Most memorable housing site?

[perc2100]

Both years I marched, finals was in Orlando. We housed in the KC Royals spring training facility (they now train in Arizona, and I don't remember where we were). The practice field wasn't the best (the baseball outfield), but other than that it was great.

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doug

[KungFuCharlie]

In 2000, I don't know the name of the school, but it appeared to be a Jr High somewhere in Middle TN about 45 minutes from Murfreesboro. Horrible, just horrible. Then again, our first housing site in Pennsylvania was an elementary school with no showers. Then there was the time we had no housing site for Finals week, so DCI put us up at a motel.

[idontwan2know]

RJ Reynolds(yes, that RJ Reynolds) High School in Winston-Salem, NC. Beautiful school, but it was a horrible housing site for any number of reasons.

They decided the gym was off limits, so the corps was spread out among five portables. The showers were a good half mile walk away down a big hill and through a dank moldy tunnel under a road. Of course, going back to the portables it was a half mile walk UPhill through a dank, moldy tunnel...which made the whole process of showering relatively pointless.

The actual field we rehearsed on was another half mile beyond the half-mile-away-showers, further down the aforementioned hill.

I didn't shower when we arrived and elected to wait until morning...since I woke up first, I only had a vague idea where the showers were, ended up going into the wrong gym completely and showering immediately next to some old refrigerators(no idea what they were doing in the shower). Set off an alarm, too, but I really didn't care at that point.

That was a pretty awful weekend all the way around. Half the hornline was going to be driving up after the bus with one person....who suddenly couldn't make it, so late night scrambling to arrange flights and rental cars had to be done. Typically, one person's luggage(including her horn) was lost and didn't catch up with her until the next afternoon. It rained buckets during afternoon rehearsal, killing a huge chunk of ensemble time the corps desperately needed. Due to yet more rain right up until the show start(also delayed) and being the first corps on, we got a whole 15-20 minutes for warmup.

All in all, a pretty disastrous weekend. LMS South was fun, though.

[Jami]

Bristol, Rhode Island.

We rehearse on a field that touches the pier in a park. Not to mention all the great people and local restaurants.

I was just in Bristol, RI. What a beautiful town it is. :)

[Jami]

My most memorable site was probably Hoisington, KS. State of the art school complete with cable TV (the first time I got to see Sportscenter all summer long :D), and a town that embraced the corps from the second we arrived - from interviewing the pit for their weekly newspaper (yes, i said weekly), to having the entire town show up for ensemble reheasral, to keeping Dairy Queen open for us after hours so we could enjoy it after rehearsal. It was an awesome place to stay.

[SACMellos2010]

Lots of school stories but 2 that stick out.

Lisbon, Iowa... It was a Star tradition to make a treck there every year with an upper and lower field that were odd and a little town that seemed like something from the Truman show. But most notably was a picture of a famous wrestler Royce Alger. I guess he is the all time career champion for wins in Iowa wrestling (or at least at that time0.

Dallas, TX. Finals week of 1991 we were staying at a college football stadium with most of the corp staying in the locker rooms but there was a group of about 12 of us that stayed in the top level of the pressbox. IT got named the Penthouse and it was a lot of fun. On Finals day as we were loading to leave a few got stuck in the elevator on the way down.

GOOD TIMES!!!

[kac]

I'd say the school that I remember the most was Little Rock, AR in 1990, and it's because we didn't stay there.

We pulled up to the school to find CONDEMNED signs on it. I'll never forget pulling up and thinking "oh this is going to be just GREAT".

After some scrambling by the director, we stayed down the street in the gym of some sort of religious school (Baptist? Catholic? I have no idea).

Both schools were on hills maybe a half mile apart, so we had to march down the hill from the one school, and up the other hill to practice on the condemned school's field.

At dinnertime it started to downpour and there was a flash flood in the low part of the road right when we were heading back for dinner.

Trudging through that knee high water to get to dinner was very memorable. That was the first and only time I've ever walked up hill both ways to get to school. :)

[Walter]

In 1975, we were to stay in a school that had closed down for a couple of years in Ohio somewhere. We were just starting to unload our stuff when our corps director saw a RAT running around the floor and told us to load our stuff back on the bus..because that where we were sleeping that night.

The judges didn't get too close to us that night because nobody had taken a shower after a hard day of practise !!

We left right after the retreat for our next accomodation.. the Holiday Inn in the next town for ONE NIGHT !! B)

Edited June 27, 2006 by ODBC

[jonnyboy]

I'd say the school that I remember the most was Little Rock, AR in 1990, and it's because we didn't stay there.

We pulled up to the school to find CONDEMNED signs on it. I'll never forget pulling up and thinking "oh this is going to be just GREAT".

Ugh...kac, my memory is fading because I don't remember those details, but I do remember the condemed school.

Highlights: Bristol Rhode Island when the town gave usa steak and lobster diner. Parade was long but cool. Rehearsing at Disney's sports facility. The feilds were like putting greens, and the staff was embarrassed the the grass needed to be cut, so they cut about 1/16 of a blade of grass off 2 football sized feilds in about 15 minutes.

Staying in the same small town (Plattsburg?) two years in a row for finals (Kansas City years). Stands were full for ensemble every night. We didn't make finals in 88, but they were there too see us make it in 89.

Low Lights: Parma Ohio discusting old ice hockey rink. Some school in the south with gravel parking lots and LOTS of kids in "Dummer Dool" (When some of the summer school kids called us band nerds, the drumline ripped them apart....very satisfying to mentally spare with those kids). Anyplace with discusting water or cold showers.

Don't the low lights make the best memories?

[kac]

Ugh...kac, my memory is fading because I don't remember those details, but I do remember the condemed school.

Highlights: Bristol Rhode Island when the town gave usa steak and lobster diner. Parade was long but cool. Rehearsing at Disney's sports facility. The feilds were like putting greens, and the staff was embarrassed the the grass needed to be cut, so they cut about 1/16 of a blade of grass off 2 football sized feilds in about 15 minutes.

Staying in the same small town (Plattsburg?) two years in a row for finals (Kansas City years). Stands were full for ensemble every night. We didn't make finals in 88, but they were there too see us make it in 89.

Low Lights: Parma Ohio discusting old ice hockey rink. Some school in the south with gravel parking lots and LOTS of kids in "Dummer Dool" (When some of the summer school kids called us band nerds, the drumline ripped them apart....very satisfying to mentally spare with those kids). Anyplace with discusting water or cold showers.

Don't the low lights make the best memories?

Jon- we weren't all heading back together- I think it was just brass & guard on the field. If I remember correctly, you guys were up doing the afternoon sectional at the school where we slept.