Friday, March 6, 2009

March Moments 2009: March 6 - El Khobar Lives

March 6 - El Khobar Lives
by jo

Desert Song and El Khobar are among my favorite memories of what happened OFF the field in 1974.

The winter before, we were all told to report to the Annex to see a movie. No one was excused, and no one was told what it was all about. A couple hours later, we walked out of the Annex with a clear vision of what Desert Song really meant.

For the first time, we were asked to keep a secret about our summer repertoire, and keep it we did. It was the year we really turned the corner as a competitive corps, and I'm still sad about missing half that summer season (again, apologies to those who had to get shots after I got sick!).

At every guard show that winter, Karen and I hung the bright green El Khobar Lives! banner somewhere prominent on the gym wall. Didn't matter who asked about it, we always answered the same way - come see us this summer and find out for yourself. Worth Ake was close to bribing me for the lead on the story, and I wouldn't budge.

Another part of the memory, of course, was the standup recruiting soldier cutout that we -ehem- borrowed from the Armory where we practiced summer drill. He fulfilled his duties admirably at the NJA championships in Wildwood that May, fully dressed for the occasion.

I'll leave the summer season memories for that year to those who were active participants in pulling it off. Looking at what DCIs have become, we were YEARS ahead of the game.

left to right: JoAnne Parente, Soldier Boy El Khobar, Terry Gyorfy


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.

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

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