March Moments 2009: March 23 - Memories from 1974, Chapter 1

March 23 - Memories from 1974, Chapter 1
by Jim Piccolo


The World Open

As I sit typing this and listening to our corps from 1974 Dream, it brings back so many memories.

One in particular was at the 1974 World Open. It was the first time the corps had an extended overnight trip; President Nixon had resigned while we were in there also. We were staying in Lynn, Massachusetts for the World Open which was actually being held in Lowell which was about 30-45 minutes away. The Manning Bowl in Lynn was a mess! They were repairing it as I recall.

Anyway, we placed 1st in Prelims (remember changing the drill down to 8 1/2 minutes for that?) with a score of 70.150. Our nearest competitor was the CW Townsmen with a 68.45. After we performed at finals the corps felt we did a good job and had a great chance at winning.

We are on retreat and the scores were announced. We come in 2nd place with a score of 63.3 to the Keystone Regiment. The future Crossmen, who placed 3rd in prelims with a 66.650, won the finals with a 65.65! We dropped almost 7 points from prelims. We were shocked to say the least!

The night was a clear but dewy night and you could see the moisture build-up on the instruments. Keystone was standing next to us in retreat and suddenly I had noticed that one of our tymp players was writing on the head of his tymp and leaning it in the direction of Keystone so that they could see what he was writing. I am sure it wasn't pleasantries of congratulations. One of our Drum Majors saw this also and told the tymp player to stop and he graciously did.

We came off the field and we really showed our class! The horn line picked up our horns as if we were marching in a parade and when we stopped, we picked up our legs as if we were competing! Putting the instruments away and riding on the bus back to Lynn was very sobering experience. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop! Everyone went to bed as soon as we got back.




Interested in submitting your own favorite memories for March Moments? Click here to submit, or if that doesn't work, send them to joparente DOT saintsdrumcorps AT gmail DOT com.