has you corps

[joeb]

A couple of my favorite tour memories, are of times that we would roll into some little, tinny, town in the middle of no where in the middle of the night. And over the course of the time we spent there, the town seemingly adopted us as their own.

1st...1989. DCI finals.. Kansas City..... We stayed in a little blip of a town called Lone Jack.. Not more then three or four hundred people... At first the community had know idea what to think of us. They were obviously taken a back by our uniqueness. As the week wore on more and more of the townies, would visit rehearsal. Eventually grandmas, parents, and even kids where bringing treats, drinks, smiles, and cheers.... The foot ball team even gave up their main practice field for the week, for us. And spent a lot of their practice time watching us. By the end of the week, there was a community orginized event for our final run through.

I marched Blue Stars 88, 89, 92, 93. and in 89 we one a ring... that was great! But what was interesting was when we left the community for (our finals) there was a huge sign on the way out of town that read, GO BLUE STARS, BEAT MADISON!!!!!! We found this to be obviously funny, yet flattering... If you are ever housed in Lone Jack, Expect a good time...

2nd, In 1993.... again we pulled in somewhere between midnight at dawn. When we woke up we were in Charlevoix MI.... I don't know if you've ever been to Charlevoix, or an area near there, But WOW what a place. Beautiful surroundings. The lake, the trees, the Harbor. The boats, it was amazing. The school we were at was on top of a hill over looking the lake in all it's glory. Breakfast was an incredibly intimate, and peaceful experience for me this day. We were housed with most of our competition at this school. So the immediate area was buzzing with drumcorps. This, as many of you know is just a fun environment to be in. Adding to that, was the buzz of the community, The view of the lake, and the beautiful morning. Probably around 10:00 am we got to work. We started warming up facing N.W... facing the lake, We were still on awe of its beauty. After about ten or so minutes we started pestering our drum staff to let us march down to the lake to warm up and do our sectional thing. They were hesitant at first of course, but I think they really wanted to be down in the area as well.

We marched down to the lake front, found some shade and continued to warm up. It wasn't 15 minutes and there was a significant crowd beginning to form around us. After about a half hour I'd say there were thirty to fifty people mulling around us. They were obviously intrigued and excited for us, the festival, and the competition that was going to happen that night.

One of us decided it would be a good time to do a standstill with the entire ensemble by the lake for these people. So we sent some one back up the hill to inform the Director and the rest of the staff of the happenings down below. They were there in know time. We did our thing and the people from the community loved it. They were eating us up!

That night at the show, it seemed the entire county was in attendance. All of the competitors were greeted with rousing ovations. But it just seemed to me that they were pulling for us!

We won the show that night, and received multiple standing ovations.

It's nice to treated like a ROCK STAR once and a while.

I could be mistaken but I believe we were awarded the (key to the city) that night as well. Maybe one of brethren can help recall this.

Later that night we were treated to the mid-way at the carnival right on the lake front. And fun and spirits, in the entire town.....

the next year, 94 the line tech who had aged out in 93 titled the cadence Charlevoix.

After our treatment there, they earned it!

These types of happenings are one the big reason's we do what we do!

Anything like this ever happen to any of you?

joeB

[joeb]

oops sorry for the title.......Joe slows down

[Iplaytimpani]

This happens all the time and is a great great thing. A lot of times the community will even feed the corps dinner or a snack and while this is totally appreciated, it has contributed to my dislike of spaghetti! But hey, a meal that the corps doesnt have to prepare is still a meal. :P

[soccerguy315]

I think it's awesome when random people from the town you are staying in come out to watch rehearsal.

[oneanddone06]

When we were in Kansas this past summer they kept the Dairy Queen and the Pizza Hut that were by the school open longer so that we could go there after practice. They also let us use the community pool after ensemble that was near the fields we were practicing on.

[CrunchyTenor]

I remember a few small towns that adopted us. Corydon and Seymour, IA, and Byhalia, OH, come to mind.

We were staying in Byhalia for US Open. The local farmers fed us an all-veggie lunch, picked fresh that morning. After that first time, in 1973, the corps requested to stay there on subsequent visits.

We had corps family in the Iowa towns, so we were family by extension. We even presented the Key to the City of Anaheim to the mayor of Seymour.

Garry in Vegas

[gbass598]

When we were in Kansas this past summer they kept the Dairy Queen and the Pizza Hut that were by the school open longer so that we could go there after practice. They also let us use the community pool after ensemble that was near the fields we were practicing on.

Kansas seems to be really hospitable. I can't remember exactly where it was but we were housed at a school in Kansas in '98 and the band boosters of the school did a pig roast for us one night with tons of food. It was easily one of our best meals of the summer.