Jump to content

Parade piles


Recommended Posts

We marched in the Schlitz Circus Parade in Milwaukee every year. It had camels, horses, and elephants. One year, we immediately followed elephants and their foot high piles of steaming s**t. One of our flags got to march as sergeant as was so consumed with the responsibilities, that on one occasion, was moving backwards to call a mark time and wasn't watching where he was going. He called mark time just as he stepped on a big wet pile. He hit the pile with both feet before he jumped out. None of us warned him and we laughed for weeks. He had to go the rest of the parade with elephant crap on his white bucks and white pants up to his knees.

Other times, with horse droppings, two older members would go on either side of a rookie, and force him to go through the droppings.

What other such stories do you have of dodging street bombs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 21
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

We marched in the Schlitz Circus Parade in Milwaukee every year. It had camels, horses, and elephants. One year, we immediately followed elephants and their foot high piles of steaming s**t. One of our flags got to march as sergeant as was so consumed with the responsibilities, that on one occasion, was moving backwards to call a mark time and wasn't watching where he was going. He called mark time just as he stepped on a big wet pile. He hit the pile with both feet before he jumped out. None of us warned him and we laughed for weeks. He had to go the rest of the parade with elephant crap on his white bucks and white pants up to his knees.

Other times, with horse droppings, two older members would go on either side of a rookie, and force him to go through the droppings.

What other such stories do you have of dodging street bombs?

I think you can take the 'l' out of "Schlitz" for THAT parade! :tongue:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We marched in the Schlitz Circus Parade in Milwaukee every year. It had camels, horses, and elephants. One year, we immediately followed elephants and their foot high piles of steaming s**t. One of our flags got to march as sergeant as was so consumed with the responsibilities, that on one occasion, was moving backwards to call a mark time and wasn't watching where he was going. He called mark time just as he stepped on a big wet pile. He hit the pile with both feet before he jumped out. None of us warned him and we laughed for weeks. He had to go the rest of the parade with elephant crap on his white bucks and white pants up to his knees.

Other times, with horse droppings, two older members would go on either side of a rookie, and force him to go through the droppings.

What other such stories do you have of dodging street bombs?

Once we were in a parade behind an elephant (there was a circus in town). That was interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once marched in an October parade where the corps was so unprepared, with a lot of new members, that the horses refused to march behind us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.

What other such stories do you have of dodging street bombs?

I came back from a parade and my friends asked me how it was and I told them the truth :.. " it was horseshitt "

I don't ever recall any of the marchers in our Corps actually stepping in it though. It was a tradition. We'd march up onto the sidewalk and march over people on the curbstone if we had too to avoid stepping in that crapp. ( haha )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nevermind avoiding the 'patties', what about avoiding the spectators that wanted to get up close and personal? I had that experience marching in a July 4th parade in the mid-west '75 or '76. Some gentlemen (and I use the term loosely) who had enjoyed a few 'beverages' tried to offer me a kiss on the cheek as we (St. John's Girls) were parading past their spot on the parade route. This was back in the day when marching was a very military and serious business so they couldn't understand why I wasn't smiling. When I turned around to give the signal to the drummers for the roll off to play a tune the snare line could barely contain their laughter at my embarrassment. Lots of laughs at the end of that parade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nevermind avoiding the 'patties', what about avoiding the spectators that wanted to get up close and personal? I had that experience marching in a July 4th parade in the mid-west '75 or '76. Some gentlemen (and I use the term loosely) who had enjoyed a few 'beverages' tried to offer me a kiss on the cheek as we (St. John's Girls) were parading past their spot on the parade route. This was back in the day when marching was a very military and serious business so they couldn't understand why I wasn't smiling. When I turned around to give the signal to the drummers for the roll off to play a tune the snare line could barely contain their laughter at my embarrassment. Lots of laughs at the end of that parade.

I noticed you were a DM. Did you ever call a roll off on a hill or an incline and the Corps want to beat you with a flag pole or some such with that decision ? In my first year as a DM I made that mistake

I never did it again. ( haha)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I marched Cymbals in 1982 and the tune we played for parades had cymbal rides for the snares so I had to march backwards a lot during parades. The snares used to mess with us telling us there were piles behind us to make us jump around trying to avoid them.

Some of the best parades were when our snare line decided to wear those big old mirrored sunglasses like the state troopers did. We started using those as rear view mirrors and could see the piles coming up behind us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nevermind avoiding the 'patties', what about avoiding the spectators that wanted to get up close and personal? I had that experience marching in a July 4th parade in the mid-west '75 or '76. Some gentlemen (and I use the term loosely) who had enjoyed a few 'beverages' tried to offer me a kiss on the cheek as we (St. John's Girls) were parading past their spot on the parade route. This was back in the day when marching was a very military and serious business so they couldn't understand why I wasn't smiling. When I turned around to give the signal to the drummers for the roll off to play a tune the snare line could barely contain their laughter at my embarrassment. Lots of laughs at the end of that parade.

I once watched a little kid run right into the back of the inside of one of our tenor players cut away drums. Our tenor player even tried to avoid the kid but he still managed to ssmack his face right into the inside of the drum shell. That kid dropped like a bag of rocks. I was on 1st bass and was right bhind this as it happened. Couldn't keep a straight face the rest of the parade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My son marched his first parade with his HS band in Tucson.

LA FIESTA DE LOS VAQUEROS. Gringos call it the Rodeo Parade.

It is proudly billed as THE WORLD’S LONGEST NON-MOTORIZED PARADE.

Form your own conclusions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...