Walter Posted January 29, 2005 Author Share Posted January 29, 2005 All in all... my favorite memory would be second tour in 77 with Nortstars. Despite some "disagreements" between our instructional staff and the corps director, the best part was definately Boulder/Denver. Getting up for rehearsal and seeing the fog rising up off the mountains, our first ever perlims show in the University Stadium in Denver, watching finals from "way up there" at Mile High Stadium... the whole experience was amazing. ^OO^ <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Even though that was second on my list, I'll second that Susie!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GGarrett Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 I've read a few memories of the Madison,SCV & Phantom playing together event, which was in Rockford, IL. I was there for that as a snare drummer in Madison. The drumlines didn't play, we just knelt and let the horns do the magic. And MAGIC it was in every sense of the word! So beautiful, and quite a view from my perspective. A funny memory from that was that I looked over at the Phantom snare drummer to my right and said "this is incredible! Don't you think?" ...and he didn't say a word back to me, just kept his head forward. The SCV guy on my other side said "maybe he can't speak" ...meaning he must be in awe, not being a wise guy. Then the SCV guy said to me "this IS amazing." We later went on (Madison and SCV) to jam again together in New York, on the way to Montreal. VK was there for that as well (in NY) and I remember after the show wanting to meet/talk to a girl from their guard who I made eye contact with several times during retreat (oops! my secret's out...looking around during retreat! sorry Scott Stewart). Anyway, never found the girl, but a bunch of the drumline guys from VK were asking about our walking beat (some of you may call it "street beat" or "file beat"... I heard it called everything) and how it was played. It was called "Heliopolis" by Spyro Gyra, very cool! That was great year for all my best memories in corps. But I guess my best memory would have to be making DCI the first time in 1978...Denver. I was so alive that night, and it was AMAZING for me having seen DCI a few years before both on TV and as a spectator. I was a snare drummer with the Guardsmen in '78, and finding out we had made finals, and then marching it, was so great. Being top 12 back then was, well, not unlike what it is today...I guess. But it was truly an amazing thing for a kid in corps in 1978. There weren't all the divisions there are now, so the top 12 was it. For some reason, another great memory for me was at a show in Gurnee, IL in 1976. Cavaliers came out that year with the new "Cavalier" uniform, losing the shakos and getting the cool look they still sport today. That memory of them walking by in that new uniform (at that time) is an awesome memory for me. Not sure why...probably because corps was "modernizing" itself back then...pretty funny, huh? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnric Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 I must admit, one of my fondest memories of DC happened in 1981 with the LI Kingsmen. The corps was not that good that year. certainly nothing close to the year before. But...for me, it was my first summer away. I was 16.. it was the first time I had ever been really away from my mom and dad and on my own. I can remember me and my buddy Glen Klein (we went to the Bridgemen the next year together) had the back seat on our old non air conditioned 1950's bus. That year, the corps used the back seat to hold the sleeping bags and there was a rack of unis' streched across the second to last seat. Like a little private area in the back. So me and Glen would spend our bus trips about 3 feet off the seat on the sleeping bags, with the bus windows open to the hot summer air. We would smoke cigarettes and talk about girls and just day dream with our heads hanging out opposite windows. Glen would tell me about how "next year I'm going to march with my big brother Ken in The Bridgemen!" I would say, yeah, yeah,..knowing full well his brother was having the time of his life in bayonne!. Ocasionally we would catch the attention of a cute girl going by in a car. but we were just being 16 doing something we both loved. There was no pressure... no.. "we gotta win this show" just a couple of kids becoming friends and spending a summer aboard an old bus on the way to nowhere, and growing up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GGarrett Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 I must admit, one of my fondest memories of DC happened in 1981 with the LI Kingsmen. The corps was not that good that year. certainly nothing close to the year before. But...for me, it was my first summer away. I was 16.. it was the first time I had ever been really away from my mom and dad and on my own. I can remember me and my buddy Glen Klein (we went to the Bridgemen the next year together) had the back seat on our old non air conditioned 1950's bus. That year, the corps used the back seat to hold the sleeping bags and there was a rack of unis' streched across the second to last seat. Like a little private area in the back. So me and Glen would spend our bus trips about 3 feet off the seat on the sleeping bags, with the bus windows open to the hot summer air. We would smoke cigarettes and talk about girls and just day dream with our heads hanging out opposite windows. Glen would tell me about how "next year I'm going to march with my big brother Ken in The Bridgemen!" I would say, yeah, yeah,..knowing full well his brother was having the time of his life in bayonne!. Ocasionally we would catch the attention of a cute girl going by in a car. but we were just being 16 doing something we both loved. There was no pressure... no.. "we gotta win this show" just a couple of kids becoming friends and spending a summer aboard an old bus on the way to nowhere, and growing up. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> John you have said it best here. While I will stick with my making DCI finals for the first time as being probably the best memory I have, I have to say that your memories are really what the real treat was about being in corps. Making friends and hangin' with those really good one or two you had, doing goofy teenage stuff, laughing our butts off about stupid things and cracking each other up all the time, playing ALL the time until you had become a monster player with amazing chops while still just a kid, all the ups and downs ... THOSE were the best memories in the big picture of things. Someone said somewhere here in the posts just recently (maybe RobH from Kilties?) about how communities have changed, and many of the reasons we were in corps back when we were has been long changed now days. The young adults in corps now days have so many things going on in their young lives and pressures these days, that just riding a bus and feeling no pressure to be anything but a kid is waaaayyyy a thing of the past. I kinda sound like my grandfather hear...HA! Not intentionally, of course, but I would give just about anything to get back to a simpler day in drum corps as a vacation, maybe. Hmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd5times Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 My best memory? I don't know....I have a lot of memories of my time in drum corps. One of my "funnest" memories was from a bus ride during the 83 summer in the Blue Devils. It was still the tick era, and being in a corps that scores relatively high, we really couldn't relate to corps that scored exceptionally low.....like under 10! So.....we spent a few rides talking about what kind of corps would it take to get a negative score...and let me tell you....this led to quite a few hilarious discussions. One of these discussions invariably led to a corps that marched a full tympany line with only one "crank" to tune the drums. One of our soprano players, Russell Bridgewater, was out of control, laughing in hysterics at the prospect of a tymp player saying to his buddy "...yo man.....I need to pump out a C...pass the crank...". This would be follow by another tymp dude "...my features coming up...I need the crank...yo man....hury up...pass the crank". That ride had half the bus in complete hysterics. We determined that in order for a corps to get below 0, it required a tymp line with only one hand crank to tune the drums. The rest of the summer we spent yelling at Russell...."Hey Russell....PASS THE CRANK!'" It was great during ensemble rehearsal when the sops were being worked......altos or baris would yell at the sops "....Hey Russell........"..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apoch003 Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 "My best memory? I don't know....I have a lot of memories of my time in drum corps. One of my "funnest" memories was from a bus ride during the 83 summer in the Blue Devils. It was still the tick era, and being in a corps that scores relatively high, we really couldn't relate to corps that scored exceptionally low.....like under 10! So.....we spent a few rides talking about what kind of corps would it take to get a negative score...and let me tell you....this led to quite a few hilarious discussions." Ah yes... my main reason for hating the BD that year. I specifically remember you guys screaming from out your bus windows "YOU GUYS SUCK! WE'RE NUMBER ONE!" ...no class... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd5times Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 (edited) Somebody yelled from a bus window? Really? Obviously, nothing I can say will refute your claim........so......not sure what to say.... So much for having memories.......maybe I'll go post on RAMD....seems more friendly. Edited January 31, 2005 by bd5times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apoch003 Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 (edited) Obviously, nothing I can say will refute your claim........so......not sure what to say....something about class I guess.So much for having memories....... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hey, I'm over it. Let's move on! The Argonauts and Valley Fever had a kewl relationship. One year, we would cheer them on, and during the same show, they'd cheer us on. It was great! Anyway, we sent them a bunch of souveniers from our wagon one time. Just trinkets, really. But the next week, we recieved a shipload of frisbees, t-shirts and all sorts of junk from them! Just goes to show how things can change. Edited January 31, 2005 by apoch003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd5times Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 (edited) Hey, I'm over it. Let's move on! music.gif Well...quite frankly, I thought your claim was rediculous.... I can't imagine anybody in our corps at the time yelling out of the bus windows....it simply wasn't our style....yelling at Argonauts and/or Valley Fever (a corps run by a BD Alumn)....... Like I said....nothing I can say wil refute your claim..... It just seems contrary to what I recall.....particularly with regards to corps we did not compete with..... Edited January 31, 2005 by bd5times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felixh Posted February 14, 2005 Share Posted February 14, 2005 After winning the 1979 DCI Championship Finals in Birmingham, we had the priviledge of doing the full run-through of the show without our head gear. Just seeing all of the surfer-looking, long-haired hornplayers, I really felt at home in Birmingham...it was one of the most memorable nights of my life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.