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You know you're a "Fossil"...


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Not to be a smartmouth , but really? :blink: Heading to the corner the first half of the show, and then marching down the 50 for "Color-Pre" and then back to the corner of the field for the rest of the show wasn't what most of the Guard tried out for BITD... Not that it wouldn't be an "Honor" to carry the A-flag, don't get me wrong, I just believe that doing a *little bit* more on the field was what most people tried out for. Hate to say it, but making the A-Squad usually happened to those who couldn't quite make it in the general flag or rifle line... We loved them anyway though :cool:

I whole heartedly agree!

From the fall of 1968 to the fall of 1971, I was on flag, winter and summer guard. I guess that makes me a fossil :smile: In the summer of 69, I marched beside the mellos and in the summer of 70, I rubbed elbows with the lead sop soloists as in the photo below. I loved going to practise and listening to them play while they were a foot away.

scarboroughfirefighters3.jpg

In the winter of 70-71, I was winter guard captain and by summer of 71, guard sergeant and guarded the national colors. You're right Maggie. During the field show, we spent most of the time in the corner and followed the rules regardless of talent. It felt awkward hearing my corps and not being able to see them or the crowd from the sideline similar to Del in 69.

69-del-from-site.jpg

In the spring of 71, I taught our feeder corps guard, the first of many guards over the years. When I taught a parade corps, the guard was proud of their position and it was easy to pick the national party. When I taught a field corps, I had a hard time picking the national party, the A-Squad. I'd let my collegue or corps director decide. I wish I could have taken my kids and turned them around to see the show like these 3 from the Cardinals. They would have learned alot about field shows. imo :-)

69-cardinals-from-site-a.jpg

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I remember going to the first show of the season and doing drill up to the exit......and standing still for the rest of the time on the field.How about sleeping in the over head luggage compartments in the bus? Kool Aid in a huge container in the front of the bus.Chaperones walking the aisles on late night trips.Hanging uniform bags around the seats so you could 'neck".Eating ..or trying to eat the 'hard as a rock " pretzels in NY at the Columbus Day or St.Pattys Day parades.Pushing the bus to get it started !!!!!!!!!!!

...yes, so much fun that summer but the following summer it was girls and boys buses again; lol :bigsmile: I slept on the bus floor, gym floor, picnic tables and on a beach and drank Tang :smile:

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You know you are a fossil when you remember....

Marching with piston rotary horns, brand-new ones!

Making the American Flag squad was a huge accomplishment for a color guard member!

Every corps marched a cymbal line,tympanies and one or two keyboards!

There was no marching during the "Concert" number!

The color guard marched with 20 different competition banners, and used them in the show!

Being out of step was an embarassment!

You were taught marching by the designer, who was also the director and extra bus driver!

You could actually hum all of the songs from each corps!

There were three levels of music; loud, #### loud, and Madison loud!

There was no such thing as a food truck, those were the buses which dropped you off for 30 minutes at a mall!

You competed against Michael Boo! :thumbup:

All right then, let's look at these from a fossil POV, shall we?

You know you are a fossil when you remember....

Marching with piston rotary horns, brand-new ones!

Can you say: emery cloth and slide oil?

Making the American Flag squad was a huge accomplishment for a color guard member!

Most started in the American Flag Section. The accomplishment was Color Guard Captain (with Sabre!)

Every corps marched a cymbal line,tympanies (you mean Tympani, don't you?) and one or two keyboards!

Keyboards?! What you talking 'bout Willis? Fossil DC had snares, tenors, cymbals, and two different size Bass Drums.

There was no marching during the "Concert" number!

That is why they called it "Concert" - there was usually a short stand still during the finale of the Color Presentation.

The color guard marched with 20 different competition banners, and used them in the show!

Fossil Guards Marched with the Banners that brung 'em. And dare I say the flag poles were called "PIkes"?

Being out of step was an embarassment!

As a fossil it is an embarrassment to misspell embarrassment.

You were taught marching by the designer, who was also the director and extra bus driver!

Designer? Hey, how old are you, really? We had horn instructors, Drum instructors ... Drill instructors

You could actually hum all of the songs from each corps!

Or you could play them on your cassette player.

There were three levels of music; loud, #### loud, and Madison loud!

You mean: East Coast New Jersey loud, East Coast New York loud and East Coast Massachusetts loud. All equally louder than the other given the venue of the show ... you were talking about the fans on both sides of the field, right?

Otherwise in the late sixties and early seventies Madison was not the loud you're thinking of and these guys from 1970

MadisonScouts1970.png

were not loud.

There was no such thing as a food truck, those were the buses which dropped you off for 30 minutes at a mall!

Mall?! There were no Malls ... no. Really there were no malls - anywhere!

If you aren't old enough to remember when there weren't any malls, no fossil be you though the attempt at fossil-like memories are admirable. Another 10 years and you will be right there. Oh and can I get a ruling on the carbon dating here? 'Cause I only go back to the early sixties so that's only a little less than 50 years. I know there are those who predate me. And just so you know this: I'm not knocking your memories, only having a little fun pointing out the juxtaposition of yours versus mine. And I'm just glad I can remember anything at all. :cool:

Puppet

Edited by Puppet
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All right then, let's look at these from a fossil POV, shall we?

You know you are a fossil when you remember....

Marching with piston rotary horns, brand-new ones!

Can you say: emery cloth and slide oil?

Making the American Flag squad was a huge accomplishment for a color guard member!

Most started in the American Flag Section. The accomplishment was Color Guard Captain (with Sabre!)

Every corps marched a cymbal line,tympanies (you mean Tympani, don't you?) and one or two keyboards!

Keyboards?! What you talking 'bout Willis? Fossil DC had snares, tenors, cymbals, and two different size Bass Drums.

There was no marching during the "Concert" number!

That is why they called it "Concert" - there was usually a short stand still during the finale of the Color Presentation.

The color guard marched with 20 different competition banners, and used them in the show!

Fossil Guards Marched with the Banners that brung 'em. And dare I say the flag poles were called "PIkes"?

Being out of step was an embarassment!

As a fossil it is an embarrassment to misspell embarrassment.

You were taught marching by the designer, who was also the director and extra bus driver!

Designer? Hey, how old are you, really? We had horn instructors, Drum instructors ... Drill instructors

You could actually hum all of the songs from each corps!

Or you could play them on your cassette player.

There were three levels of music; loud, #### loud, and Madison loud!

You mean: East Coast New Jersey loud, East Coast New York loud and East Coast Massachusetts loud. All equally louder than the other given the venue of the show ... you were talking about the fans on both sides of the field, right?

Otherwise in the late sixties and early seventies Madison was not the loud you're thinking of and these guys from 1970

MadisonScouts1970.png

were not loud.

There was no such thing as a food truck, those were the buses which dropped you off for 30 minutes at a mall!

Mall?! There were no Malls ... no. Really there were no malls - anywhere!

If you aren't old enough to remember when there weren't any malls, no fossil be you though the attempt at fossil-like memories are admirable. Another 10 years and you will be right there. Oh and can I get a ruling on the carbon dating here? 'Cause I only go back to the early sixties so that's only a little less than 50 years. I know there are those who predate me. And just so you know this: I'm not knocking your memories, only having a little fun pointing out the juxtaposition of yours versus mine. And I'm just glad I can remember anything at all. :cool:

Puppet

I would say something nasty, but, I was taught to respect my elders. I can't believe that you ever learned how to get on the internet, you must have learned how to type on a stone-corona! Sorry about the mispelling, my arthritis must have caught up with me, but, you know all about that. I still remember hearing about guys like you, marching with sticks and driving around in vehicles with those new-fangled "wheels". :tongue::blink:

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I would say something nasty, but, I was taught to respect my elders. I can't believe that you ever learned how to get on the internet, you must have learned how to type on a stone-corona! Sorry about the mispelling, my arthritis must have caught up with me, but, you know all about that. I still remember hearing about guys like you, marching with sticks and driving around in vehicles with those new-fangled "wheels". :tongue::blink:

As I said just having a little fun. Get another thousand or so posts under your belt and a sense of humor and you can have some fun on these threads, too. Oh, BTW you misspelled, misspelling. :lookaround:

Puppet

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As I said just having a little fun. Get another thousand or so posts under your belt and a sense of humor and you can have some fun on these threads, too. Oh, BTW you misspelled, misspelling. :lookaround:

Puppet

I was hoping you would notise, notize, notice, yeah! :rolleyes:

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I am not a fossil yet but our first bugles in our Class C corps were new G bugles no valves

our next set wer "well used" single horizontal valve bugles with slides we pulled out by hand

Class B and A single horizontal valve bugles with the ring slides

a few years later,1972 at USN Great Lakes, went to try out for boot camp drum and bugles corps

the instructor hands me a frig#@##ing trumpet I look at him thinking WTF and say I am used to the drum corps bugle

he says just hold the 3rd valve down, everything else is the same.

Ps If I told that story before I am a fossil.

Anyway made the drum corps go to first rehearsal and get the single horizontal valve bugle with ring slide

and get to go to parades and drink while in boot camp

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...The accomplishment was Color Guard Captain (with Sabre!)

Now THAT I could agree with considering I was honored to be made Guard Captain in '75 right along with Judy Edwards. We were the first "Co-Captains" in SCV History.

Edited by MsBusDriver
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Our corps was founded in 1971, but 'leaned old school'. We hated the idea of keyboards when we learned about that in 1974. Until we added them in 76 and our awesome xylophone player (Doug Greenhalgh - RIP) won DCI individuals!!

As for marching in the honor guard - I had a friend who wanted to march in the corps so bad, but was SO uncoordinated, she could not even make the honor guard squad. I felt bad for her, but to the corps' credit, they let her travel with us to help out during the summer. She would have thought that carrying the American flag would have been a GREAT honor!

Food truck??? Our ONLY corps truck could not carry 1/4 of today's pit! We thought we made the big-time in 1978 when we bought a 4th bus that carried people (members and staff) plus the drums underneath because we outgrew the box truck!

Favorite story: During 1978, my last year marching in Wausau Story, I also drove bus (multi-tasking). We were moving the (empty) buses from one parking location to another in the Wausau WI area and pulled into a McDonald's to grab some food. The four drivers walked in to see the staff & grills going nuts thinking there was going to be big rush of people...nope - just us.

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Our corps was founded in 1971, but 'leaned old school'. We hated the idea of keyboards when we learned about that in 1974. Until we added them in 76 and our awesome xylophone player (Doug Greenhalgh - RIP) won DCI individuals!!

As for marching in the honor guard - I had a friend who wanted to march in the corps so bad, but was SO uncoordinated, she could not even make the honor guard squad. I felt bad for her, but to the corps' credit, they let her travel with us to help out during the summer. She would have thought that carrying the American flag would have been a GREAT honor!

Food truck??? Our ONLY corps truck could not carry 1/4 of today's pit! We thought we made the big-time in 1978 when we bought a 4th bus that carried people (members and staff) plus the drums underneath because we outgrew the box truck!

Favorite story: During 1978, my last year marching in Wausau Story, I also drove bus (multi-tasking). We were moving the (empty) buses from one parking location to another in the Wausau WI area and pulled into a McDonald's to grab some food. The four drivers walked in to see the staff & grills going nuts thinking there was going to be big rush of people...nope - just us.

I still remember pulling up to a 10 table greasy spoon in the middle of nowhere with 3 buses, and an equipment truck and watch the single waitress have a near stroke! I ended up helping the waitress serve the food (my off-season job was as a waiter). She gave me free food for the help! :thumbup:

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