The Latest
Monday Memory: When There Was No Off-Season
Back in the earliest of days, the Bluecoats never heard of "Spring Training." We trained all year round, every week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings with the occasional weekend camp, and just transitioned our work based on the season. In the fall, we would focus on basics at the old Boys Club. In the early '70's, it was about teaching many of us to simply play our instruments. Some of us learned on ancient equipment (I started on a single piston bugle...google that!) and the marching staff would teach us all about posture and military-style marching. It was mostly a time to keep us together from the previous season and to welcome newcomers.
Bob Barker: the unlikeliest of traditions dies with Barker’s real death
It was the staple hoax of every drum corps summer. It was a tribute to our gullibility as members with news from the “real world” when we were living within the drum corps bubble. And it was something that spread, annually, across many drum corps each summer. But how did this annual “tradition” get started? Chalk it up to a couple of Bluecoats who wanted to test the waters on how far a rumor could spread in a drum corps summer.
Monday Memory: When a Viral Outbreak Stopped Bluecoats from Attending Finals... the First Time
Sometimes history does repeat itself. 2021 is not the first time the Bluecoats returned to the field following a virus outbreak in America. In 1976 an outbreak of virus labeled Legionnaires disease (named for the outbreak being connected to a Legionnaires convention) hit the east coast of the United States. The 1976 Drum Corps International World Championships were scheduled for Philadelphia, capitalizing on the nation’s Bicentennial celebrations in the location of our nation’s founding.
Monday Memory: When You Carried the Pit on your Shoulders
Back in the early days of Bluecoats the drum corps front ensemble looked very different than it does today. Actually, there was NO front ensemble. During the early 1970s everything on the field had to be carried and nothing was “grounded” anywhere. Tympani? Carried it. Marimba? Carried it. Chimes? Yep, carried it! By the end of the decade corps were allowed to “ground” a few items, but they still had to be carried on and off the field. By the mid 1980s the rules changed and a boundary off the field was allowed for “pit” equipment but on-field performers weren’t allowed, at first, to enter and leave this area between the 30s and off the front sideline.
Monday Memory: When the News Traveled by Snail Mail
Today Bluecoats can notify their members, fans and the entire activity in moments by simply dropping a Social Media post. Between text, social media, e-mail and the website, you are never far from fresh information. But that’s not always been so. Keeping the members, parents and activity notified of Bloo news was a bigger chore “back in the day” and relied upon Director Messages and then later the Blue Review.
Monday Memory: When Some of Us Rang in the New Year in Dallas
It started out as a typical winter break drum corps camp in late December 1987. There was plenty of excitement on its own because this was the second off-season rehearsal following Bluecoats cracking into the top 12. But for about a dozen members of the corps, this camp would be different. They would leave early and travel over 1,000 miles to do drum corps. In the off-season. On New Year’s Day.
Monday Memory: Happy Birthday Bluecoats!
Adorning some of our merchandise, you see the year 1972 as the origin of the Bluecoats. But would it surprise you that the birth of the Bluecoats is a little complicated? Not if you know the history of the only drum corps on the planet to win a World Championship after the corps had folded and re-organized. And Bluecoats did that twice!
Monday Memory: When the Banquet was after Thanksgiving
For about half of the existence of the Bluecoats, the season-ending banquet happened the day after Thanksgiving. It was a day of endings and beginnings, as the first rehearsal of the next season began the next morning. Mostly held at the (former) Four Winds banquets facility in northeast Canton, it was a time for everyone to dress up (for once) and to hug and cry and laugh and smile.
Long before there was social media and cell phones, when long-distance phone calls actually cost money, the Banquet ended a long “off season” where you had virtually no communication with your drum corps family. Out of towners would get a hotel room and arrive early (and stay up late). Other than perhaps move-ins, Banquet night may have been the most anticipated date on the calendar.