Weekend Wonderings: Going Home

The Annex was -- is -- a place filled with many significant memories from my teens and early twenties. A few of us can actually claim to have attended school there -- my seventh grade classroom (which became the kindergarten once the New School opened) was one of the few places in the building to which we DIDN'T have access while practicing there with the Saints.

Our growth as a corps was measured by how much room we needed to rehearse. In the earliest days, the cafeteria served us well -- twirlers on the stage, drummers in the Ice Cream Room, big guard in the back, horn line in the center, guide-ons in the side aisle. Soon, we graduated to the Annex, and even spilled over into the New School gym on Friday nights for a lot of years. I still find it a bit amusing that the name of the Annex was changed during those days to the Parish Center -- given that we had sole use for three weeknights during the winter season, and parts of the weekend the entire year, I don't think many in the parish really "centered" there like we did.

While we might have had a vague sense of it back then, having access to the parish buildings was a true gift. In particular, having the Annex as a regular place to gather, rehearse, store equipment, and everything else -- free but for the yearly donations made by the corps back to the parish -- made it easier for us to grow and succeed at what we did for those ten years we were together.

Since our reunion in October 1980, very few of us have had the chance to go back and spend real time in the Annex. The notable exception? Any of the guys who are members of the Knights of Columbus Council associated with Our Lady of Peace Parish -- and I know of at least one!

As I'm preparing for our reunion meeting this evening, my mind keeps wandering, leaving me to wonder ... Will it still look the same? What room will we meet in? Who will show up tonight who wasn't with us at Menlo? Will we get any planning done???

Expect a postscript sometime later this weekend, as well as some additions to the Photo Gallery on www.saintsdrumcorps.com ...

All for now -- corpsdially yours from jo!