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


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Fossil? If you remember this one, you were still walking the mezozoic.

You 'played' at a formal "Full Military Retreat" prior to scores being announced............there were some 5 or 6 Bugle calls & responses......started off with "Call to the Colors"......memory fades after that.....typically they were required at contests held or sponsored by the larger VFW & AL Posts. Last one I recall playing in was in '65 or '66....added something like 20-30 minutes to the retreat, what with the flag presentation, lowering, folding, etc. Anyone recall the sequence of calls?

"Full Military Retreat":

You left off "Trooping the Line". The "host corps" was positioned to the extere left of the "Parade Blocks" at retreat. They marched and counter-marched the lenght of the field in fron of the competing units, saluting and accepting salutes from the drum majors and color guards.

Last one I saw was in 1964. Long, Long LONG time ago..... :doh:

Elphaba

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"Full Military Retreat":

You left off "Trooping the Line". The "host corps" was positioned to the extere left of the "Parade Blocks" at retreat. They marched and counter-marched the lenght of the field in fron of the competing units, saluting and accepting salutes from the drum majors and color guards.

Last one I saw was in 1964. Long, Long LONG time ago..... :tongue:

Elphaba

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I'll ask my dad about the order; he marched in the 50's with St. Vincent's Cadets and actually can recall quite a bit from those days, e.g. post-show "rumbles" with rival corps in the bus parking lots, etc. :doh:

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I'll ask my dad about the order; he marched in the 50's with St. Vincent's Cadets and actually can recall quite a bit from those days, e.g. post-show "rumbles" with rival corps in the bus parking lots, etc. :doh:

"St Vincents Cadets":

Your Pop marched with one of THE "Greats". They were the "Blue Devils" of the 1950's, setting many trends that lasted for quite some time. Mickey Petrone, (Who later went on to great things with St Lucys Cadets & DCA) was the corps director and drill instructor, while Jim Donnelly wrote and taught the music score. Vinnie Cerbone was their drum man.

With only three or four instructors (Who all had "Day Jobs" { Petrone taught school}) thy amassed quite a few National Championships in the old VFW and American Legion.

I know he's got some great tales. Ask him about the "Rumble" at 1961's VFW Natioanls....... :tongue:

Elphaba

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Fossil? If you remember this one, you were still walking the mezozoic.

You 'played' at a formal "Full Military Retreat" prior to scores being announced............there were some 5 or 6 Bugle calls & responses......started off with "Call to the Colors"......memory fades after that.....typically they were required at contests held or sponsored by the larger VFW & AL Posts. Last one I recall playing in was in '65 or '66....added something like 20-30 minutes to the retreat, what with the flag presentation, lowering, folding, etc. Anyone recall the sequence of calls?

I remember playing a 3 note thing, then Call to the Colors, then the host corps would troop the stands.

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You know you're a "Fossil"...When "Drum and Bugle Corps" had drums and bugles ONLY!

...If you've marched an "Off the line".

...You stood in formation for retreat.

...You remember shows like US Open, Drum Corps West, Oriental Odyssey.....

...All day prelims at Nationals.

...When making the top 25 was something to be proud of.

...You remember what a DCI "associate member" corps was.

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"St Vincents Cadets":

Your Pop marched with one of THE "Greats". They were the "Blue Devils" of the 1950's, setting many trends that lasted for quite some time. Mickey Petrone, (Who later went on to great things with St Lucys Cadets & DCA) was the corps director and drill instructor, while Jim Donnelly wrote and taught the music score. Vinnie Cerbone was their drum man.

With only three or four instructors (Who all had "Day Jobs" { Petrone taught school}) thy amassed quite a few National Championships in the old VFW and American Legion.

I know he's got some great tales. Ask him about the "Rumble" at 1961's VFW Natioanls....... :tongue:

Elphaba

WWW

Elphaba,

Sorry about the apostrophe; got a little excited in my typing... :doh:

My Dad (baritone) was already out in '61 but I do remember him talking about a "discussion" or two they had with the Cavies... :thumbup:

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Elphaba,

Sorry about the apostrophe; got a little excited in my typing... :doh:

My Dad (baritone) was already out in '61 but I do remember him talking about a "discussion" or two they had with the Cavies... :thumbup:

"Disscussions":

The "Discussion" I actually SAW, was between St Vincents Cadets and St Mary's Majestic Knights (Charlestown MA). It happned ON THE FIELD at the retreat of the VFW Nationals Finals, Miami FL, in 1961.

There had been bad blood between the two corps earlier in the seasopn (St Mary's was no "Pushover" either. They came from a really tough "Ville" in metro Boston). VFW had placed the two units side by side at retreat, and some words led to a BRAWL bewteen the two corps.

Tony Schlecta (This is really another "Tony" story) droned on and on with a zillion awards, oblivious to the huge fight going on right in front of him.

Fleetwood Records had recorded the announcement of scores at 1961's VFW (And would again in 1962 at Minneapolis) but the "Sounds of Battle" came through the open mics, and Fleetwood was unable to add the scores announcements to the albums.

A great era of drum corps!!!! :sad: Was glad to have seen and been part of it!!!!! :tongue:

Elphaba

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Elphaba,

Sorry about the apostrophe; got a little excited in my typing... :doh:

My Dad (baritone) was already out in '61 but I do remember him talking about a "discussion" or two they had with the Cavies... :tongue:

I marched '61 VFW Nationals in Miami and don't remember any "Discussions" there. The legendary "Rumble" in Miami occurred in '57, also Miami, when the Chicago Cavaliers won their first VFW National Championship, thus ending Vinnies' winning streak. It happened in the parking lot post-show, with Archer Epler siding with St. Vincents and Riley Raiders joining in with the Cavaliers.

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Inspection, THE Starting Line, "Ticks", Flag Presentation (with American Flag), Concert, THE Finish Line, Trooping the Fans & Winners after Grand Finale, "competing" in the Parking Lot after Shows, low or no "Dues", cross country bus trips with NO air conditioning or toilets, Parades before Shows, post 21 "ageouts, contests AFTER Nationals through Labor Day, 2 weeks off after last show - then starting work on next year's show, Corps Halls, "Neighborhood/Parish" Corps. and competing Senior Corps at the same shows as Juniors.

Any more you can think of?

I can only remember 4 of these, which I guess makes me a youngster....but then again, I did march in the 1980's. :beer:

The buses we had for our tours were brutal. Pride of Cincinnati could not afford charter buses. They owned a fleet of decrepid, broken-down school buses. That is how we did our tour - and no, they had no air conditioning or toilets. And most of our tour that year was in the Southeast, so the head and humidity were brutal. By the end of the tour, those buses eminated a smell of body odor and naugahyde that I don't think I will ever forget.

I don't recall us having any fights - errr, "competing in the parking lot", to use your euphamism. There were other corps competing for Top 25 spots that we weren't particularly friendly with.

I also remember very bad blood between a number of the Top 12 corps of that era. I don't recall fisticuffs ever breaking out, but there were things said at some retreats, that would have led to a beat-down, if they were said in a bar.

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You know you're a "Fossil" if you remember when...

Most corps were really street gangs that played music. If you didn't beat them on the field you beat them off the field. If they left quickly, you beat the judges.

When somewhere in the horn line was at least one horn from every known manufacturer because the corps could only afford a new horn when one fell apart and the corps still owed money on the last one so a new vendor had to be found.

Most kids could walk to practice from their parents' homes.

Practice was at least twice a week, fifty two weeks a year.

Many corps didn't have time to "tour" because they had three to five local circuit shows each week.

Many large metropolitan areas had three or more local circuits.

When you did travel to one of the really big shows with preliminaries you were always amazed at the large number of corps you never heard of and most of them beat you despite your corps being the local circuit champions for several years in a row.

Your warm up for the Saturday night show was the afternoon show that same day that was held less than ten miles away.

You knew many kids in several other corps because several of the kids you went to school with marched in other corps.

You knew without looking who was on the field at the first show of the year because most corps had a signature song (Yup! SONG!) they played year after year.

Some of your instructors didn't make your contests because they were marching in a DCA corps and/or judging in another circuit.

Not only was the weather literally freezing but your drill got completely confused because you were doing a half time show for the church school football team and you never marched on a field with football markings. "Where's the 50?"

All the corps hung around for the scores even if there was no retreat.

All the drums fit in a regular van. The horns went on the buses.

One set of flags on the field.

The honor guard included your championship flags and/or your streamers for each of your championships.

Custom, hand painted bass drum heads. These heads were never to be hit with a mallet as bass drummers only used one mallet.

Custom covers for the contra bass bells with your corps logo hand applied.

Just about ever corps could execute a moving company front and most did at least once per show.

You remember when horns manufactured with slip slides were considered cheating. ("Hey! We spent all winter polishing our tuning slides so they could move easily and those rich guys just went out and bought new Getzens. That's not fair!)

Every once in a while one of those slip slides would manage to go flying across the field when the horns were snapped up.

You knew the contest schedule because it didn't change very much from year to year and you've been with the same corps year after year.

You knew most of the judges because you saw the same ones week after week and half of them were your instructors (though not judging you that night) , relatives or relatives of your corps friends.

You knew everything there was to know about that night's stadium and it's environs because you marched there at least three times a year.

You knew everybody who sat high on the 40 yard line, at least by sight because the same people sat in the same place at each and every show for many years and they called themselves the 40 yard line group. They always cheered wildly for each and every corps and bought every Fleetwood and or Stetson Richmond record there ever was.

"On the bus!"

"Off the bus!"

"Push the bus!"

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