The Day After..is bittersweet

[soccerguy315]

In 2007 when I went to the airport, I went tossed my rehearsal backpack on the belt for the security machine... the people took so much of my stuff! Can of silver polish, bug spray, sunscreen...

they just kept pulling stuff out of my backpack, and I was like "sorry... I've been traveling around the country all summer living on a bus..." and they looked at me funny.

welcome back to the real world.

[DeepSouthDCI]

It was lonely having no one to talk to in the shower...

[DCImonkey]

18 hour bus ride from Madison........ I cannot type what happened on that trip, but let me say it was "eye opening"

[fsubone]

First year, my parents picked me up, since Finals was in California, and they came down to watch my first Finals.

Second year, we had a three day bus ride back, which was fun, but the weather never co-operated.

Third year, I flew home from Finals, going through security was a pain in the ###, they couldn't understand why all of us had to fold our jackets up perfectly before putting them on the conveyor.

[ayesha3]

Funny story, (I know this should probably be in the Random Encounters thread, but eh) my sister-in-law who lives in Texas flew in to SoCal last night to visit our family and she said that on the plane she was sitting next to "a band person who was coming back after performing a show in Indiana." She said she tried talking to the girl and was like, "Yeah, my sister-in-law (me) really likes that too. I think her favorite is Santa Clara something..." Then she said that the girl got super excited and almost jumped out of her seat and said, "Oh! Vanguard?!" My sister-in-law felt bad because she had no idea what to talk to her about because no one in my family knows much about drum corps, and I told her that she should've asked where she marched, if she aged-out, what she played, etc. and my sis-in-law was like, "Isn't that getting a little too personal?!" Sigh

[esch]

IN 1973 we all went from Whitewater to West Allis for a show at the Wisconsin State Fair... prelims and finals, and having to adapt the show to fit a racetrack instead of a football field (as I remember, prelims was on a field, then we spent the afternoon changing the show). Biggest memories: watching the Kingsmen snare line marching off the field after prelims, a bit the worse for wear; sneaking into the stands before getting uniformed to watch the Des Plaines Vanguard do their incredible show; the drum line forgetting the new drill at one point which caused the hornline company front to collide with them (and the subsequent Drum Corps World headline proclaiming something along the lines of "SCV wins with another perfect show"); and on the bus trip afterwards holding onto one of the younger drummers as he puked out the bus door after enjoying a bit too much of the local brew.... the best part was that we could enjoy and celebrate our drum corps family and our show one a bit longer than the Championship finale. Five days later we were home...

[RogerF]

Well, 30 years ago, OMG, on the way home from Montreal, I hated it. Surreal, and mind blowing. We didn't have internet, twitter, facebook, etc. And unfortunately I was a lone teenager, and had these druggy bullies in the horn line, who kept on me the entire trip, what with their stealing, and their drugs and drinking. Yes it was true, it got so bad I had to fly home from Cheyenne Wyoming back to L.A. because I hated the whole experience being on the bus with them. And the staff wouldn't do anything about it.

But now, I am sure it's better, to what degree I don't know.

The day after finals is always odd and strange, it's as though you came out of a blender!