some old corps photos

[Fran Haring]

A 1974 Key to the Sea story, if I may....apologies if this is a bit long, but this was a very wacky situation.....

I marched that year with the Sacred Heart Crusaders from Manville, NJ.....a local Eastern States circuit corps. We entered both the Class A and Open Class categories at that Toledo show. We had a small horn line (about 25-26) that played with a lot of volume and, on occasion, didn't suck....LOL.... and a really strong drum line.

Anyhow... as you can see from the scores posted above, we made the Class A finals, performing at prelims in the morning. Then that same afternoon, we competed in Open Class prelims.... here's where it got more interesting.

First of all.... we had to come back that same night and compete in the Class A finals..... yes, three performances in one day. Our corps director/brass/drill guy was a really old-school drum corps guy who almost literally did not know when to ease up on us... he would routinely either rehearse us into the ground on the day of a show or double-book "same day" performances..... then he'd wonder why we were exhausted at the end of a given day. LOL

Soooooo.... that day in Toledo, we had now done three performances...including Class A finals, which was our goal for the trip.

Our work there was done, right? Wrong.

It turns out that only a handful of corps got to compete at Open Class prelims that afternoon.... with the rest scheduled for the next day. But, from what I remember, there was a problem with the judging panel makeup that first day.... I think the panel was short one judge.

So..... the corps that did get on (us included) were given the option of coming back the next day and repeating our Open Class prelims show, with the full judging slate. Again, from what I remember, several of the corps turned down the invitation and opted to keep their original score........ but, of course, our director... the old-school workaholic... did not. He opted for the "repeat performance."

Sooooooo...... on Day One, our corps had performed three full shows, and then, since we had achieved our goal and made Class A finals, went back to our housing site and partied like crazy, till the wee hours of the morning, running on pure adrenaline (OK, and various beverages....LOL) at that point. Only problem was.... we were now due back on the starting line sometime later that morning to repeat our Open Class prelims performance on Day Two.

We we got to the stadium, for our fourth performance in two days........ with a bunch of us....uhhhhh... a bit worse for the wear, shall we say, after the long day before, followed by the night of celebrating....we marched into the "ready" area, looked out at the field.... and the corps that was on directly before us was..... the 1974 Anaheim Kingsmen. And they were absolutely tearing the stadium apart with their prelims job.

The Kingsmen got done.... the fans were on their feet with a roaring standing "O".... then here we came, out to the starting position. We looked up, and saw most of the folks in the audience getting up and leaving the seating area. It was as if WE WERE THE FREAKIN' INTERMISSION CORPS!!!!! Honest to God, several of us started laughing at the entire ridiculous situation. Better to laugh than to get really PO'd, I suppose.

Needless to say, we didn't exactly do a rip-roaring job that day.... and it showed in our Open Class score, as you can also see from the post above.

To this day, I can't figure out why our director wouldn't let well enough alone and A) either not enter Open Class at that show at all, or B) not bring the corps back for a sucky "morning after" performance. Go figure.

That was one seriously crazy weekend.

Fran

Edited February 2, 2018 by Fran Haring

[lindap]

Thanks for your post Fran. I forgot we could enter as A and Open class. I thought I was seeing double :-) Seems there were your corps Sacred Heart Crusaders from Manville NJ, Gauchos from Fulton NY, Charioteers from Birmingham ALA, Marquis from Fond Du Lac WIS and us from Willowdale in both classes on the same weekend. I'm glad you can remember the weekend. It's a blur for me. Thanks again.

I looked through 1975 US open program and can't find a photo of the corps written as Gauchos in the Toledo newspaper. Could be Windjammers, Southern Rebels, Southern Tier Grenadiers, Pioneers or Bleu Raeders as a guess?

[lindap]

August 1970 Toronto Star newspaper, photo is of Toronto Optimists (whom I'd seen many times)

Always good to have official drum corps photographers and reporters. They know drum corps :-)

Perhaps the photo is of The Cavaliers whom were at the same contest

Edited January 26, 2010 by lindap

[old ohio drum corps]

Thanks for your post Fran. I forgot we could enter as A and Open class. I thought I was seeing double :-) Seems there were your corps Sacred Heart Crusaders from Manville NJ, Gauchos from Fulton NY, Charioteers from Birmingham ALA, Marquis from Fond Du Lac WIS and us from Willowdale in both classes on the same weekend. I'm glad you can remember the weekend. It's a blur for me. Thanks again.

I looked through 1975 US open program and can't find a photo of the corps written as Gauchos in the Toledo newspaper. Could be Windjammers, Southern Rebels, Southern Tier Grenadiers, Pioneers or Bleu Raeders as a guess?

I have Toledo 1974 pictures of Grenadiers, Pioneers and Bleu raiders, it's not them.

I still think it's the Windjammers...

[Paul Milano]

August 1970 Toronto Star newspaper, photo is of Toronto Optimists (whom I'd seen many times)

Always good to have official drum corps photographers and reporters. They know drum corps :-)

Perhaps the photo is of The Cavaliers whom were at the same contest

It is the Cavaliers. From right to left: Paul Leo, Don McWhorter, Jim Bennett and (not pictured) Pat Jones were the four double tenor players.

[lindap]

It is the Cavaliers. From right to left: Paul Leo, Don McWhorter, Jim Bennett and (not pictured) Pat Jones were the four double tenor players.

The newspaper clip is small and 40 years old. It was when I scanned and viewed the collar and decal on the shako that I realized it was the Cavaliers. Thank you

[baja]

I have Toledo 1974 pictures of Grenadiers, Pioneers and Bleu raiders, it's not them.

I still think it's the Windjammers...

Doesn't look like the Windjammers to me. I'm looking for a photo of the Southern Rebels from Metairie, LA

Here are photos in question again

[baja]

From corpsreps Southern Rebels 1971

Nope not them either.

[old ohio drum corps]

That's a 1972 picture of the Windjammers on The CD Cover

[ffernbus3]

Fran: 74 Kingsmen's Toledo performance is on xkingsmen.com in the media section.

RON HOUSLEY

A 1974 Key to the Sea story, if I may....apologies if this is a bit long, but this was a very wacky situation.....

I marched that year with the Sacred Heart Crusaders from Manville, NJ.....a local Eastern States circuit corps. We entered both the Class A and Open Class categories at that Toldeo show. We had a small horn line (about 25-26) that played with a lot of volume and, on occasion, didn't suck....LOL.... and a really strong drum line.

Anyhow... as you can see from the scores posted above, we made the Class A finals, performing at prelims in the morning. Then that same afternoon, we competed in Open Class prelims.... here's where it got more interesting.

First of all.... we had to come back that same night and compete in the Class A finals..... yes, three performances in one day. Our corps director/brass/drill guy was a really old-school drum corps guy who almost literally did not know when to ease up on us... he would routinely either rehearse us into the ground on the day of a show or double-book "same day" performances..... then he'd wonder why we were exhausted at the end of a given day. LOL

Soooooo.... that day in Toledo, we had now done three performances...including Class A finals, which was our goal for the trip.

Our work there was done, right? Wrong.

It turns out that only a handful of corps got to compete at Open Class prelims that afternoon.... with the rest scheduled for the next day. But, from what I remember, there was a problem with the judging panel makeup that first day.... I think the panel was short one judge.

So..... the corps that did get on (us included) were given the option of coming back the next day and repeating our Open Class prelims show, with the full judging slate. Again, from what I remember, several of the corps turned down the invitation and opted to keep their original score........ but, of course, our director... the old-school workaholic... did not. He opted for the "repeat performance."

Sooooooo...... on Day One, our corps had performed three full shows, and then, since we had achieved our goal and made Class A finals, went back to our housing site and partied like crazy, till the wee hours of the morning, running on pure adrenaline (OK, and various beverages....LOL) at that point. Only problem was.... we were now due back on the starting line sometime later that morning to repeat our Open Class prelims performance on Day Two.

We we got to the stadium, for our fourth performance in two days........ with a bunch of us....uhhhhh... a bit worse for the wear, shall we say, after the long day before, followed by the night of celebrating....we marched into the "ready" area, looked out at the field.... and the corps that was on directly before us was..... the 1974 Anaheim Kingsmen. And they were absolutely tearing the stadium apart with their prelims job.

The Kingsmen got done.... the fans were on their feet with a roaring standing "O".... then here we came, out to the starting position. We looked up, and saw most of the folks in the audience getting up and leaving the seating area. It was as if WE WERE THE FREAKIN' INTERMISSION CORPS!!!!! Honest to God, several of us started laughing at the entire ridiculous situation. Better to laugh than to get really PO'd, I suppose.

Needless to say, we didn't exactly do a rip-roaring job that day.... and it showed in our Open Class score, as you can also see from the post above.

To this day, I can't figure out why our director wouldn't let well enough alone and A) either not enter Open Class at that show at all, or B) not bring the corps back for a sucky "morning after" performance. Go figure.

That was one seriously crazy weekend.

Fran