March Moments 2009: March 36 - Indoor Shows, Chapter 2

March 36 - Indoor Shows, Chapter 2
by JoAnne Parente

(Editor's note: March doesn't end until we all decide it does - the ultimate antithesis of aging out. As long as entries for March Moments keep coming in, March keeps going, too.)


Going Over the Scoresheets

The beginning of rehearsal on Wednesday evenings for the Saints Guard was always the same once the season started: reviewing the scoresheets and GE tapes.

Somehow, it made me feel more grown up that we invested time in going over the judges' feedback each week. We were trusted to learn from each performance, and to make decisions about the value of opinions of others. We were the recipients of valuable lessons, and benefited from failure as well as success.

I've carried those lessons with me, and practiced them in some circumstances better than others. Thirty years later, I'm still benefiting - and I guess you are, too.



Comments or questions about our March Moments series? Click here to submit, or if that doesn't work, send them to joparente DOT saintsdrumcorps AT gmail DOT com.

March Moments 2009: March 27 - A Couple More Tales

March 27 - A Couple More Tales
by Bill Berliner


Story edited for content: One of the Chez brothers got extremely wasted at a party, which might have been at Kubinak's (editor's note: I removed the name so there's only a one out of three chance of getting it right in the case of background checks). We dragged him up to his front porch, rang the bell, and bolted (nice guys that we were …). That led to a new dance number — “Do the Chez.” According to Peaches, they still laugh about it ... although I suspect Mrs. Chez is still pissed.


Recruiting, Saints-Style: Andy Vescey had one of the old-style VW vans, and he used to haul a bunch of us (me, KMRO, LOIS REED?!, etc.) back and forth to practice. A few times, we had our horns with us — around 2:00 AM, we’d set up in front of a fraternity house in New Brunswick and play the off-the-line. We considered it a form of PR work for the corps …



Comments or questions about our March Moments series? Click here to submit, or if that doesn't work, send them to joparente DOT saintsdrumcorps AT gmail DOT com.

March Moments 2009: March 9 - Tradeoffs

March 9 - Tradeoffs
by JoAnne Parente

On this day back in 1974, we all gathered at Herbert Hoover Junior High in Edison for our annual Flying Silks show. I can't tell you what guards and ensembles competed, but I remember most of the rest of that evening more clearly than what I did yesterday.

That show was the first time I was able to successfully integrate my dating life and drum corps life. Most guys I dated back then didn't get it. Just one did (thanks!).

Winter season, in particular, meant tradeoffs for me. Marching with the guard translated to missing dances, concerts, job opportunities, and whatever else most people in high school and college get a chance to do when not studying (OK, I realize many of us didn't study as much as we should have, but that's the topic for another Scribblings entry).

It wasn't just competitions that stood in the way of non-corps social events - I missed a high school prom because it was held the same night as a practice for a major show. I'm sure most of you can name at least as many tradeoffs you made as I can.

Eventually, I traded off drum corps, leaving my post at DCA behind to continue developing a relationship with the man who became my husband. Nineteen years of marriage later, Richard is finally getting to know many of you - and it's about time.

The tradeoffs have all been worth it for me. I hope the same is true for 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.

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

March Moments 2009: March 4 - Days of the Week, Saints-Style

March 4 - Days of the Week, Saints-Style
(by Pete Chesnovitz)

(Editor's note: This March Moment was submitted as part of last week's Tuesday Trivia bonus question)

All winter season weekends were the same back then:

• Saturday - horn practice at the Annex, then board the bus for a color guard show
• Sunday - another show
• Monday - a day off (we all hung out at the Annex anyway)
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - color guard practices that we hung out at
• Friday - was horn rehearsal

Then, it was back to do it all over again. I spent more time at the Annex than anywhere else growing up, more than school anyway. Maybe that's why I work for the post office and can tell you where most high school football fields are.


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!

Weekend Wonderings: Dream Jobs

If you're already making money "doing" corps or something related to the skills you picked up back then, think of this Scribblings entry as some sort of validation if you'd like.

For the rest of us, here are two questions for you: If someone told you at this moment that your ideal job in corps / guard is available to you for the asking, what would it be? Also, do you take it, or keep doing what you're doing right now?

Here are some revisionist criteria to consider, if needed, to help you to dream a bit and decide if working in corps or guard is for you:

• You're physically / mentally healthy enough, and have all the skills needed to do the work.
• If you'd like to do it full-time, you can afford to do the work without pay, or they're paying you more than enough to do it.
• If you're interested in part-time work, the schedule around everything else that you want or need to do will accommodate the gig with no problem.
• Corps and guard culture (for lack of a better term) is exactly what you want it to be - like we remember it from the mid-70s, as it progressed during the 80s, as it is now, etc. (This item was added for those who just don't like what corps and guard have become.)
• The important people in your life are fully supportive of your decision to take the gig.

If I've left something off the list that poses a potential barrier for you, feel free to add it as you consider your career change ...

I haven't thought about this topic in quite awhile. Time spent over the past few weeks has brought me back there, and I find myself wondering. If you're looking for my answer, you'll have to wait a bit - I want to savor the possibilities for just a tad longer before making my decision.

I hope you'll share your dreams with us - feel free to use the Comments area below, the Guest Book on www.saintsdrumcorps.com, or get in touch with me directly at joparente.saintsdrumcorps@gmail.com.

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

PS: In case you're wondering, right now there are 47 people registered for the November reunion. About 20% are members who are coming in from outside the greater Jersey metropolitan area. The first wave of people who registered can be found in last week's Tuesday Trivia (scroll down below). An updated list will be posted here as part of the October 16th Tuesday Trivia, so stay tuned!

Tuesday Trivia - October 2, 2007

Last week, Goober asked you to name all the rooms in the Annex. Here's the "official" answer in clockwise order entering through the front doors on Walsh Avenue:

• (1) the foyer (area with the telephone)
• (2) the gym (including the open area at the far end leading to the other exit doors)
• (3) coat room (used multiple ways over the years, including storage of the pantihose we used to sell)
• (4) boys bathroom
• (5) boys bathroom
• (6) the room that held the equipment used to address the parish collection envelopes (was originally a classroom)
• (7) the kitchen (used by the drummers)
• (8) the boiler room (used by the drummers on rare occasions)
• (9) classroom (used by the horn line originally, then by the drum line)
• (10) the stage (also was originally used as a classroom)
• (11) the stage storage room (to the right of the stage on floor level)
• (12) classroom
• (13) classroom
• (14) classroom (yes, there are 3 classrooms on that side!)
• (15) girls bathroom
• (16) girls bathroom
• (17) the left coat room (otherwise known as our equipment room)

In addition, there is a storage area above the equipment room, and the "bingo ledge" (they used to call the bingo numbers from there at one time) above the entry doors. Neither is technically a room, but part of the architecture.

Here were the replies (in the order in which I received them):

• Priscilla French Lyons:
  OK, lets try, As you walk in the entrance, to your right you have the equipment room, then 2 girls bathrooms, around the corner is 2 classrooms that we were never allowed to touch then there was the stage on the other wall (my favorite spot!) then around the next corner is the horn room (or the one horrible memory I have of all the color guard having to go in one by one to try out for drum major into that room) then the next room was the drum room then I think there might be a small kitchen that way the first room used for the drum room then turn the corner and you have 2 boys bathrooms, then the room where we paid dues and kept uniforms the back out the doors???
• Karen DeAndrea Aldiero
  Okay, This is how I remember those rooms...
  1st: "side room where drumline paracticed" or "the room where it took me 3 months to play any other note beside low "c"
  2nd: "kitchen" or the room where Mr. Wilke taught the mellophones to "tooey ooey oo"
  3rd: "girls bathroom" or the place where me, cathy, mary & carol would hide out(practice)
  4th " the main room" or the room where Swan would make your knees quake while standing in a pool of your own spit.
  lastly: "the holy classroom" which was usually kept locked against the Saints...
  Hoped you liked my versions...
• Jackie Bodzas
  I might not be too good at this anyway seeing as how I still think I went to “Kidneygarden” in the annex. But to name the rooms is a tough one. Over the years I believe we all played in every room in the building. If the door was unlocked that meant that your section could “hang” in there. I even remember the cymbals practicing in the boys bathroom.
  Three things were for certain: (I think)
  1-the equipment room was the little room to the right of the door as you first walk into the main room.
  2- drumline practiced in the kitchen (which is why I am hard of hearing to this day) till the horn line moved out of the big room on the left(last 2 doors).
  3-horn line moved to the main room after the CG went somewhere else (other building-different night?)

Thanks to Goober for submitting the question and to Priscilla, Karen, and Jackie, for sharing your Annex memories with us!

Our latest Tuesday Trivia question comes from Jackie Bodzas: What were the names of the buses?

Send your answers to joparente.saintsdrumcorps@gmail.com by Monday, October 8th, with Trivia in the subject line so I don't miss your submission. Remember, prizes, prizes, we have no prizes!

Have ideas for future Tuesday Trivia editions? Send those in as well!

All for now -- corpsdially yours from jo!

Insistence, Persistence, Ownership

Yesterday brought a bit of insight to me about something that I don't think I truly understood before about the phenomenom we know as the Saints.

As part of other conversations we were having, I asked Jimmy Pic what it was about the Saints that attracted him when he joined. Since I signed up for the Saints as an original member without a lick of marching experience, I was curious to see why someone would leave another corps to be part of us -- especially since getting to Fords and Woodbridge for rehearsal wasn't exactly a walk around the block for him [Side note to Pic -- please don't walk along 287 to get to Fords anymore!!!].

Pic was very free and open about sharing his experiences with the Silver Lancers, a corps which was a valid competitor of ours for many years. His primary reason for coming to the Saints was to be on the field -- we were competing that summer, while his first corps was only marching parades.

As we continued our discussion, though, the difference between the corps was much more than a decision to be on the field. To summarize everything Pic explained, it really boils down to three words: insistence ... persistence ... ownership.

I thought the things he described about us happened in all the corps we competed against -- I was wrong! I just know how much the three concepts were such a big part of how we created our excellence ...

Insistence is all about the getting-in-your-face attitude we had when it came to what we did. Be it musical notes, cadence, equipment position, or whatever, we challenged each other to do it right, or to do it better. We weren't afraid to tell each other when things needed to be fixed.

Persistence is when we got together to hold our own rehearsals outside of regular practices. How many of us gathered at each other's homes to go over some particularly difficult piece of music or equipment work? Most of us. Were the instructors there to help us? Probably not.

Ownership is each time one of us suggested something better, something extra we could be doing with drill, equipment work, or whatever. We weren't soley dependent on the powers in charge to create who we were. Our unique stamp as members was found in every part of what we did when we performed.

What a lesson ... thanks, Pic!

All for now -- corpsdially yours from jo!

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!