Weird Things Your Instrucors did

[ferb27]

How much of Marc Sylvesters clothing were actually his he brought with him? :P

Marc was the king of bumming stuff off of people.

[Scooter Pirtle]

My most vivid memories of Marc Sylvester involve him asking to borrow someone's towel after shower time. There weren't many willing volunteers for that duty. Marc didn't even bring toothpaste with him on tour. I think his travel gear consisted of a ratty sleeping bag and a pair of black shorts.

Black Knights had an odd marching rehearsal technique that may have originated from the military. If anyone knows where this practice originated, please let me know. It went like this...The staff would rehearse us in a high school gym (winter rehearsal). They asked us to bend our arms at the elbow with the forearm extended (palms upward) and placed a partially water-filled paper cup onto our palms. Staff members had pitchers of water they used to fill the paper cups as full as possible. We would complete our marching basics rehearsal with the cups on our palms. Any water spilling would result in a five minute high mark time penalty. Any of you who have enjoyed one of these know they are the longest five minutes of anyone's life.

The cup exercise was quite effective and I haven't seen it utilzed elsewhere. Surely, this wasn't only used by Belleville. It was a great way to learn how to move with the least amount of upper body movement in a time that preceeded the pronounced toe roll. There were some old timers in the corps that could high mark time with no hint of spillage. One even put the darn cup on his head and high marked time with no issues at all.

The rookies quickly figured out that they could cheat the system by drinking some of the water. However, the staff had the last laugh when they informed the rookies that the water in the pitcher was obtained from the locker room toilets.

Good times! Gotta love old school.