When I attended St. Catherine's Elementary School in Norwood, Massachusetts, I played French Horn in its drum and bugle corps. Although I bent my horn from banging it on my bedroom dresser when I couldn't master the scales, marching in military style with that group was one of the best experiences of my life. I loved marching in parades and in competitions. In my young days, the competition was all about perfection: our uniforms: the creases, the tassels on our very clean boots (which I found stored in the eaves of our family home with the toes eaten out by squirrels); right up to the erect feathers we wore on our tall hats. Girls wore skirts and boys wore pants. We trained in the Town Armory to perfect our drills: turning on a dime and moving on command from our leader (Master?). Anyway, I loved it and I hold a special place in my heart for those competitions. For years, I have wanted to attend one, and this year I finally conveniently got to: in Bristol.
The competitions now are nothing like those days. They are more like Cirque du Soleil performances. There is the perfect-looking band with feathered tall hats, but I didn't see any boots (just comfortable matching shoes), and they got to wear sparkles. Along with the band were dancing, acrobatic others in even more colorful costumes. They were the flag throwing, baton and faux rifle-twirling accoutrement and their acrobatic dancing reminded us of not only Cirque but a cheerleading competition. It was really fun, entertaining and in some cases, truly amazing. These are huge production numbers with props including wooden horses and shadow (one-dimensional) figures! And the music was mostly jazz, contemporary numbers we didn't recognize with only a few songs we did. It was very, very impressive and dramatic.
Teams hailed from Nashua, New Hampshire (Spartans); two teams from New Jersey (Raiders and Jersey Surf), Florida (Teal Sound), Texas (Crossmen), Iowa (Colts), Pennsylvania (The Cadets), and last but not least from Fort Mill, South Carolina (Carolina Crown). Larry had to look up their home town when we got home, because the program incorrectly hailed them from Fort Sill. There is no Fort Sill in South Carolina. Anyway, Carolina Crown took the crown in this competition to win first place! We were very excited! I also liked their costumes the best (white with champagne sparkly panels on their chests), plus their performances were the most like Cirque, with costume changes and huge metal-looking cubes added to their flags, guns and batons. They also performed the largest dance routine and it was really, really good.
Just like Santa at the end of a town parade (or Macy's Parade), this competition finished with The Cadets using a Christmas theme. Their handlers walked and rode around with Santa hats on and their equipment transport was decorated with holiday lights. Their dancers' costumes cleverly and artistically resembled wrapped presents while their musicians wore cream uniforms with burgundy sashes and trim on their hats.
I was mesmerized by all the gleaming trumpets, French horns and tubas, including many kinds of snare and base drums playing a medley of Christmas tunes. Their marching was perfectly erect, but they were not in military formations. They were side-stepping, twirling and moving like a synchronized dance team.
Boy, have drum and bugle corps competitions improved! If you've never seen one, you must go. It is all-American, entire-family entertainment. Cheer on your favorite team. And on July 3rd, we were treated to the Bristol Harbor fireworks display in the background. People in the neighborhood also lit off their own rockets as the teams performed. When the last team played, the harbor display was in progress and I wish I had my camera to capture the magic of colorful bursts in the sky directly over those feathery tall hats. Magic.
boy, am I behind the times. these slick marching bands are a far cry from band when I went to school. your description really brought the evening to vivid life - thanks!
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