March Moments 2009: March 25 - Memories from 1974, Chapter 2

March 25 - Memories from 1974, Chapter 2
by JoAnne Parente


Missing the World Open

Where's the irony in this? Two original members miss the chance to march in the World Open, our first world-class competition.

My absence from the field started about a week earlier. The morning of the Dream (again, another first for the corps), I literally collapsed in my parents' living room with a fever of a bazillion point nine. Calling Ralph Fair to tell him was almost comical - he kept asking me if I was sure I wasn't able to march as I was propped up against the wall while on the phone with him ... eventually he got the message.

Many of us are old enough to remember where they were when they found out Kennedy was shot (in my 3rd grade classroom, coloring with Robert Warshany, and at Perth Amboy General Hospital after Karen's tonsil surgery when we found out JFK had died). I also remember where I was when Nixon resigned - the evening of his announcement (August 8) and his departure from the White House (August 9), I was isolated from all but my mother, trying to keep from infecting the rest of the world with that nasty liver thing I had going.

The phone calls kept coming from members of the Board while you were all in Massachusetts, with the first one bringing news of Jackie Bodzas's unfortunate accident playing football or whatever it was at some rest area (Jackie, did I get the story right?). The highs of winning the prelims, and the horror of what happened at finals, left me as excited and disappointed as all of you.



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.