On July 14th, I went with my friends Curt and Joan to see the Drum Corp show that was here in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome. What a show! It has been years since I really reflected back on my marching band days, but this one event brought back so many memories. The sweat, the sunburns, the welling-up feeling you get at those big hits in the music and drill, the camaraderie and hours and hours of teamwork that culminate into a show that you will remember for a lifetime. Sometimes you just need something to jog the memory.
There were flocks of high school students that swarmed the place, their eyes wide, eagerly awaiting their favorite corp to perform, perhaps dreaming of being on one some day. That ship has long since sailed for me since you "age out" of drum corp eligibility at the ripe old age of 21. I can look at those teenagers and remember feeling the same way though.
There are a few veteran corps though that perform as exhibition corps (as opposed to competition corps). The one pictured above is Corp Vets (Yeah, that's right. When you say it it sounds like Corvettes. Ha! Clever, huh?) They seem to have a blast!
April, a friend of mine from high school who is now a school teacher, recently wrote in her blog about being nostalgic about this time of year because this is when we started up band camp (Yes, band camp!). She wrote about this call-response thing we used to do to make sure we were in the correct marching posture. I had completely forgotten about it. It was pretty rapid-fire and went something like this:
How are the feet? Together!
Stomach? In!
Chest? Out!
Shoulders? Back!
Elbows? Frozen!
Chin? Up!
Eyes? With Pride! Eyes? With Pride! EYES? WITH PRIDE!
Thanks for that memory, April.
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