This might be fun if you're willing to laugh at yourself a little

[byline]

I remember those uni's - they remind me of the Indiana State Fair Band day period from when Anslinger was the director - am I thinking of the right guy? Then Don Barnes came and switched to a corps style.

You sure are! Never thought I'd see Walt Anslinger's name on a drum corps forum! The interesting thing is that's the reason he retired. He saw the handwriting on the wall, that corps-style marching was going to take over, and so for better or worse, his time was over. Those uniforms were part of his era; I think they went back to the '60s, when Lincoln was winning the State Fair championships. They were old, old, old by the time I wore them, but they lasted incredibly well.

I'll never forget my freshman year at band camp: We learned our State Fair show ("West Side Story," believe it or not), and I never did get the hang of the chair step. (Little did I know how short the time would be for me to attempt it.) And then, last night of band camp, Anslinger announced that he was leaving. We were crushed, didn't see it coming at all. I don't think Barnes even knew until right before Anslinger told us. Now that I think back on it, it's amazing that we made such a smooth transition after such an abrupt departure. I think band camp was in July, then we did State Fair in August, and then, when school started, Anslinger was gone, Barnes was now head band director, and he started teaching us corps-style marching and music. Of course, you had the folks who loved the old style, hated this new stuff, but still, we managed to get past all the conflicts and do pretty well in contests that fall.

Trying to remember when Indiana finally got its first state marching band competition (other than State Fair). I think it was maybe November of '74 (my sophomore year), but I could be wrong. Someplace in Indy. Rained cats and dogs all day, the field was a muddy mess, so we marched our show on a parking lot, with only floodlights for illumination. It was still pouring rain, couldn't see the yardlines, just reflection and glare, and who knows how the judges could tell what was going on. Don't even remember where we placed, it was so bad. That was our inaugural state finals!

By the time I started marching (1978) we had the more corps style uni's with the Aussies and the white jackets with the V on the left - same as some really good KY band because Jerry Warmuth had been teaching down there before he came up to Vintucky and I think he's the one who changed the uniforms if it wasn't Mr. Barnes.

Yes, those were Warmuth's. (And those of us who graduated before then all wished they were ours. I have a couple of pictures my sister took at a parade, first year they came out.) Barnes hated the old uniforms, but we couldn't afford to buy new ones. So we were a corps-style band in a "Big 10" uniform. We made it work as best we could, but there was no way it wasn't going to clash.

Sorry peeps, Sue and I went to the same high school - a few years apart - just going down memory lane.

Yup, I graduated in '77, then marched Oakland the following summer ('78), and then you would've started at Lincoln that fall. It's interesting that we went to the same school, yet we're far enough apart in years that we know few of the same people. It's funny how that changes, the older you get. Now, a five-year age difference is nothing, but back then, we might as well have lived in different states.

Sorry 'bout rambling, everyone! Old Home Day, LOL! :P

[john2780]

These are both from 78, I should have more from earlier years....63 with a Drum & Bell corps, 73 - 75 w/SCV and some more as time goes on with various Sr. corps and Alumni corps.

Improntu rehearsal in some truck stop:

Borrowed equipment:

You, my man, are a stud-meister

Now show me you in SCV

[SaraNYC]

Yup, I graduated in '77, then marched Oakland the following summer ('78), and then you would've started at Lincoln that fall. It's interesting that we went to the same school, yet we're far enough apart in years that we know few of the same people. It's funny how that changes, the older you get. Now, a five-year age difference is nothing, but back then, we might as well have lived in different states.

Sorry 'bout rambling, everyone! Old Home Day, LOL! :P

I think we taked about some of this stuff back in the 90's on that Indy Star IU Basketball forum, but weren't you in the Wind Ensemble that got the perfect score at ISMA Mr. Barnes last year? I remember watching you guys (at VU was it?) with my friends and we just worshipped ya'll - you were like rock stars to us.

And then besides that SCV recruitment video that Mr. B showed us, it was because of you and the other two women that marched Oakland in 1978 that I got the early exposure to Drum Corps that I did - because they told us all to watch for you guys on PBS finals night after we got home from band camp!

It's a Small World...After all. :P

(I'm also thinking you had a sister that was on the swim team when I was, I swam from age 7 to 11 or 12. Anyway...moving on... )

[Sean1]

OMG!!!!

I can't believe you guys said that. What a HOOT!

No, it is not Scott Brogan. BUT - I marched with Scott Brogan in the IU marching band after that summer.

Interestingly enough, Scott was the DM for the Carmel HS marching band at Star's first public performance at the Indy 500 parade in 1985 and I remember him coming up in his white tux uni to introduce himself to our DM. When Scott came to IU, we all thought he was Steve's twin brother.

Anyhoo, I stay in touch with Scott, so I'll have to tell him ya'll still remember him! Too funny.

And GGarrett - I've got bald pictures too, from chemo 4 and 1/2 years ago, so I really have gone full circle with the hair :P

i marched with scott in Sky

[byline]

(I'm also thinking you had a sister that was on the swim team when I was, I swam from age 7 to 11 or 12. Anyway...moving on... )

I do have an older sister, but I can't recall her ever being on a swim team. She and I were pretty much bandos . . . and that was it! :P

It's funny that you perceive our wind ensemble in that way. I actually felt that the wind ensemble was better--the best of my four years at Lincoln, in fact--my junior year ('76), but maybe our scores didn't reflect that somehow. My senior year, Don Barnes arranged "The White Dawn" for us, and everything finally seemed to come together. We were not the same "talented" class of previous years, and I think Barnes actually felt we always got the short end of the stick, so that's why he arranged that piece for us to play. (And, as it turned out, that was also his last year at Lincoln.) The piece really seemed to suit us, somehow; but it was his talent as a director and arranger that really helped us play that, and not just play the notes, but make it into music. I'd forgotten about how well the district competition went for us that year. Thanks for the reminder!

And, to bring this back to corps, I'm sorry Oakland didn't make finals that year, for you and others who were looking for us there. Lord knows we would've loved to have been there!

Edited January 18, 2006 by byline

[LancerFi]

Once again Nancy, You and I are in pictures together. In the Reveries Picture, those are my feet closest to the fifty with the double toms :P

Remember in the 79 & 80 drill I used to pass by you at one point in the show. We'd make eye contact every time, and do a few other things as well!

I have a few cute ones of us in the winter of 79 or 80....out of uniform, let me look for them...however I'll check with you before I put them up...

Unlike our friend Tansea the studley..... :P

Edited January 18, 2006 by LancerFi

[MsBusDriver]

O.K. I've been having fun getting some pictures together. I'm still somewhat of a novice when it comes to transfering and cropping and photobucketing stuff, so here goes.

'69 High School CG, and just a Rookie with SCV "B" Winter Guard...

tour'70 West Allis '72

'73 parade'74 Winter Guard

TOR '04TOR Banquet '04

Edited January 19, 2006 by MsBusDriver

[ffernbus3]

QUOTE: Unlike our friend Tansea the studley.....

He's my younger and slightly less studly brother, an "...Exicitable Boy, they all said...." (Sleep well, Warren Zevon.)

One of our Kingsmen sisters, in a moment of enlightment, just referred to us as her "annoying brothers."

Mike keeps the humor as sharp as he keeps the edges of his cymbals.

You ARE marching with us in 07, right? Don't make us come back there and get you!

Tansea's annoying older brother,

RON HOUSLEY

PS: Maggie, just GREAT pictures! With all due respect and admiration, I dearly love redheads. It's in my Gaelic blood, can't help it. Married one back in the day.....saber capt. of The Lynwood Diplomats. Pg. 380, History of Drum Corps, Vol. I: left hand picture: gal on the left.

"Redheads spinning cutlery....what WAS I thinking?"

[ffernbus3]

I'll post pics soon. New Anaheim Kingsmen pictures from 67 have just been discovered and have been informed I'm actually in some of them.

RON HOUSLEY

Edited January 18, 2006 by ffernbus3

[SBrancheau]

Sue (and everyone):

There were two competing "circuits" in Indiana in the 70's: NISBOVA and ISMA - NISBOVA started their circuit around 1962, ISMA in 1972. Unless I miss my guess, NISBOVA was mostly Northern Indiana bands. Powerhouse Chesterton HS was a perennial NISBOVA champion.

ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) held sanctioned State Championship competitions in 1973. ISSMA must have been ISMA's successor.

These were distinctly different than the Indiana State Fair Band Day.

Kind of makes sense?