good, because they seem to be cohesive wherever they go!) So there were a FEW friendlies! Not to mention people I knew from past years, people I met at the “jam” session, and people Skee introduced me to during one of their breaks (as the 5th tom player, with a big grin on his face) A decent amount of people actually ended up at the rehearsal besides Craig, Rick and me, One other drummer who’s name I won’t mention, Steve Rosito (Bari) and two guard girls (Dawn Lynn and Kelli McAllister) Craig and Steve came back to my car carrying horns and music, Dawn and Kelli as well as the rest of us were told to just show up tomorrow.

So we show up the next day, and Robbie gets the line warming up, and calls me over. He said I have a tom spot if I want it, we'd need to order another set of toms, BUT my really immediate need is for “kit”. We are putting a sideline together, they’re new and up and coming, so we really don’t have any direction for it, but it could be yours, and I have a timpani spot open (he asked me a few questions about Rick who he said he was going to talk to next) . Now if you really WANT the tom spot, we can get you set up with music, learning drill and all that, and I have to get Ron (Gheris, the corps director at the time) to order the drums, but I can get you in the show as soon as next week if you want the pit spot! And he told me what it entailed, so I said I’d go for it, sounds like a lot of fun! (and I didn’t have to learn drill and carry a drum!) So they started setting me up, and it went from there. He also told me to get a warm up packet and learn the warm ups, because I would be playing toms next year if I decide to march again, in fact, he kept me so INTO the tom world, that I used to tune them before shows! Funny stuff!

The un-named drummer wasn’t offered the tom spot from what I’ve heard, and I’m not sure what was said, but he didn’t stay much longer after that.

Ok, enough about that part of the background story….the “six week” corps was getting ready to do its thing. I get a call from we’ll just say “someone” telling me what was going down, and I basically said “Hey, I’m kind of plugged in to this Reading thing, I’m not leaving, sorry, I can’t DO that to these people this close to finals” I was questioned about my “loyalty” was told that other people left THEIR corps to come back, and was basically hung up on. (Years later I found out that Jim Neidinger was the person that marched elsewhere, and came back….he said that he enjoyed some of his time with Sky, but wasn’t totally into it…)

I stayed around to watch them at the Reading show the night before finals, and can admit that it was very weird seeing those uniforms and me not in one. (especially since the last time I watched them was when they had the old Blue Devil uni’s) I was amazed at what they accomplished in such a short time, and wondered why they didn’t think of it two months earlier, but was happy that things were apparently going their way, and that the corps DIDN’T die! I mean give me a break, I spent the past 5 years pouring my heart and soul into that program, just because I was marching with a “rival” didn’t mean I didn’t care about them anymore! (as some people alluded to at one point)

Something that really upset me though, was the people that were in the back stands at finals heckling us as we went on the field…some familiar voices, and words like “traitor” were uttered. People I thought were my friends, but apparently didn’t think that. That put in my mind the idea that I would never march there again, especially as long as some of those people were involved. My involvement with Reading THAT year was to finish MY season, that was started when I was trying to help, stuck it out, then was told that there wasn’t going to be anything left, go help these people fill in some blanks! The fact that some people expected me to say “Ok, sorry, my corps is now going to start back up, sorry I wasted your time for the last x-weeks …see ya!” Nope, not the way I worked. Up until that point, there WAS the option to go back, if I felt that I wanted to go back, but after that incident, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I hadn’t decided if I was going to march anywhere in 1985, I really didn’t want to march anywhere in 1984, but circumstances prevailed, and I did…. One thing I DID know at that point… I knew I wasn’t going back to Westshore. (heck, I even thought of joining Sun for a brief moment, since I always was a fan, and had an aunt and uncle that lived on Long Island during that time period!)(Not sure if I ever mentioned that in public before) But that moment in time was fun, and the 1984 season was a whirlwind more than anything else, but if anything, it got me to march with someone that was very instrumental in my development as a marching percussionist, Skee! He was my high school drum instructor, and I’ve known him since the first practice in the spring of 1977 when I was still in 8th grade, but was told by my band director that drum line practice for next year started NOW! So this was a cool thing, kind of coming full circle! (I always thought it was cool that he made a point of watching Westshore whenever we performed and it was cool to see his big grin (hard to miss with that mustache he had back in those days) and him clapping for me during the show! He really was the one that got me hooked on this activity. At one of the first practices when I was in band I saw his old VW bus pull up, and saw that he had a “Reading Buccaneers Drum & Bugle Corps” license in his back window..I remember asking him about it, and that event was my first notion of the activity…the next was driving by a house on a road near where I lived, and seeing a big truck that had “Hershey Chocolatiers Drum and Bugle Corps” painted on the side, then the first day of school, and seeing this weird red headed kid wearing a Hershey Chocolatiers jacket, and asking HIM about it….But Skee was the original person to let me in on the “secret”..so this was something that made ME feel good in as far as what he had done for me over the years.

After having so much fun in 1984 I decided to go back in 1985 and play toms. I ran into Robbie at a band show and he said “toms?” and I said “ok”! (and the year layoff made it tough, but I made it!) After the 85 season, I really decided to hang it up. I did everything I set out to accomplish in Drum Corps at that point (well except WIN a DCA championship..ok, I TIED for prelims in 84 and marched in the top drumline) One of the proudest moments was in 84 when we won drums, the Sunrisers drum captains came over and gave us a couple cases of beer as a congratulations gift! I always thought that was one of the classiest things I’ve ever experienced in drum corps! I still have that bottle of Becks on my shelf as a memento of that! (so THANKS! To any of you former Sunrisers that lurk here!) I never got to march there, but Sun was always one of my favorites!

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Popped in quick for another thing but saw the 6 week corps posts. Someday I should get my 1984 experiences down. Form Frank F. ordering me to re-up for parades... to "we're doing Prelims" during a picnic in between parades.... to doing Honor Guard with Pete and Al (not a nice experience but maybe I can say the details now).... etc, etc, etc.....

Including the (names still removed) near fight on the Island that started with:

"Those ###### left the corps and joined Reading"

"How the #### could they leave when there wasn't a corps to leave?"

Rest of season walking egg shells on that and none of those people felt comfortible enough to come back in 85. Don't blame 'em and it bit WSM in the butt BIG time for a few years.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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Popped in quick for another thing but saw the 6 week corps posts. Someday I should get my 1984 experiences down. Form Frank F. ordering me to re-up for parades... to "we're doing Prelims" during a picnic in between parades.... to doing Honor Guard with Pete and Al (not a nice experience but maybe I can say the details now).... etc, etc, etc.....

Including the (names still removed) near fight on the Island that started with:

"Those ###### left the corps and joined Reading"

"How the #### could they leave when there wasn't a corps to leave?"

Rest of season walking egg shells on that and none of those people felt comfortible enough to come back in 85. Don't blame 'em and it bit WSM in the butt BIG time for a few years.

Yeah...got a lot of that flack...and a few crank phone calls, as well....

The topper for me was when I heard some of the comments from the "floating W" at finals...that was pretty much when I said...I definitely won't be back!

Bowser went back in 86, a few people tried to get me to come back...in fact I even wandered into a practice, but there were still a few people that weren't happy about me being there, so I just stayed away...not that I was planning on marching that year ANYway...

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In many ways, 1984 was an extremely happy and enjoyable season for me, even though it was only 6 weeks. I went to one winter practice, but I was busy at WCU and really didn't feel like I could commit.

Was thinking about this as I was riding in my car this morning and my 88 Bucs came on... I sort of did the same thing in 88... Someone talked me into going to the Hershey Show that year, and we saw the pathetic state that Reading was in. After the show I ran into their pit instructor (Kevin Reimert) who I marched with in Hershey 10 years earlier. He was like "come hang, we'll play pit stuff, and drink lots of beer" so I was like "WTF!" I was done with my vacation for that year, and had nothing planned (and I just left the band I was playing with) so I went, and he started giving me pit parts...it was also the first time I ever played mallet percussion in corps (had a few tiny parts in concert band in high school, but nothing like this) it seemed each week he'd hand me a piece of music and said "here, learn this one" :tongue: By the end of that season, I was playing probably 75% mallets! :blink: But in retrospect, it was a GREAT time, no pressure! And it gave me my official last hurrah! :thumbup:

Some days I wish the Chocolatiers would reform the parade corps so during the fall we can do all of those crazy Halloween, and Homecoming parades!

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Another thing I was just thinking about...I had to run somewhere else this a.m., and had my drum corps CD in...Hershey's 78 Forum performance came on (and how I got that I'll NEVER know) and I was listening to it thinking about what I wrote in the other thread (about "missing corps") about how there used to be small corps that sort of worked as "training" grounds..which is what I used Hershey for since I went into the activity VERY cold, and had no clue about it before I walked into that first rehearsal. (and I just mentioned it in my other post here about needing something low pressure)

What I remember experiencing was that there were primarily TWO types of people marching there...those that were in corps for years, and wanted something to stay WITH The activity, but not take on the stress of being competitive, and those like me who were new to the activity, and it was a learning experience. After that 1978 year where I learned what it was all about, I made the transition to the competitive part of it (along with a LOT of people)

What was funny was that 1978, they made a sort of transition to having a field show (from what I heard, they just did concert style exhibitions at shows the year before) and during that year, people were thinking that they should take it up a notch and compete...which caused a lot of un-rest in the majority of the membership because a lot of these people just wanted to play and party :thumbup: ...interestingly enough, when I DID come to Westshore in 1979, about 10 people I marched with in Hershey made the move as well (and a few that were from the Lebanon area made the move to Reading) (oh, and one to the Crossmen) and of that bunch a few were the staunch "retirees"! (Larry Peck & Dick Adams were two I remember) 79 was a pretty wild year, it was a corps that was on the cusp of greatness!

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Some more thoughts on 82 & 83 after I was able to listen to them in my morning travels today...

I had 82 cranked, and hadn't really given it a critical listen in a while (usually it's on and I'm paying more attention to the road)

For 1982, the drumline must have wasted a LOT of score on execution! WOW...exposure was all over, but during those exposed parts we were just plain dirty! No two ways about it. Different snare passages were just boggy, tom parts weren't clean at all (In fact the tom feature during the drum solo was just plain awful!) Not good, wish I had those sheets somewhere to see where we ended up..but I'd be willing to bet that drums were the weakest link!

Now for 83...it MIGHT be the quality of recordings I have, maybe not...but it seemed like the 83 corps had a more solid sound to it...almost like the corps grew a "set" over the winter, and turned into a top echelon corps..it HAD the kind of sound that could easily compete in the top 3-5 with little to no difficulty, yet score-wise we were down a few points at prelims and finals . I was wondering if it was the fact that we got new horns for 83, that made things sound a little sweeter, I don't know...but comparatively, they were TWO different corps and 1983 should have been "the year" as opposed to 1982?!?! Drum wise we sounded much cleaner.

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Finished listening to 83 when I went to pick up the Mrs. from work...Love for Sale rocked, tom-wise! :blink: That's was a crazy tune! :tongue:

(and remembering back...we learned it like 5 times, line by line, re-did it, and refined it since the original was pretty much crud! :thumbdown: )

Then the second coming of All the Things You Are... (Aka...cry me a f*****g river :doh: )

Am I the only one that didn't like playing something a second or even THIRD time???

Like the constant of Impossible Dream, that was our "New York New York" or "Espana Cani" or "Magnificent Seven"?

Curious?!?!

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Finished listening to 83 when I went to pick up the Mrs. from work...Love for Sale rocked, tom-wise! :blink: That's was a crazy tune! :tongue:

Man... I would really like to see the alumni corps do that tune. To me, it's a Westshoremen classic!!!

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One of the proudest moments was in 84 when we won drums, the Sunrisers drum captains came over and gave us a couple cases of beer as a congratulations gift! I always thought that was one of the classiest things I've ever experienced in drum corps! I still have that bottle of Becks on my shelf as a memento of that! (so THANKS! To any of you former Sunrisers that lurk here!) I never got to march there, but Sun was always one of my favorites!

Thank you for your kind words Ben... worthy.gif

I have ALWAYS been proud to have been a member of the Sunrisers. It has been my honor to have marched with some of the people in the activity that have always shown what class is... (BOTH formidable opponents AND some of the very best friends in the activity...)

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Man... I would really like to see the alumni corps do that tune. To me, it's a Westshoremen classic!!!

Let's see...an "unlike" for that post....Jeff? :tongue:

(Personally I'd like to see Icarus, but that's just me) :devil:

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