Senior Corps

[MikeD]

In the 70s there was more joining the local corps than having out of state people join like today. (Well let's face it there were more local corps.) A lot of the Senior corps who allowed under 21 year olds did it so they would have enough warm bodies on the field. Some of the really great Srs may have had a few minors because of their talent. Some of the "not ready for DCA" corps I saw could have qualified as a Jr corps except for a few older members.

Back then you could almost tell how good a corps was by the amount of youth in the corps. Not a slam on the youth, usually the corps with more experienced members did better on the field. I was allowed to join because the corps had been inactive and needed warm bodies (ANY warm body) to get back on the field. Not that some older members didn't have heartburn with opening up the gates to High Schoolers. And the BoD was scared crapless that something would happen to one of the minor members and the corps would get sued. Still remember one BoD member saying "What happens if little Bobby gets drunk or little Susie gets pregnant? If we get sued, what the #### are we going to pay with? A couple of drum sticks and a ####### flagpole?" (Our finances were in the toilet at the time due to rebuilding.)

Much of the Garfield drumline went to the Cabs after the 71 season when they fired George Tuthill...still well under age. The Sunrisers had many junior aged members in the 70's...they were fabulous.

[elphaba01]

Much of the Garfield drumline went to the Cabs after the 71 season when they fired George Tuthill...still well under age. The Sunrisers had many junior aged members in the 70's...they were fabulous.

"Sunrisers":

The Sunrisers, my pretties, were also the benificiaries of the breakup of the great St Catherine of Sienna Queensmen in the Fall of 1962. A TON of great talent, (Many of whom were WELL under the age of "21") marched off to Mineola LINY.

Their numbers included John Sasso, who became the writer/arranger for Sunrisers, his brother Ted a teriffic contra bass horn player, soprano Frank Dorrite and Bill Hihtower, one of the greatest bari players that ever worked a valve/slide Getzen. Billy Cobham, the world famous drummer also was a St Catherine's alum who joined the "Exodus" to the Sunrisers.

This "Migration of Talent" resulted in an "Over the Winter" makeover of the Sunrisers into a serious contender in the senior arena for the season of 1963.

Elphaba

WWW

Edited December 15, 2005 by elphaba01

[Kansan]

We are saying Senior/All Age to encourage Parents to bring their Kids and Kids to bring their Parents along. We also hope it will help with Donations and Grants later on.

Also, I think Junior Corps is being squeezed to death by the longer School years being imposed by school districts in many areas of the country.

Edited December 14, 2005 by Kansan

[MikeD]

"Sunrisers":

Their numbers included John Sasso, who became the writer/arranger for Sunrisers, his brother Ted a teriffic contra bass horn player, soprano Frank Dorrite and Bill Hihtower, one of the greatest bari players that ever worked a valve/slide Getzen.

John did some great work with Garfield in the late 60's through 1970...bringing in Frank "Ironlips" who wrote a marvelous brass book for us in 71...the groundbreaking "Revolutionary War" show we did that year.

One of my all-time favorite openers was our 1969-70 version of Gounod's "Queen of Sheba" that I assume John wrote for us.

Mike

[Fran Haring]

The Sunrisers had many junior aged members in the 70's...they were fabulous.

I joined Sun at age 18 for the 1977 season. I can't say that I was personally fabulous, though. I would say "functionally average" is a better description. :P

We did have a bunch of younger folks in those days.... one of our competitors called us "kids and girls" or the "milk and cookies corps." But the thing is, we also had our share of "young veterans" in their 20s and 30s, battle-tested folks who had either been with Sunrisers for a long time or with drum corps in general for a while. I think it was those vets who showed us youngsters how to get it done.

And Elphaba1 has a good point..... Sun had a lot of great horn players back in the day. In 1969, the corps' lead soprano line included Frank Dorritie, Wayne Downey (yes.... THAT Wayne Downey) and John Arietano, who are all now members of the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame.

Fran

[Jocko the Wonder Llama]

I personally like the "all-age" corps. I enjoy being around the (very) few folks i my corps who are in my age bracket. If we didn't take the inder 21 crowd, we would probably not be able to field a very large or competetive corps. Besides, I kinda like being one of the father-son combinations in my corps. :)

And lets be honest, having a few young hard-chargers around helps keeps my motivation level up, and helps remind we why I came back to this after 25 years away.

[Mick Krackin']

One time when Steel City was manning the phones at a PBS telethon, the host of the program referred to us a the Steel City Senior Citizens Corps.

Kind of makes you think that All Age Corps is much better for marketing.

In many other contexts, the word "Senior" refers to players past there prime - the Senior PGA, senior division in races, senior citizens, discounts for seniors, etc.

All DCA corps have members under 21 and most have a wide range of ages, hence "All Age".

This post is not condoning age discrimination. B)

[sunbari1]

I joined Sun at age 18 for the 1977 season. I can't say that I was personally fabulous, though. I would say "functionally average" is a better description. :P

We did have a bunch of younger folks in those days.... one of our competitors called us "kids and girls" or the "milk and cookies corps." But the thing is, we also had our share of "young veterans" in their 20s and 30s, battle-tested folks who had either been with Sunrisers for a long time or with drum corps in general for a while. I think it was those vets who showed us youngsters how to get it done.

Fran

w/Stp: Deja Vu! That's just the way Sun is today.

I know Sun took the word "senior" out of our name sometime in the 1990's because our membership was skewed much younger than our competitors at the time. Today's reality is that most of the new blood in drum corps comes from high school and college students. There are a lot less DCI ageouts joining DCA corps than there were like I did when I joined Sun 15 years ago. I think the demand placed upon DCI corps, especially the upper echelon ones, has a lot to do with it. I have persoanlly heard that when some that we knew were appoached about marching, they said they were burnt out after doing DCI.

[randomnoise]

I am a relative newbie to Senior Corps, so forgive me if I am wrong on this, but aren't the shows harder from a drill perspective these days? It seems like it is getting difficult more the more seasoned performers to keep up. That is one reason to have youngsters - there bodies can take more abuse.

Plus, they have more free time to rehearse!

Edited December 15, 2005 by randomnoise

[Ron H]

w/Stp: Deja Vu! That's just the way Sun is today.

...Today's reality is that most of the new blood in drum corps comes from high school and college students...

I agree. While DCI corps are actively recruiting college-age adults whom they expect to age out in a few years, DCA corps tend toward recruiting the longer-term young adult members and families who for various reasons could never commit to the junior schedules.

The "senior" moniker is confusing to those who are unfamiliar with drum corps. Even "all-age" requires an explanation. But the latter is easier to understand for the general public and immediately implies the restriction of the "junior" corps.

However you will notice that nearly every single "junior" corps does not use that word at all. To them they are simply a drum and bugle corps. And to me that is reason enough for the "seniors" to drop that term as well. Maybe it's even time to drop the "all-age" moniker. DCI and DCA have two differing philosophies. Perhaps we should just refer to DCI-affiliated and DCA-affiliated corps. Two separate divisions of the drum corps fraternity. Two separate sets of ideals and goals. Two separate sets of age requirements.