November 9, 2007 - Tonight,Tonight!

Before I begin, I would be remiss if I didn't wish my husband a Happy Anniversary ... we met 29 years ago tonight on a blind date that I didn't realize I was on until he got there.

So, how am I celebrating the event? With 87 of you this evening, of course!

Given that I gave up drum corps, in part, to nurture my relationship with Richard, the irony isn't lost on me.

Now, back to why I'm sure you're reading Saints Scribblings today - THE MINI-REUNION!

The out-of-towners have already begun to arrive in Central Jersey, and many of the rest of us are scrambling to take care of last-minute work and family obligations to clear the path to the Post. In my case, I'm also taking Monday off - I've turned down requests from three of my clients for meetings on that day (not always a wise thing when you're a self-employed consultant!), knowing I'll need the day to decompress.

Some last minute questions have been coming in. Here's the list, even if they've been asked (and answered) before:

• What's the dress code?
  Business casual (interpret at your desire!). Contrary to rumors, this is NOT a black-tie affair.
• What time?
  If you're part of the Reunion Committee or would like to help out in some way, get there around 7 pm. Otherwise, we're open for business from 7:30 - 11:30 tonight.
• Where is the Post again?
  T Nulty American Legion Post 471 (also known as the Post Inn), is at 25 Brown Avenue, Iselin 08830 (off Green Street, not far from where the circle used to be). Directions (and phone numbers for the directionally-challenged) are found in the Saints Scribblings from November 7th.
• What about music?
  This question has been asked almost as many times as the dress code question (makes me wonder how many of you were hoping to bring your horns or drum sticks - maybe next summer!). Yes, there will be music this evening - there's over 4 hours' worth already planned (you'll just have to wait and see - oops, hear!).
• What are we doing on Saturday and Sunday?
  See the Saints Scribblings from yesterday (November 8th / Mini Reunion Eve). The events will be covered in detail this evening - folks joining us for the first time tomorrow should keep their eyes on Scribblings and the Guest Book for last-minute updates, or contact the hosts for the events that are listed in yesterday's edition.
• Is it BYO?
  No. Beer, wine, and a cash bar are all available.
• How did your name get changed from Marilyn to JoAnne anyway?
  It was all because of Ralph Fair. Ask me tonight if you really want to know the whole story.

If any other questions come up today, I'll post them here as time permits.

I'll be heading back to the MotherLand (aka Woodbridge Township) sometime mid-afternoon, and that's when the updates will pause for a bit. After that, I'll squeeze in some stuff (and I'm sure Rocky will start posting photos in Gallery 11 on www.saintsdrumcorps.com) all throughout the weekend.

See ya later!

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

Mini Reunion Eve

My head is spinning!

The tentative plans for the rest of the mini-reunion weekend are listed below. Plans will be finalized Friday evening once we have a better sense of who would like to do what and when.

If you aren't able to join us Friday evening (Dawn, Valerie, and Jill, among others!), we'd enjoy having you with us for at least part of the day on Saturday and / or Sunday. Phone numbers to confirm plans are listed below.

Here we go!

• Saturday Morning: Breakfast / brunch at the Menlo Park Diner, between 9:30 and 11:30.
  Karen Parente is the host (cell number 732-947-7282).
  The Menlo Park Diner is on Rt 1 South, just south of Menlo Park Mall.
  NOTE: In the event of a LARGE turnout, we may need to move the breakfast / brunch gathering to the Menlo Park Mall Food Court.
• Saturday Afternoon: Golf / miniature golf at Fairway Golf Center (depending on weather) or bowling in Woodbridge. Time to be determined.
  Bill Meyer is the host (cell number 609-410-3299).
  The web address for Fairway Golf Center (1650 Stelton Road, Piscataway) is http://www.fairwaygolfcenter.com/par3.shtml.
  The web address for Woodbridge Bowling Center (346 Main St, Woodbridge) is http://www.woodbridgebowling.com.
• Saturday Dinner: Everyone is on their own.
  If looking for a group to connect to, contact JoAnne Parente (cell number 908-229-7154).
  There will probably be more information posted here about Saturday dinner after Friday night's festivities.
• Saturday Night: USSBA Northeast Championships at Giants Stadium 7:30 PM (depending on interest and weather).
  Contact Jimmy Pic no later than 3:30 pm on Saturday for more information if interested (cell number 908-432-2831 / home number 908-707-9637). Be prepared for very COLD conditions sitting in the stands!!!
• Sunday Afternoon: Veterans Day Parade, Woodbridge, 2:00 PM.
  A meeting location is still to be determined.
  Come watch lots of former Saints as they march down Main Street with Melrose Blackhawks, and pay tribute to our veterans!

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

Mini Reunion: Two Days and Counting

As promised, today brings directions to T Nulty American Legion Post 471 (also known as the Post Inn), 25 Brown Av, Iselin 08830. Thanks Althea!

The map below is just to give you something to look at while reviewing the directions - you may want to go out to Yahoo, MapQuest, or the site of your choice to pull your own.

As Althea rightly points out, Route 1 between just south of Roosevelt Park to points north of Woodbridge Center is a MESS with construction. Unless you live there and / or know what you're in for, avoid it.

Here's what she recommends:

• First, bring these phone numbers with you:
  732-634-9119 (the unlisted phone number for Post 471)
  908-307-0934 (Althea Mazar / cell phone)
  
• From 287 or areas South: Get on Route 9 North. Take the exit on the LEFT for Woodbridge Center Mall (after the Main Street Woodbridge exit which is on the right). This is Green Street. As soon as you take the exit, bear right (instead of left towards the mall), and continue forward on Green Street, across Route 1 & 9. After the Citgo Station on the left, you'll see Brown Avenue on the left. There is a sign that says The Post Inn. Make this left - Post is down on the right.


• From areas North of Woodbridge Center: Take the Garden State Parkway to Exit 131 (Iselin-Rahway-Rt 27). Make a left onto Rt 27. Go about a half-mile and make a right onto Green Street. Take Green Street for about 1.3 miles and make a right onto Brown Avenue.


• From Staten Island: Take the Outerbridge Crossing to Rt 440. Follow directions for Rt 9 North above.


• All other locations: Use the directions site of your choice, your GPS device, or contact Althea!

The parking lot is behind the Post.


All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

Tuesday Trivia / Reunion Edition - November 6, 2007

First, about Friday (can't believe it's THIS FRIDAY already) - We're working on getting some good directions up on the site (Althea is working on putting them together right now). In the meantime, if you trust your favorite Internet map site or GPS device, the full address of the Post is 25 Brown Avenue, Iselin NJ 08830.

Should you have trouble finding your way (translation: if you get lost), here are some numbers to have handy (especially since the Post does not have a listed number):

• American Legion Post 471: 732-634-9119
• Althea Mazar / cell number: 908-307-0934
• JoAnne Parente / cell number: 908-229-7154

Any last-minute updates will be posted all over the place on www.saintsdrumcorps.com, but the first, best place to check is the Guest Book. If you won't have Internet access between now and the end of the week, please let us know by e-mailing saintsreunion@gmail.com for us to reach you by phone if need be.

Registrations are pretty much complete, so the state-by-state list that's posted in last week's Tuesday Trivia is up to date.

Here's a version by section of our marching members. For those who were in more than one section over the years, you'll find their names only once, probably in either the horn or drum line:

Drum Line:

• Batista, Brian
• Bodzas, Jack
• Chiocchi, Gary
• Coleman, Brad
• Comprido, Jim
• Karpinski, Gary
• Matelski, Robert
• Meyer, Eric
• Reybert Bartlett, Debbie
• Schwartz, Bob
• Scotto, Mark
• Skibo, George

Color Guard:

• Batista Pasquale, Kathy
• Boumpani Feretich, Kathy
• Fastuca, Maureen
• Fastuca Ravino, Lorraine
• French Lyons, Priscilla
• Happel, Joann
• Jackson Piccolo, Barbara
• Maloney Wagner, Lisa
• Moon Lemmert, Terri
• Parente, JoAnne
• Parente, Karen
• Person Eager, Cathy
• Ponik Donnelly, Kathy
• Ribinsky Stanek, Nancy
• Skibo, Joyce
• Van Malden Westbrook, Michelle
• Yates Breen-Simone, Rhonda
• Zepko Tvedt, AnnMarie

Horn Line:

• Antol, Patty
• Balderose, Mary
• Batista, Joe
• Berliner, Bill
• Brady, Dave
• Breen, Steve
• Breen, Tom
• Burke Andel, Linda
• Burke Boyne, Carol
• Chesnovitz, Goober
• Chesnovitz, Peter
• Chiocchi, Kenny
• Chiocchi, Rocky
• Comprido, Jim
• Crafts, Peter
• DeAndrea, Dave
• DeAndrea Aldiero, Karen
• Durrua, Bill
• Durrua, Ken
• Fastuca, Michael
• Happel, Debbie
• Hickey Fitzgerald, Carol
• Humcke Bogner, Robin
• James, Verne
• Karol Miller, Chris
• Karol, Skippy
• Matelski, Mike
• Mazar, Althea
• Meyer, Bill
• Meyer DeLucia, Rene
• Morosoff, Chris
• Piccolo, Jim
• Ponik, Ferd
• Scotto, Mark
• Skarzynski, Glenn
• Stover Dziowgo, Darlene
• Wardlow, Red
• Wargo, Mike
• Zolnowski, Aaron

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

Monday Matchups - There At The End

Our first Monday MatchUps was posted on June 18, 2007, and here we are with our 18th edition, at the end of the roster as currently compiled. Next week's Monday MatchUps will be pre-empted with news from the mini-reunion.

If you're asking yourself, What reunion?, this is clearly your first contact with Saints Scribblings. If you're interested in attending and still haven't registered to attend the festivities at Post 471 in Iselin on November 9th, check out the home page on www.saintsdrumcorps.com. As long as you make all sorts of outrageous promises to Althea to pay for your dinner, you can still sign up.

We have some happy news to report: Bob Schwartz (Monday MatchUps, July 9) and Aaron Zolnowski (Monday MatchUps, August 6) have found us! Better yet, they both plan on attending the mini-reunion ... welcome home Aaron and Bob!

Back to the MatchUps!

Counting today's entries, there have been 217 members mentioned over the five+ months this blog has run. We've connected to 16, and sadly, learned of the passing of one of the members we listed.

Each of the members below were with us in the last year we competed - 1977. If you know how to reach them (or anyone else mentioned in previous Monday MatchUps), please contact me at joparente.saintsdrumcorps@gmail.com. Thanks!

• Al Hankerson
• Cathy Kadash
• David Kolczynski
• Laura Labassi
• David LaBerge
• Dave Leach
• Jimmy Mack
• Jay Marzella
• Lisa Peterson
• Howard Pinoos

Hope you've enjoyed this journey through the roster with me ...

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

Weekend Wonderings: Did He Know?

Following All Saints Day on the liturgical calendar is All Souls Day, a time to reflect and remember those we've lost.

With all the Saints stuff going on lately, I've spent some time thinking back on those who had the greatest long-term influence on the skills I developed and the person I've become. Many of them have been mentioned in prior Scribblings entries, so I'm just going to focus on one person today: H. Worth Ake.

As I've probably mentioned before, Mr. Ake was the person who encouraged me to take on the position of the Saints Public Relations Director while I was still just a junior in high school. I remember that the Saints Guard, in particular, was a tad irritated with Drum Corps News over its lack of coverage of our progress in NJA, as well as nary a mention of the rest of the corps. I wrote a letter to Worth and heard back in a flash.

There was no coverage, he said, because the requests for information from the Saints were going unanswered. He asked me to respond to some questions, and the rest is history.

I've been thinking about Worth quite a bit these past couple of weeks. Michael Boo, who does more than a bit of writing these days about corps, requested that church-based corps provide some input for an article he was putting together for DCI.org. The target was for the piece to coincide with All Saints Day.

Church-based corps AND on All Saints Day? It was like Worth was screaming down from heaven at me, and he wouldn't let me rest until I sent in enough information to Mike for us to be included.

The result? DCI.org is publishing a three-part Fanfare series titled The saints come marching in, and we're featured in the November 2nd edition (in case you haven't seen the article yet, click on the title).

Did Worth know way back in the early 1970s what his encouragement would mean? Could he have realized that his patience in working with me really helped to nourish a lifelong love of writing? Someday, I hope to have the answers (as well as to find out what the "H" stood for!).

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!

Stats - All Saints Day 2007

HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY!!!

Even if you don't celebrate holy days of obligation, make an exception for this one - after all, what other corps out there has a holy day named after them??? On top of that, we're into countdown mode for the reunion ... 8 days and speeding here fast!


First, reunion update: The roster for November 9th continues to be updated in the October 30th edition of Saints Scribblings. Scroll on down to see, by state, who will be with us.

Now, to the statistics:


For www.saintsdrumcorps.com:

• Total visits to the home page of the website: 27.548 (was 23,602 last report)
  
• Postings in the Saints Guest Book: 580 (was 480)
  
• Number of images in the Photo Galleries: 1223 across 11 galleries (was 1018 across 9 galleries)

Here's the progress we've made since last month in connecting with our members:

• Names on the Saints Member Roster (still need 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1975 rosters): 355
  Increase from 341 since the last report (includes all the Wargo files)
  
• Percentage of members connected to the site / hotline (directly or through others): 42% (145 members)
  Increase from 42% (140 members) since last report
  
• Percentage of members who have contacted us and / or have been contacted by us: 50% (173 members)
  Change from 51% (171) since last report
  
• Percentage of members who have posted contact info or have called the hotline: 35% (121 members)
  Increase from 34% (114) since last report
  
• Percentage of members with no obvious connection to the site: 50% (175 members)
  Change from 49% (163 members) since last report

All for now - corpsdially yours from jo!