ffernbus3 Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 (edited) First time I saw the Seatte Thunderbirds was at the 1966 All American Judging Assn. Competition in Anaheim. CA. They were, in my opinion, far and above the level of the other competing corps that night, including Velvet Knights and Anaheim Kingsmen. The looked more polished.....like Midwestern and Eastern corps.....California corps were still rough by comparison back then and no real hints that I can remember of what was to come in the next couple decades and more. They would have won that contest, I am pretty sure, but there was some kind of weird guard penalty....like too many rifles or something?.....these were apparently some strange All-American Assn. rules.....memory is sketchy here. When I was in The Army and got stationed in Ft. Lewis, WA, the first thing I did was hook up with THE SEATTLE THUNDERBIRDS and for the life of me I can't remember the guy I use to hang out with....nor the women from the corps we were going out with, I'm sorry to say. I do recall it was through these people in the T-Birds that got me over to begin working (for what turned out to be just a month or so, Im guessing) with THE BELLEVUE SENTINEL...I remember writing a chart of "Step To The Rear" for them....same song but different from 68 Kingsmen. Anyway.....what happened to them? They get so little mention on this forum. Thanks, RON HOUSLEY Edited February 25, 2004 by ffernbus3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SassyMama Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Ron, some of them are still hanging on RAMD if I'm not mistaken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffernbus3 Posted February 25, 2004 Author Share Posted February 25, 2004 Thanks, Mama. I did a quick google now and found out they died out after a split in 1970 and became The SEATTLE CASCADES. And also found out, must have been The Cascades site, that they DID win the 66 All-American show after all (I still remember some controversy betwen them and Anaheim or Velvet Knights in the placing, though.) Gail Royer was head judge....this the year of The Sparks-soon-to-be-VANGUARD. T-BIRDS were the first to field a contra on the West Coast according to this site, but can't recal the year for that. Anyway, thanks Mama. Just trying to put the pieces of a mis-spent youth together and tie up a few loose memory threads....things were moving pretty fast for me back in those days! RON HOUSLEY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwrice Posted May 8, 2004 Share Posted May 8, 2004 (edited) ... Edited May 19, 2004 by rwrice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldsmith1210 Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 Don't forget the Argonauts in that list. The Flamingos changed their name to the Argonauts in 1975 when they started competing nationally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksmenbari Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 (edited) marksmen didn't completely fold in 1975, but most of the members did leave... the full equipment truck (an ugly maroon/brown ford cabover that had the sentinels logo on it) was stored in our backyard during 1976 and the corps resumed in 1977. we lasted until the fall of '78 as a parade corps and near the end we actually changed our name back to shamrocks and did a few parades using the original uniforms. the intent was to try to get support from the community, which didn't work... marksmen were going strong in 1975, and the future looked good but it was a financial screw-up that killed the corps... the bod mishandled funds, the director (corbin) was incompetent, and our bingo license was canceled. vfw kicked us out of our hall in white center... and the rest is history. the uniforms were cool though :) Edited May 9, 2004 by marksmenbari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffernbus3 Posted May 9, 2004 Author Share Posted May 9, 2004 rwrice: I was only at a few Bellevue Sentinal rehearsals before I got hurt in The Army so my memories of the corps are scant at best...one of those cases of things happening real fast in those days, so it's no surprise I can't remember much about that corps or even the people I hung out with in The Thunderbirds. My time with drum corpsup there in Washington State only lasted from about 4th of July until the beginning of October, 1968. RON HOUSLEY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H. Turner Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I was the Judges Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Marching Band Championship in Spokane this past season, and worked closely with Larry Lindel, the chairman of the show. I seem to remember him talking about being either a director or staff member with somebody from Washington State back in the 70's but I can't remember the name. Sentinels and T-Birds though ring a bell...and I'm just chiming in just because... :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I did a quick google now and found out they died out after a split in 1970 and became The SEATTLE CASCADES. In more detail.... The Thunderbirds had a feeder unit (Thunderbird Cadets) that decided to break away and become an independent corps, appearing in 1967 competition as the "Cascade Cadets". A year later, they dropped "Cadets" from the name. That's where the Seattle Cascades originated. Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds didn't make it into competition in 1969. They started over in 1970, competing in class C, but the comeback effort lasted only that one season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwrice Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 (edited) ... Edited May 19, 2004 by rwrice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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