Legolaus Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 It was a whole family of Spildes that marched in Madison. One of the true Madison "family" participation families, with guys who marched pretty much all through the 70's and well into the 80's. Tim (Spud) and Terry (Spif) were in the corps in the late 70's and early 80's, and almost all the boys got back together again for the MSARP 2006 extravaganza... The Beckman's were another Madison family. I believe at one time they had five brothers all in the corps at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimdugan Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I'm sure it was raining because I remember going under the stands just like last night in Toledo. It must have happened at prelims. or am I......slowly los ing my mi n d? ? ? I was there that night and it did rain. There was a brief delay and then Anaheim came out and blew the place away. I believe Blue Rock won prelims and dropped to fourth in finals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajedrummer Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 This is the best thread ever, but it makes me a bit sad as well. As good and talented as the corps are now, what a shame that such a relatively few number of young people get to experience what we did! Looking at these photos and scores - there were DOZENS (maybe hundreds?) of corps competing and/or performing every weekend! Championship prelims went straight from morning till evening for two or three days! Enough All-Girl corps that they had their own division! Making Top 25 in DCI was a goal for so many of these corps and gave you Associate Membership in DCI, now there are 21 competing corps total in that class. The training ground is no longer the junior / feeder corps or the smaller community corps that gave every little town the chance to have a valuable youth program. Drum corps used to be a musical alternative to Little League, Boy / Girl Scouts, etc...not anymore. Sorry for sounding like an old fart, but at 51, I guess I am there now! jim P.S. I have to wonder - Was the switch from G to B-flat bugles partially driven by the horn manufacturers? With so few corps around to buy horns, and some of the top ones getting them for free or seriously discounted, did they just tell DCI & DCA that we cannot afford to do this "G - thing' anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I'll be 49 Thursday and you aren't and old phart! We had something good back then but the times change and so did drum corps. Problem is, the young ones don't care about what we did back then. That don't understand what it took to bring DCI around or all the corps in North America that there were. Ever hear a kid from HNC, Cavies or any other junior corps today ask to hear about the "old days" from you? I left little league baseball for drum corps and happy I did because I got to start every gig I ever did, I never had to sit on the bench and wait. I also left boy scouts too, compared to DC it was sooooo boring. The change in G to Bb was a manufacturer as well as a DCI thing, or at least major staff members who are also high school or college band directors. This is the best thread ever, but it makes me a bit sad as well.As good and talented as the corps are now, what a shame that such a relatively few number of young people get to experience what we did! Looking at these photos and scores - there were DOZENS (maybe hundreds?) of corps competing and/or performing every weekend! Championship prelims went straight from morning till evening for two or three days! Enough All-Girl corps that they had their own division! Making Top 25 in DCI was a goal for so many of these corps and gave you Associate Membership in DCI, now there are 21 competing corps total in that class. The training ground is no longer the junior / feeder corps or the smaller community corps that gave every little town the chance to have a valuable youth program. Drum corps used to be a musical alternative to Little League, Boy / Girl Scouts, etc...not anymore. Sorry for sounding like an old fart, but at 51, I guess I am there now! jim P.S. I have to wonder - Was the switch from G to B-flat bugles partially driven by the horn manufacturers? With so few corps around to buy horns, and some of the top ones getting them for free or seriously discounted, did they just tell DCI & DCA that we cannot afford to do this "G - thing' anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajedrummer Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Ever hear a kid from HNC, Cavies or any other junior corps today ask to hear about the "old days" from you? Keith - Sometimes, yes, but overall, not really. However, I will say that being a 1979 Trooper alum, anytime I log into a Trooper chat room, the DO want to hear what that was like! Personally, I think that whole thing is a bit overblown, but that prelim show lives on in Trooper lore! You can read about it here: http://www.troopersdrumcorps.org/support/a...bl/lbl_0409.pdf jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flugelswerebugels Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Keith - Sometimes, yes, but overall, not really. However, I will say that being a 1979 Trooper alum, anytime I log into a Trooper chat room, the DO want to hear what that was like!Personally, I think that whole thing is a bit overblown, but that prelim show lives on in Trooper lore! You can read about it here: http://www.troopersdrumcorps.org/support/a...bl/lbl_0409.pdf jim That's a nicely written story, and the sidebar recounting the competition throughout the season is great. We were definitely excited when we learned Troop had made finals that day. (nothing against Freelancers, Crossmen or Lions, of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAvery Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 (edited) That's a nicely written story, and the sidebar recounting the competition throughout the season is great. We were definitely excited when we learned Troop had made finals that day. (nothing against Freelancers, Crossmen or Lions, of course). I remember coming into our prelim performance, sone how we heard their score, 81.9. I don't think our staff told us, but I don't really remember where I heard it. Our highest score to that point was an 80.15 and we had never beaten the Crossmen, which were on sometime after us. I was thinking we needed a two point bump or we are looking at 13th place. Were the heck did the Troop come from? We were 20 points ahead of them on June 30th. Of course we had our "end of July-rewrite half the show" weekend, which didn't really seem to do us much good. Our GE numbers went up, but at the expense of our M&M Ex numbers. Now we were looking at 13th. I don't really remember much about the prelim show that day. I know it wasn't my best show. There has been much talk (understandably) from Crossmen alums about that year. How we could go from 4.45 points down to .3 above in 3 days is interesting. (Of course there was also a 5 point turn around between us and Freelancers that last week before DCI.) How could Troopers overcome an 11 point gap with the Crossmen in the last four weeks of the season? I never got to see Troop that year. But at prelims I just kept asking myself, where did these guys come from? Edited July 1, 2009 by DAvery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esch Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Whenever I need sheering up I like to watch the last couple minutes of the '79 Trooper show. A quick, no-nonsense recital of the some of the great visual trademarks of that era Troop that I used to show my students as a "Greatest Hits" thing. I always loved that they'd come out to Santa Clara for the Vanguard show each summer and we'd get to play in Casper at their show.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madalumni Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Boy - I really need to spend more time over here on this part of DCP...not just for the awesome photos, but for the conversations, the commraderie and the incredible history of this activity! Plus it's alot more mellow over here. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 It's a Love fest here! it really is with all the memories. Many of us marched for YEARS not a year or two to say we marched "DCI." How many started out at 10? My one brother was six playing some large cymbals. Boy - I really need to spend more time over here on this part of DCP...not just forthe awesome photos, but for the conversations, the commraderie and the incredible history of this activity! Plus it's alot more mellow over here. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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