Drum Corps Food.....

[Blackstar]

I can't complain. Our corps had a chuck-wagon and the corps director's wife was a nutritionist. They made sure we had 3 good meals everyday complete with Cookie Salad and milk at the end of the day. Sometimes we ate steak-n-eggs for breakfast or French Toast.

I will say I have noticed the kids in today's corps are eating even better than we did. They have more of a variety to choose from. Even the kids who are vegetarians are not forgotton.

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Was Mom Flo there when you marched. She treated me like a King. I was the only one to get her special Sausage stuffing. I almost moved in with her after tour.

We had steak and eggs and ended up getting sick for two days. 128 with 4 bathrooms....wasn't pretty.

Edited September 15, 2005 by Blackstar

[Malibu]

Was Mom Flo there when you marched. She treated me like a King. I was the only one to get her special Sausage stuffing. I almost moved in with her after tour.

We had steak and eggs and ended up getting sick for two days. 128 with 4 bathrooms....wasn't pretty.

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Was that Mrs. Crowell? I seem to remember someone by the name of Flo as well. I'm getting old and my mind is going. :sshh:

[FlagForever]

we had 2 of the best chefs of life this summer at the magic. my favorite was the cheese biscuits (just like the ones at Red Lobster), and the steak. lots of steak. nothing better after a hard day of rehersal. i love Bruce Ziegler.

[mello_laurel]

We ate fairly well this summer, especially considering an incident with Canada that caused us to lose our food truck at the end of July. For breakfast, it was cereal most days, unless we had a kitchen to use, then we would have pancakes or french toast. There was always fruit available, and usually some sort of entemann's donuts or something (yeah, not so healthy). lunch was usually something hot, or sandwiches. pb&j was always there. there's usally something for the vegetarians too (there were 5 of us this year). dinner was usually good, some sort of pasta or something. we usually had a snack at night too...popsicles or pb&j or pudding.

i have no complaints, even as a vegetarian on tour :)

[Bob Brady]

Back in the day we had to go Huntin' and fishin" for our food. We are what we killed. We did get funny looks fishin in those cement ponds though. 

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You guys did that too!!??? :P

You have to admit though- it was always fun to see the look on some fast food store managers face when 5-6 drum corps rolled into his parking lot at 11:30 at night after the show!!

[nguyenbr]

its all about the fried rice baby! with dressing over it!

[stickman882002]

its all about the fried rice baby!  with dressing over it!

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Yea, yum yum sauce. Ahhhh........ gotta love the yum yum

[TuoKaerf]

We ate REALLY well in 04 (02 was kind of a hungry summer). Our food coordinator's off season job was coordinator for high school cafeterias, so she was not stranger to making large amounts of good food.

Breakfast (depending how early or how late we got to a site decided what we ate)-Cereal, toast, french toast, pancakes, bacon, sasuage, scrambled or fried eggs (your choice, cooked as you ordered :-D ), egg casserole (eggs, a ton of veggies, and some meat...kinda like an ommlette but in a cake pan), orange juice, and milk.

Lunch-fresh fruit, tacos, nachos, sandwiches, burgers, chicken patty, PB and J was aways available, soups, and so on.

Dinner-Same style as above, steak sometimes, pork chops, beef stew, rice, pasta, stir fry, and so on.

Snack (usually leftovers after a show, after rehearsal is a cooked dessert)-Puddings, cakes, leftovers, nachos, ice cream with fresh fruit, smores, crap like that.

For winter camps we get fed all the meals, cooked out of the high/middle school kitchen.

I would grab fast food off and on if there was a Taco Bell or Wendy's near the rehearsal or show site. Sure we ate great, but a greasy burger or taco tasted wonderful sometimes.

[Michael Boo]

My perspective on how corps food has evolved is tainted by marching in the mid-1970s, when Cavaliers bought their first chuck wagon. This was a small pop-up trailer that could have been towed by a lawn mower if it had to. Giant cans of institutionalized pudding, beans and assorted gruel were packed under the buses and the chuck wagon was used to store the various draconian implements that were used to open the cans and sometimes heat the contents over camping stoves.

Nutrition was not the foremost thought back then and the cook crew volunteers did all their best with all they knew. It was light years behind where we are today, but a step up from fast food at every stop. I remember stopping at McDonald's so often that I commented I could feel the special sauce from Big Macs flowing through my veins...and I am NOT making that up.

Breakfast was standard: Doughnuts off the truck, with either warming milk or some orange juice substitute to wash it down. The orange juice was merely sugar water colored orange by some chemical probably banned now in every civilized country for human consumption...likely is used in pesticides.

In 1977, despite the fact that the corps placed 8th in DCI World Finals, we were the 18th corps to break 80.0 and were seriously on the line going right up to World Prelims (before there was the current Quarterfinals/Semifinals set-up). Tension was as high as the top level on Homeland Security's Assessed Risk chart. We all needed to calm down the day of Prelims, so the cook crew fed us chili for lunch. I kid you not. On the way to Denver's Mile High Stadium, I remember the knots in my stomach over the dread of what might happen in Prelims having to make way for the knots in my stomach newly twisting from internal chemical reactions to the chili.

Maybe the cook crew was on to something...giving us something to take our minds (and stomachs) off the seriousness of wondering if we would make Finals. If that's the case, then they were brilliant.

We probably had a few gallons of the canned library paste chocolate pudding for good measure.

Primative, yes. But that's all we had and all we knew. The next year, I was given a tour of Santa Clara's Miss Amana food truck...an actual semi that was a restaurant kitchen on wheels...and I thought, "Brave New World." And that eventually caught on with all corps. Today's corps meals are nutritious, with lots of fruits and vegetables to choose from, with vegetarian options and overall healthy selections. We've come so far from those earlier days of lining up around the corps trough.

But that's all we knew, and since most of us had to walk ten miles to school in three feet of snow, uphill both directions...we didn't know any better.

By the way, you got to the truck early for breakfast if you wanted a doughnut with nuts.

Mike

[MikeD]

My perspective on how corps food has evolved is tainted by marching in the mid-1970s,

We did not have anything remotely like a chuck wagon...fast food heaven for us on the road!

One time our three busses pulled into this fast food spot, and the manager came running out in horror waving his arms at us to just GO AWAY! :P

By the way, you got to the truck early for breakfast if you wanted a doughnut with nuts.

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Otherwise, the doughnuts you got to eat were rather...eunuch...er...unique. :)

Mike