DeanInChicago Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Yesterday, (Sunday, April 3, 4:40 PM) at the Indianapolis White Castle at 38th and Keystone, two diners noticed my T-shirt and asked "Is that a drum corps T-shirt?" "Um, yes it is," I stammered. I was wearing one of those orange '48' Cavalier T-shirts. "We're with the Blue Stars," one of them said. The two guys had just finished weekend camp at the nearby fairgrounds, and were dining before heading back to Cincinnati. Both are looking forward to aging out this summer. One has been with the Blue Stars for several years, and is a lead trumpet. He persuaded his friend to join the tour. We traded a few short stories -- like when the Blue Stars souvie truck once used dozens of United States Post Office mail buckets on their truck to store shirts in. (The corps has since upgraded to legal storage tubs.) We talked about their 2008 La Tour bike show, the 2009 Working show, the 2010 Houdini show. They are both looking forward to a great season. I wished them well. I headed outside, and grabbed the 4:56 southbound Indygo bus. OK, so it was just an ordinary run-in, but I get a huge thrill when running into drum corps people out of context. Imagine, musicians eating a meal! Almost Twitter-worthy. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumManTx Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I love those! I was going to the high school's front office wearing my BAC shirt, and the lady behind the counter asked, are you a Boston Fan? Turns out she was a uber sky ryders fan back in the day. :) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Bennett3rd Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 My wife and I went to England about 5 years ago. While walking along the Thames river, a man approaches me." Is that a CROSSMEN sweatshirt? I marched Crossmen in 1988!!!!" We talked about all the people we KNEW, the horror stories...My wife is standing there in SHOCK. "You know people EVERYWHERE"... all I could tell her was "the drum corps community is very small...we ALL know everybody else. its like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, but usually a drum corps person can connect with another in 2-3 people." 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captncontra Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 My wife and I went to England about 5 years ago. While walking along the Thames river, a man approaches me." Is that a CROSSMEN sweatshirt? I marched Crossmen in 1988!!!!" We talked about all the people we KNEW, the horror stories...My wife is standing there in SHOCK. "You know people EVERYWHERE"... all I could tell her was "the drum corps community is very small...we ALL know everybody else. its like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, but usually a drum corps person can connect with another in 2-3 people." That's funny. My wife has taken to wearing all my Phantom sweatshirts when she goes on digs (archaeologist). She was returning home from Aman, Jordan and had an 8-hour layover in London. She ran out for a bite to eat and sight-see and someone yelled out "I AM SPARTACUS!" in the underground. Made her day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebenzing Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 On my way to a pioneer camp in 2007 I stopped in Dodgeville, WI to eat at McDonalds. About midway through my meal the guys sitting behind me asked if I was in pioneer, and I said yes. They noticed I was wearing my 2006 emeraldscapes shirt. I asked them if they were dci fans and they said that they were members of the madison scouts and they were on their way to a scouts camp. Then we exchanged dci stories. The weirdest part was they went to college close to where im from. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) LOL told this one a few years back, time for a repost: I work for the Navy and group of us were at Iceland setting up a computer system aroud 2005. Waiting for a meeting and one guy in our group is doing rudaments with his hands on the back of a chair. Met this guy about a year before and really only knew his name. Someone asks about his drumming and he sez he was with a drum corps. I ask the name and he sez "Westshoremen Bonnie Scots" (my corps old name) and I almost fall out of the chair. I ask what years and reponse was 60s-72 and I respond with "Oh you left when the corps disbanded for a year" and HE almost fell out of the chair. Just missed marching together by a year.... Funny thing is there are about 400 people in my building (converted warehouse). At one time we had 4 ex-corps members and father of another ex-member. And I work for a techie agency. And all ex-members of my old corps. Edited April 5, 2011 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerriTroop Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 This happens a lot here in Texas, though most of the time it's people who went to a show and got a shirt. But at a 5K run in 2009 I saw someone with a Phantom shirt. Turned out he marched in 2008. I decided not to exclaim "I am Spartacus!" just to avoid the "WTF?" factor from those around us standing in the queue waiting to head out for the run. But we had a nice chat about drum corps for a few minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) LOL, forgot to include my dads "Gotcha" at me years back. Church mens group goes to a Pittsburgh plate glass factory for a tour during 2nd shift. Typical follow the yellow line and listen to the guide as people work. At one point dad "leaves the line" and starts talking to a huge guy who was working (not part of the pre-tour instructions). Then he yells at me and points to the guy. Guy is wearing a t-shirt of my corps biggest rivals and it's not a shirt that's for sale (IOW - guys a member of the corps). We laugh quick and then dad high tails it back to the group before we get kicked out. Edited April 5, 2011 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 We have to wear an ID on work premises. So for the past five or so years, mine has been held by one or another corps lanyard. I have a few (Glassmen, SCV, Colts, Cadets, etc.). Lately I've been wearing Cadets. Twice in the past couple of years I've sat in meetings across from consultants who spied that lanyard and asked: Is that the DCI Cadets? One HR consultant marched Star. An IT consultant was drum major for Emerald Knights. Of course all my colleagues in the meetings expressed wonder at the prospect that someone else liked "that band thing that Howard likes." More important was the fact that my stories were confirmed by these new friends of mine. This is why I wear the lanyard (and why I have a beautiful photo of Phantom Regiment on my office wall). You never know who is like us. Ain't it great? HH 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 ROFLMAO!! Drum Corps attire is instantly recognizable to those in the know. If someone spots you wearing it who's not familiar with Drum Corps you'll have some explaining to do. If they ARE familiar with Drum Corps you'll probably be there all day. They're going to want to know how long you've been with the corps, what your roll is, what years did you march, how many years did you march and what's your social security number and mothers maiden name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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