One Good Reason the Activity Is Destined to Continue...

[Kevin Powell]

hup234: How are you phasing into this computer craze without change? Does your car have some of those uppity new fangled disc brakes? Does your home have heat and plumbing?

The fact is - things change. There are not as many VFWs and small community organizations that once housed "your" type of drum corps. To be frank - I do not want my kids hanging out at the VFW. School organizations are stronger and there is more music in the schools. Winterguards and Indoor Percussion were born out of corps. Let's work to create a winter brass theater as well.

Kids today do not understand your type of drum corps the same way that they do not understand The Andy Griffith Show or the Lone Ranger. Even Batman has had a couple of makeovers since those late 60s classics. Kids today are smart and in many ways more complex.

please work to be a little less isolated. No one here is against YOU. They are against the constant negative old dino spin you put on things.

[Northern Thunder]

One good reason it will continue is because of the North American junior corps very few of us know about, that are active in 2012:

North Port High School Alliance (FL)

Ambassadeurs Monteregie (QUE)

Blue Jays (NY)

Brother Dutton and St. Peter's (WI)

Chippewa Valley Crusaders (WI)

Cranbrook Girls (British Columbia)

Crescent City Cadets (LA)

Eclairs (QUE)

Exodus (IL)

Impact (Alberta)

Los Angeles JAMZ (CA)

Neptune's Guard (NJ)

New Day (WI)

Rockford Drum & Bugle Corps (IL)

Royal Court (NY)

Titans (QUE)

Troop 12 Scouts (CA)

Troop 58 Scouts (CA)

Troop 203 Scouts (WI)

Troop 226 Scouts (PA)

Edited August 18, 2012 by Northern Thunder

[Hup234]

1. It's not the "better-off" kids that are getting in. It's the kids who have the drive, the determination...the commitment...to do whatever it takes, who are getting in. Having a family that supports and encourages those qualities helps.

And musical training and experience and access to money even for auditioning for gosh sakes. The Golden Age kids had all the right stuff you mentioned plus the guts to try joining a corps to attempt something they didn't know anything about - music and marching and staying off the streets - and didn't have the stuff you didn't mention, like the freedom to take off the jobs they needed to help pay their family's bills.

2. The "dinos" are not irrelevant. They are the foundation...the history...of our drum corps. Without them, my son would not be a proud member of the Blue Knights today.

You saw everything I'd written on the 'dino' topic, but you didn't read a word of it.

3. And don't get me started on your use of the phrase, "uppity-like".

Right. That, plus 'better-off kids' and 'dino', all out of context, is what hit your hot button from everything I'd said.

And the beat goes on.

[Hup234]

please work to be a little less isolated. No one here is against YOU. They are against the constant negative old dino spin you put on things.

"Against" here on DCP (or "for", for that matter) matters not a whit to Hup234, and my recent back-and-forth repartee with some True-Believer regulars here was a rarity that's pretty much ended.

It was a kind of experiment.

I enjoy involved, intelligent repartee with the Already Convinced of any ilk.

Here, though, I see that some retort to one word or a phrase out of context, which changes the whole meaning of what was originally said. Maybe everyone's busy nowadays, but the phrase "short attention span" comes to mind.

And I think what I say here hits a nerve and scares people. Nobody welcomes a doomsayer. DCP activists want to think their activity is ever-evolving into a brighter New Age that they're part of. I've pointed out different facts that show a darker, ominous trend, and the weak, flippant little nonrelated "replies" that the regulars post in response are very telling, while not telling at the same time.

I keep pointing out that the activity today is the poorer for rejecting the Golden Age policy of inclusion for all and implementing a policy of excluding nontrained members, the great majority of American youth. No one here has addressed that; they just change the subject.

[BRASSO]

I keep pointing out that the activity today is the poorer for rejecting the Golden Age policy of inclusion for all

Are you talking about this wonderful " all inclusion Golden Age" where many of the Corps would not admit into their Corps persons of Color ? Where Senior Corps would not allow Women in their ranks ?... no matter how talented ? Where in many Corps, if you were not a member of their Parish, you could not march in their Drum Corps ? Where Woman had to have their own separate divisions for many years to compete in ? THIS " Golden Age of inclusion " ?

Edited August 18, 2012 by BRASSO

[RockyGranite]

1. It's not the "better-off" kids that are getting in. It's the kids who have the drive, the determination...the commitment...to do whatever it takes, who are getting in. Having a family that supports and encourages those qualities helps.

And musical training and experience and access to money even for auditioning for gosh sakes. The Golden Age kids had all the right stuff you mentioned plus the guts to try joining a corps to attempt something they didn't know anything about - music and marching and staying off the streets - and didn't have the stuff you didn't mention, like the freedom to take off the jobs they needed to help pay their family's bills.

2. The "dinos" are not irrelevant. They are the foundation...the history...of our drum corps. Without them, my son would not be a proud member of the Blue Knights today.

You saw everything I'd written on the 'dino' topic, but you didn't read a word of it.

3. And don't get me started on your use of the phrase, "uppity-like".

Right. That, plus 'better-off kids' and 'dino', all out of context, is what hit your hot button from everything I'd said.

And the beat goes on.

Do you honestly think that every Corps Member was born with a silver spoon in their mouth? If so, you have a distorted view of them and your distorted view is an insult to the hard work my son did to get to the Blue Knights...and an insult to his mother and I for the scrimping and saving, for the support and encouragement that we went through to help him.

But, then again, I guess...according to you...I don't want other kids to have what my son has...because then they would be getting "uppity-like".

[MikeD]

And[/u] musical training and experience and access to money even for auditioning for gosh sakes. The Golden Age kids had all the right stuff you mentioned plus the guts to try joining a corps to attempt something they didn't know anything about - music and marching and staying off the streets - and didn't have the stuff you didn't mention, like the freedom to take off the jobs they needed to help pay their family's bills.

Just don't be a female and try to join a horn or drumline in the VFW/AL/CYO days, unless there happened to be an all-girl corps somewhere close.

Conversely, if you are a boy, don't try to join a guard, if the guard was an all-female guard.

And, if the corps was not from an urban area...you sure saw very few people of color.

You conveniently forget to mention the brawls between corps back in those "good old days". Just look at the Garden State Circuit champs in 1969 for one example...St Andrews Bridgemen and St Martin's Troubadours had such an on-field fight at retreat the St Martin's moderator disbanded the corps.

The corps of the past were wonderful and provided a great experience for many, but the rose colored glasses view of those corps is just plain wrong, IMO.

By the way...LOTS of corps even in those days came from the suburbs and contained band members...both big time corps and smaller local-based corps.