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Do You Remember .......


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.....that moment when you knew that drum corps was what you wanted to do?

For me there were 3 times, 2 before I joined and one after....

The first time I was an 8 year old kid who was riding his bike and heard drums. I rode my bike in the direction of the sound and turned the corner to see a group of kids playing drums and horns marching. Two years later it was announced that two drum and bugle corps were going to play a concert in the park a block over from where we lived. I was there watching The Suburban Knights and the Royal Coachmen. I started playing trumpet that summer and knew I wanted to join and in June 1971 I joined up. The evening of my first show had me reeled in as I saw the Lakeview Shoreliners, Squires, Mark Twain Cadets, Mello Dears, etc and I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I quit baseball and was obsessed with playing the funny trumpet with a valve and a rotor.

It was a year later that we competed at the US Open in Marion, OH, and I saw Blue Rock, St. Andrew's, Des Plaines Vanguard and tons of corps. I was in love!

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No.

Me neither.

Oh wait .......... (lots of dots lol) a flashback moment .................... (more dots) .............................. (wait for it lol)

We moved from downtown to the east side early 1967. Deb became my best friend at my new school. I recently found our school yearbook which sparked wonderful memories. Her Mom was dating a drum corps instructor who tried to convince us to join so we can stay out of trouble. They took us to a local drum corps show summer of 1968 and by fall we joined drum corps out of curiousity. Deb quit a few years later and I kept marching for 10 years. That's it. If the local show was Shriner's International June 15 1968 as below (courtesy of corpsreps.com) then I was impressed. I collected drum corps programs from 1969-1972. Collecting was intermittent until 1988. The journey down memory lane had been fun. I need to move on to the present and future but the glimpses of the past brings a smile for a while :smile:

1 Boston Crusaders

2 Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights

3 Kilties

4 Optimists

edit: It seems that all 4 organizations are still with us today in some form of the marching and pageantry arts. Thanks for the past, present and all the best in the future!

Edited by lindap
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"Memories":

1957 or 1958. Dad took us to the Barnum's "Parade of Champions" senior show at the old Hedge's Stadium. Don't exactly remember "Who" was there (Caballeros, Princemen, Hurricanes?????), but after one look, I was pretty well hooked.

I believe it was year later that St Vincent's Cadets and a few of the other heavy hitters of that era showed up at a junior show at Hedge's (PAL Cadet's show?) Stadium and knocked our socks off.

St Ann's Parish in Bridgeport's "Black Rock Section"was starting a parade corps so that's where I started.

Elphaba :flower:

WWW

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"Memories":

1957 or 1958. Dad took us to the Barnum's "Parade of Champions" senior show at the old Hedge's Stadium. Don't exactly remember "Who" was there (Caballeros, Princemen, Hurricanes?????), but after one look, I was pretty well hooked.

I believe it was year later that St Vincent's Cadets and a few of the other heavy hitters of that era showed up at a junior show at Hedge's (PAL Cadet's show?) Stadium and knocked our socks off.

St Ann's Parish in Bridgeport's "Black Rock Section"was starting a parade corps so that's where I started.

Elphaba :flower:

WWW

You started a decade before me. Much respect to you. If you look for Scarborough Firefighters you'll find firefighters. We were before the digital age. I know in my heart that your corps and my corps were good. We were there and had our socks knocked off many times. I looked for St Ann's and found a winter guard from Mass. It may not be your St Ann's but they're a good guard. Hugs.

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No particular "light-bulb moment" for me.

My older brothers joined a local junior corps in 1967, next town over from where we lived in NJ... and I just kind of morphed into the activity after that. LOL

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I do remember the first corps that really made an impression on me... it was the Riversiders from NYC.

Summer of 1967... I was 9 years old... my brothers' corps from NJ (Raiders of 88, Highland Park, NJ) was in the Garden State Circuit, and I'd go to some shows with my parents. I remember seeing the Riversiders and thinking they were a really good corps. They dominated the circuit that year... won the Garden State championship.

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I think it was '74 and Phantom Regiment came to out corps show in North Tonawanda. I was a runner and sat on a bench on the field. PR's horn line peeled my face off! They were wearing the old cadet type uni and I believe the next year two of our older guys marched with them...BobbyBeck was their timp soloist for concert and Sudsy played in the bari line.

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Keith, I had read you post, but I had it on my mind today to post a question on how you got involved in a corp. I posted it and now I see it's almost a duplicate. I got involved because my family was involved with volunteer fire departments on long island and almost all fire departments had a band or a drum corps. It's something that happened in the 60's.

Thanks,

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