Old WGI Photos

[GEVisual]

1986

That would be current WGI movement judge Mark Wells !

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I love colour guard! There, I said it. At our 41st Alberta All Girls wrap up reunion meeting last week, Brenda said she made a new CD with our slide show and videos and she mentioned she added the video from the first Western Youth International held in Seattle February 26 and 27 1977. I said 'OMG'. She said 'didn't you know we have it; you're on it being interviewed'. I said 'No but can I have a copy?'. Did you know my home computer crashed in August 2011, bought a new one and have no idea how to capture a video. I captured the 14 minute documentary as best as I could from an old VHS video turned DVD and the Snipping Tool. Here's 4 of 50 or so. I'll post when I can. Keep in mind this is for historical purposes. Good golly, I love guard. Get it!

This is a test of the Snipping Tool

The piece of paper I kept

The title

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Here we go the Western Youth International held in Seattle February 26 and 27 1977

Shamrock circle

1st Canadian Regiment getting off the bus

Warmups in the lot; lol

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I posted the contest program before. Here it is again. Prelims was at Rainier Beach High School and finals was at Seattle Center Arena. I’ll try to use the program to describe the stills from the 14 minute movie called “A Weekend Happening”. I may need some help matching a ‘photo’ to a guard. Thanks in advance.

Drifters, Surrey BC ‘in the tunnel’ or rather in the hall; commander Florence Dyck and a folded up ping-pong table on the right, lol

Drifters on the floor, prelims. I really liked their opener, a classical piece, I can hum it but I can’t remember the name of the piece or composer. Drifters was also a drum corps.

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Alberta All Girls getting ready. This was our first winter guard show ever. Pam and I were instructors, our captain Melanie was our technician and Stanley Knaub was our consultant and designer. Marjorie is wearing a top hat. She played mellophone during the summers of 1974-1977. Top right is Shirley who played snare drum 1975-1977 and winter guard 1980-1984 with AAG and Canadian Royalaires.

This may be Royal Sabres, Sunnyvale California. Their high school band made appearances in the Cotton, Rose and Orange Bowls. Music used was “Flight of 76” by Walter Murphy and “Back to Bach” by Roger Williams. Please let me know if this is Royal Sabres. I’m trying to be accurate for historical puposes.

Whew! That’s 8 to date, 42 more to go. I’m going to take a little break. Have a good time at auditions this weekend

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Jim Anello inspired me to tell you a little bit about me so that you may understand my posts. I’m shy, not a talker, a doer…um…Debbie and I joined drum corps September 1968 without an audition. Carol, our captain (who was in her age out year) was patient and prepared us for our first winter guard contest sometime in November 1968. Girls were on guard and boys were on horns and drums. I marched flag during the summer of 1969 and enjoyed the outdoor field experience, so I stayed. This is what I wrote in my scrapbook spring of 1970. ‘Guard circuit is a competition consisting of colour guard from drum corps, doing their own thing. There are girl and boy colour guards. I didn’t like guard circuit in the first place and I don’t think I ever will like it. It’s frightening and hot. We compete in a gym where there isn’t much room and air. It wasn’t a good year for us for guard circuit. We had 2 shows; the Ontarios in Toronto and the Nationals in Ottawa. We came in 6th in the Ontarios and came in 13th at the Nationals. We could have been 3rd but the national party lost 9 points in penalties. We didn’t know all the national party rules. Oh well. Maybe next year.’ We sometimes traveled south to Syracuse and Rochester NY to attend guard contests that may have had yet another set of rules.

I was on flag line summer of 1970 and rubbed elbows with the lead sopranos and their awesome music. Our corps won Junior B Ontario, Penn-York and Canadian National Jr. B championships that year. During the winter of 70-71 we may have had winter guard but were getting ready to be a Junior A corps. I had a hard time paying dues so the corps asked if I could teach our feeder corps called Sparkies. The more I taught the kids, the less my fees . I loved my kids. During the summer of 71, I was guard sargeant guarding the national flag and was banished to a corner of the field during contests. On a good side, I carried sabre and the sabre felt good. During the winter of 71-72, I tried individuals rifle and yuk no good and ended up as winter guard captain with a sabre, very cool. This time I made sure I knew all the timing and penalty rules by reading drum corps magazines and asking judges lots of questions, some of whom were our instructors; go figure.

In April 1972, our board of directors ruled that girls may now be in the horn line. We had a too many girls syndrome. All of a sudden I was assigned the drum major role which I continued for 4 years with one stipulation. Ahem, since the horn instructor was busy with the horn line all winter, I asked if I could be guard tech. The winter seasons from 72-76 were wonderful. Even though I moved from Toronto to Kitchener September 1974, I continued to consult Seneca Princemen guard once a month. I was a guard tech for about 8 guards over the years. In the spring of 76, I was asked to be Seneca Optimists drum major. I declined. In 2006, at a guard get together, I was asked why I didn’t march with them in 76…um… was a winter guard instructor for Ventures 74-75 and during the summer of 76, toured with Dutch Boy Cadets. I was their guard instructor but was also asked to be a guard spare for Oakland Crusaders.

During the summer of 1976, I may have made a selfish decision. I was young, toured as an instructor for 2 weeks, met up with my other corps and marched a few shows in an arm sling. I took a bus ride alone from Milwaukee to Kitchener to work with my guard, travel with them and meet the corps I was marching with. Once I caught up with flag work, it felt great to feel the flag pole in my hands again. 1976 was my drum corps age out year, I was a marching instructor from 1971-1976 and wanted to march my age out year on flag, my roots.

When I started winter guard, there was no music, just the sound of the boots on the floor, the click of the rifle and the voice of the commander, also known as the guard captain. It was about 1972 when we added a cadence drummer. It was really nice for an all-girl guard to have the best snare drummer guy on our team. I traveled west September 1976 to look for work, found a full time job and was hired as a staff member for Alberta All Girls in October after finding out 1st Canadian Regiment’s staff was full. Pam and I were the visual staff for AAG and we started a winter guard. Melanie was our captain. She was 19. Stanley was our designer / consultant. We had great clinics! Our musical selections were “Don’t Rain on my Parade” and “Roller Skate Rag”. Each member had a shadow, a spare. The average age of the guard was 15 or 16; I was 21. Melanie and I learned the main role for our winter guard show together which was a good thing. When we arrived in Seattle, I found out I was over age by a few months. Melanie took the role. Fast forward to the spring of 1979; we had a meeting in northern Alberta and asked, “Should we start a winter guard circuit?” By September 1979 AWGA was up and running and we adopted WGI’s rules. I’m glad WGI was founded. The winter guard rules in the 1970’s were literally all over the map. A 20 year synopsis in 5 paragraphs…um…back to the “A Weekend Happening“ documentary for historical purposes only ;-)

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I checked my program. Stanley is listed as a Drifters staff member in 1977. They wore dark socks with slippers. I photographed the program and will post its pages later. I found a wonderful link to Sunnyvale High School Marching Band with the Royal Sabres winter guard.

http://blip.tv/sunnyvale-stories/marching-band-memories-by-evelyn-stevens-white-3925520

“A Weekend Happening” in 1977. Brenda is applying hair spray to Kim who marched bass drum. Debbie, a soprano player, is wearing glasses, there’s Karen and Marjorie and I’m pinning Kelly’s hair (she played French Horn with her younger sister Shawna in the summer of 77). They interviewed shy little old 21 year old me and I said “We’re trained that if we make a mistake, we recover right way and keep on going”.

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Shamrocks, Concord California. They wore a gorgeous green and had a stately aura. In the video, after this still, she picked up her rifle which leads me to believe that short periods of grounded equipment was allowed.

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Shamrocks on the floor with a Timing and Penalties judge. Dropped equipment had to stay on the floor until the T & P judge picked it up and carefully placed in your hands. Equipment drops were rare.

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Stanley had taught Seattle Imperials, Alberta All Girls and to my surprise upon reading the program first time in decades, Drifters too. We had the wonderful opportunity to watch the The Imperials rehearse in Seattle in 77 and they visited us in the spring of 1980 at our first guard circuit championships. Classy!

In the video, Mary said “This is the year we’ve been waiting for because we’ve been trying for years building up and this is the year that we’re doing the kind of show we want to do and every girl is into what we’re doing.”