Fran Haring Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 Heck I just look at the old schedules I have, and remember how many shows we had during the year! Last weekend of May you had Danville's exhibition on Saturday, and the Clifton show on Sunday...how many times during the year did you have an over-nighter with a show Saturday night, and one Sunday afternoon? Or even some exhibition somewhere? I see the schedules NOW, and feel bad for the corps because they only get a third of the contests that we ever had! Almost doesn't seem worth it! I also remember how many local shows we had, too...Hershey, Mechanicsburg,Carlisle, Scranton, Lewisburg, Reading...my parents got to see me several times during the season, as well as prelims and finals... People had ways of making money for their corps, and they were pretty self sustaining...ok, maybe some had help from their local legion or something, but still..there was a lot of work for everyone! One thing that I noticed at about the time I was getting out of the whole teaching thing, was that the kids just weren't as into it as they were when we were young, and into it... the kids just had a "my parent's want me to do this" attitude, and as it got to the point where even getting a grade for band was getting eliminated, it got even worse in some places. My first two years with Sun... including prelims and finals, we had 19 shows in 1977 and 17 in '78. Several Saturday-Sunday combo weekends. With the exception of the Dream contest, I hated those Sunday afternoon shows. LOL. What turned out to be my last year ... 1982... I was going back and forth on whether that would be my last go-round. We had a weekend, late July-early August, with the Carlisle PA show on Saturday night... and somewhere in CT on Sunday afternoon... Derby, Ansonia, something like that. I was so drained after that Sunday show... I mean, I had absolutely nothing left in the tank... I made up my mind right there that '82 would be my last summer marching. Done. D-U-N, done. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 My 82 & 83 schedules each had about 25-30 performances...and NOT including the concerts at the beginning of the season! I agree...those Sunday shows were a HUGE pain...although if they weren't competitions, we could usually get away with having a few before hand, and most of the times, the shenanigans was pretty high effort! One show we were so drunk that we stopped at a spot in the show and one of the guys said "hey we're supposed to be up there!" and started walking up and motioning for the rest of us to follow! That's sort of why I was planning on taking a break in 1984, it was just getting to be too much after working all week, then having to devote the whole Friday-Saturday-Sunday thing...and occasional Wednesday sectionals... no time to do anything else... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 That '82 Connecticut show on Sunday... that was the day chief judge John Collum collapsed on the field while we were performing, and died later that day. He had been battling cancer, and I'm guessing the illness just took its toll on him. He went down right in front of us, on the side of the drill I was on... I will never forget that. John was a great guy... my brother was good friends with him, as were some others in the corps. That sight of him going down really shook us up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 That '82 Connecticut show on Sunday... that was the day chief judge John Collum collapsed on the field while we were performing, and died later that day. He had been battling cancer, and I'm guessing the illness just took its toll on him. He went down right in front of us, on the side of the drill I was on... I will never forget that. John was a great guy... my brother was good friends with him, as were some others in the corps. That sight of him going down really shook us up. Not sure I remember that one off the bat... just looked at my 82 schedule, and we had no Connecticut shows... I do remember his name, though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 Heck I just look at the old schedules I have, and remember how many shows we had during the year! Last weekend of May you had Danville's exhibition on Saturday, and the Clifton show on Sunday...how many times during the year did you have an over-nighter with a show Saturday night, and one Sunday afternoon? Or even some exhibition somewhere? I see the schedules NOW, and feel bad for the corps because they only get a third of the contests that we ever had! Almost doesn't seem worth it! I also remember how many local shows we had, too...Hershey, Mechanicsburg,Carlisle, Scranton, Lewisburg, Reading...my parents got to see me several times during the season, as well as prelims and finals... People had ways of making money for their corps, and they were pretty self sustaining...ok, maybe some had help from their local legion or something, but still..there was a lot of work for everyone! One thing that I noticed at about the time I was getting out of the whole teaching thing, was that the kids just weren't as into it as they were when we were young, and into it... the kids just had a "my parent's want me to do this" attitude, and as it got to the point where even getting a grade for band was getting eliminated, it got even worse in some places. When Larry decided after 83 he was done the corps was 8 grand in the red. That was a lot then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 Do they have them on a display? Or are they just in some back room? Warehouse until the need to display happens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 One of the big sells DCA has for a lot of HS kids is just that, Ben. "Would you like to march somewhere where everyone wants to be there and Mommy and Daddy aren't making half the band do it and another large group of them don't care?" I see the lights go on when I tell them that. Less show sponsors, more complicated shows, and Indoor causing the Guards and Percussion sections to get a later start has also had its effect on the amount of contests, Ben. Now, you have to treat every contest as a serious one. No blown-off performances. We could afford to crap the bed at an early show or two when we had 10-13 competitions to compete at. Not anymore. Not to mention DCAs way of packaging a show. With DCI you pay one of three options which covers the corps, judges etc. DCA you pay the circuit, the judges then negotiate corps by corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 Not sure I remember that one off the bat... just looked at my 82 schedule, and we had no Connecticut shows... I do remember his name, though... He was big with nja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 He was big with nja I worked with his girlfriend Jackie, helping teach a local NJ parade corps for a year or so in the mid-1970s. Nice lady... she and John were good people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 (edited) I agree...those Sunday shows were a HUGE pain...although if they weren't competitions, we could usually get away with having a few before hand, and most of the times, the shenanigans was pretty high effort! Heh... 1981 and '82, we had an exhibition around July 4th weekend. We were hired by publisher/Mets owner Nelson Doubleday to play at a country club on Long Island.... he either owned the club or was a member, and it was basically a cookout/party for his friends. We did our full drill down on a field, while all the rich muckity-mucks were up on the hill watching us. Most, if not all of them, were drunk. So basically, they had no idea what was going on below. And we took full advantage of that, screwing around when we could get away with it during the performance. I seem to remember at least a couple of our horn players switching drill spots, stuff like that. LOL. Whatever ... it was a nice paycheck for the corps!!! Edited May 17, 2016 by Fran Haring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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