Remember When....

[SBrancheau]

I can understand the guard having to rush in to set up their "side-line yard sale" but don't start fixing your bra strap or fixing your hair!

:spit: :o :P b**bs

LOLOLOL!

[Malibu]

To all of my ole school guard friends(Sally, Nancy, Sandy, Geoff)

Remember head chops

legs chops

tossing equipment 10 yards

Double time

basics, basics, basics

Hitting the judges if they got in your way

Yeah, you guys did some awesome head chops!

I loved your 1980 drum solo with the all the exchanges including the "kamikazie" blind toss.....I taught a high school how to do that one back in the early '80s....they loved it!

I still LOVE to watch rifle lines do double time, but many don't even know how! I did see an independent winter guard include it in a segment of their show....the crowd went NUTS! I do still teach my guard how to do double time.....it's a good exercise and useful for parades.

Yep, I remember doing basics.....I used to position myself behind one of the best members in the guard. I wanted to imitate every move she made!

Yeah, you remember when they told us that if we hit the judges it would result in a penalty? I think they changed the ruling sometime in the early '80s.....I guess too many judges were scared to enter the field!

I do remember one show, one our mellophones backed into a judge, the judge came around to her, looked at her straight in the eye and said, "TICK!"

They told us that if a judge got in our way, we were supposed to yell, "Drill!"

[Laubster]

Ay Carumba! Let's see were to start, What's with this low leg lift while marking time? Fit your knee into the arch of your foot. Snap at all times, attention, parade rest, horns up or down, in Anaheim you wanted to hear the horn hit the buckle on the front of the uniform. I remember in 76 at retreat in Phoenix coming to parade rest and hitting myself in the mouth with the mouthpiece of my Baritone and taking a huge chunk out of a front tooth. Day time shows on astro turf that would melt the soles of your shoes, DCI West in Boise Idaho 1977. The only way you break rank is in a pine box.

[bluejupiter]

It still makes me sick to see how corps set up: talking, stretching, moving all over the place.... tell me another performance art that warms up physically in front of the audience. Tacky tacky tacky.

i've seen a lot of it in dance and some theatre. when you warm up/stretch onstage it's considered theatre nontheless. cabaret comes to mind - the dancers stretch, smoke, and talk a bit onstage before the show while people are being seated. bands/orchestras tune and warmup onstage a lot as well, yet that always seems more acceptable to the average patron than dancers warming up onstage.

[JohnZ]

I guess this would be considered old school beyond the competition field - but when you were in uniform and in the public eye, you were on stage, and expected to present yourself as you would on the field.

I will never forget Altoona PA, early 70s, watching SCV warming up - would have thought they were being judged in the parking lot. I also remember seeing a member of the Anaheim Kingsmen's guard under the bleachers with an instructor (I assume) talking to her - don't know whether she was ill or had just had a bad performance, but I do remember her standing at attention in full uniform during the exchange, then marching back to their buses after the instructor was finished.

As medieval as it may seem, I miss that kind of discipline in drum corps.

[SBrancheau]

I guess this would be considered old school beyond the competition field - but when you were in uniform and in the public eye, you were on stage, and expected to present yourself as you would on the field.

I will never forget Altoona PA, early 70s, watching SCV warming up - would have thought they were being judged in the parking lot.

Doesn't matter whether it's drum corps or marching band...that should be the rule...acting like you're being judged in the parking lot.

Even in college at Indiana State, it was taboo to be in part of the uniform, or have your uniform unbuttoned, unzipped, etc. You were either all the way in or all the way out.

Don't forget, you're representing (insert here: your drum corps, your high school, your college or university)...act like it!

Except for the Renegades and Crunchy Frogs...all rules are thrown out the window...but that goes without saying! b**bs

[KeithHall]

I was thinking about a few things the other day as compared to today, maybe it's because my 39th is tomorrow. :)

So, ask yourself- "Are you old school"?

Remember When:

1. The only vocal on the field was either "Ten-hut" or "Mark Time, Mark!"?

2. You could guide off of the form across the fifty to tell where you were supposed to be because the form was identical?

3. The American flag was present in every show, and corps played off in retreat?

4. The only form of amplification was a crescendo to a FFFF on a horn chart?

5. It took 4 strappin' guys to play timpani and timpani had cranks?

6. Rifles were real guns that may or may not have had the mechanism welded shut?

7. You picked up your shiny new bugle and wondered what that rotor valve was for?

8. Bass drums (and the rest of the battery) marched up and down the field between the 45's.

9. Flag poles were at least 6' long and metal.

10. If your drill was really cool, you had a rotation off of the 50?

11. Uniforms came from several manufacturers and came in varied lengths and styles, some with cords, belts, capes, buckles and various hats?

12. A corps was really big if they had 10 contras?

13. Bugles were referred to as "sopranos" and "contras"?

14. If you wanted to march with white feet, you either painted your bucks or wore spats?

15. Your show (and everyone else's) had an opener, percussion feature, concert number and closer?

16. Military inspections were commonplace before competing?

17. You didn't want to be responsible for getting a "tick"?

18. At your first camp as a low-brass player, you had to use a fingering chart to read treble clef?

19. The entire percussion section was on the field?

20. Those drums were carried by slings?

So, are you old school? B)

I believe it was 1972....but St. John's Girls who won the US Open were carrying timps and skipped off the field with them. So they weren't strapping guys, and I believe they weren't big girls either.

[StarContra4-85]

I guess this would be considered old school beyond the competition field - but when you were in uniform and in the public eye, you were on stage, and expected to present yourself as you would on the field.

I will never forget Altoona PA, early 70s, watching SCV warming up - would have thought they were being judged in the parking lot. I also remember seeing a member of the Anaheim Kingsmen's guard under the bleachers with an instructor (I assume) talking to her - don't know whether she was ill or had just had a bad performance, but I do remember her standing at attention in full uniform during the exchange, then marching back to their buses after the instructor was finished.

As medieval as it may seem, I miss that kind of discipline in drum corps.

This is part of why I really miss full retreats. To see corps break ranks to take pictures, swap souvies, etc at "retreat" these days breaks my heart. The discipline that was so inherent to drum corps seems to have disappeared in these instances. As long as you're in uniform, you're part of the corps-save it for the parking lot!

[BennyBassDrum]

I remember all of that-and more-inspectors checking haircuts, straps for all the drums, rudimental bass drums, double, then triple bass drums (NOT the ones stacked atop one another-side by side)solid wood bass malletts-no cushions on them at all.

I remember when you could actually break a bass drum head-try that with todays heads!

How about the words OtL, in concert, color pre, exit. I remember getting a tic for a dropped bass mallett-and getting bopped over the head for it.

How bout single valve with a slide horns?

Oh yeah, some wonderful memories..................Benny

[PJS53]

How about rifle lines using REAL rifles. Our guys had Springfields if I remember right and had great fun showing off that they could do anything (and more) with those that others could do with the fake rifles.