Drum Corps is still a community activity

[ScribeToo]

You know.. I was talking with uncle z this morning about the fan base and about how we found out "the skinny" on this corps or that corps in the past.. and it occurred to me that drum corps is still a community activity.

He was telling me about reading a thread here that asked how you got your news before the internet. He pointed out that when he was marching, there was a drum corps about every thirty miles or so in Wisconsin.. so you just went to practice.. and you talked to people.. and you heard whatever rumors were out there.. and things passed by word of mouth.

He also said that when you went to shows, you pretty much knew about half the people in the audience.. and those you didn't know, you recognized from other shows or other corps.. so it was like you knew everybody in the stands, too.

When I was of age to march, and where I lived, there were two drum corps within two hours, and quite a few more if we were willing to drive up to 8 hours. The corps closest to us was not a corps we (and when I say we, I mean my bando friends and I) had a lot of interest in. They did cheesy shows we didn't like and tried to be more than what they were (in our humble and uneducated -- at the time -- opinions).. so we weren't going to their rehearsals.

We did get our news and rumors from other kids in our band who did go off to march for the summer.. and our band director had a subscription to DCWorld.. so we heard our news -- again -- through word of mouth. Our basis of information was just a little bigger because our people were a little more isolated and had to look further for information.

I did point out that, even now, the stands are still filled with about 50% people I recognize -- either I know them or I've seen them at another show or with another corps sometime over the past X number of years. Even when I lived in California, same thing.. when we got into the stands, we had our bleacher buddies.. people we pretty much saw once or twice -- maybe three times -- a year.. but we knew each other.. we talked between corps.. we picked up where we left off.

Now that we rely so much on the internet, I realize it's basically the same. We still get our news through word of mouth. We're still part of a community.. we see each other at shows.. we know the people who go to those same shows with us each year.. we recognize people we don't necessarily know, but see each year at those shows.

I saw a thread today about someone wanting to see a picture of Capital Regiment's uniforms. I haven't looked yet, but I have no doubt someone has come along and posted a picture to fulfill that guy's request. Word of mouth.. the only key differences are that our community is much bigger and more immediate now... AND when rumors came around in the old days, there was a level of accountability.. you usually knew the person who fed you the information and could go back to them and say, "dude, you were wrong about that..".. whereas now, there's no accountability for starting rumors.. we don't know who said it.. we just heard it somewhere..

Anyway.. I don't know if there was a purpose to this post, other than to say that we really aren't that much different now than we ever were.

vive la drum corps!

Stef

[RobH]

Great point, Steph - although I have to confess that with the internet and all the info out there, I really just read DCP and don't go much to dci.org or drumcorpsworld - there's just not enough time in the day to read everything, then talk to people, then figure out what's really happening!

Granted, I'm not now in an area where anyone in drum corps really IS (nor wants to be), so I'm forced to rely on DCP to find out what's going on out in drum corps land!