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The famous post name.... Winnek Post

you will find that name throughout the legion records

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Thanks Tom, for the Post name. Had you ever heard the Lefty Mayer story I related? :)

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The Appleknockers, Senior Drum & Bugle Corps, Geneva,NY

GenevaNYAppleknockers4.jpg

Edited by old ohio drum corps
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a picture of the Appleknockers... the junior corps.

ak2uq.png

that one's from 1970.

~>conner

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How about,

The Cornplanters, Warren,PA

The Notesmashers, N Massapequa, NY

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  • 3 months later...

I missed this one! :)

1) Origin of the name- late 40's to early 50's from a slang term denoting a shiftless country bumpkin. Allegedly coined to Winnek Post #396 of Geneva, New York by Garbarina (NY Skyliners) with whom the corps "butted heads" in state and national American Legion competition. The corps thought the name was an apt descriptor since Geneva was located in apple orchard country. "So we're Appleknockers! What about it? Back at you, Skyliners." There was also a WWI army division from upstate NY dubbed "The Appleknockers". Highest finish in national competition was second in A.L. Nationals prelims at Chicago in 1958 (this is a hard score to find).

2) Junior corps also known as the Appleknockers was formed in the fall of 1962 as a feeder unit for the senior corps. The corps competed 1963 and 1964 as a parade corps and 1965-1974 as a field corps (DCI prelims at Ithaca, NY in 1974 was one of the corps' last performances). We were modestly successful. We were consistently one of the top junior corps in the state most of those years (second in 1970 behind Mighty St. Joe's) and had a couple strong finishes in national competition (15th out of 65 at the A.L. Nationals in Boston in 1967 and 11th place finalist at the U.S. Open in 1971). The corps never really fulfilled its original purpose as a feeder corps to the senior corps since the senior corps folded after the 1964 season and the junior corps entered competition in 1965 as a coed corps (initially formed as male only since senior corps at the time were all male).

3) Most famous member of the senior corps- yes, indeed, was Ken Petersen who I am proud to call a friend. He was a gifted soprano soloist with the corps. Listen to his 1964 solo work on the Fleetwood recording at Carnegie Hall and you will realize why this man is in the Buglers' Hall of Fame. Lesser known, however, was soprano soloist Frankie Farr who preceded Ken and was reputed to have played some of the first jazz improvisational solos on a drum corps field.

For more information, see my article on the Appleknockers in volume II of "A History of Drum and Bugle Corps".

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I was there at that '71 U.S. Open. The Appleknockers had a unique musical presentation that season..... Three Dog Night's "It's For You" as a lead-in to "Ritual Fire Dance", and later played Chicago's "Someday". A nice, kickin' show for that year!

Edited by Northern Thunder
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I was just looking up "The Thing" on corpsreps.com and also noticed the "Appleknockers" from Geneva, NY. Anyone know anything about the history of their name, or have any photos?

(Perhaps the guard uniforms would be best left to my imagination.) b**bs

"The Thing" was the name of an actual drum corps? You have got to be kidding!

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