Okay, so I have been blabbing in the last few posts about the Guardsmen Drum & Bugle Corps that I marched with during the spring and summer of 1979. So what about them?
Well, back then, it was a group of percussionists, color guard, and bugle players who would perform and compete around the country in Drum Corps International (DCI) competitions. The “grand daddy” competition was the World Championships, which in 1979 were held in Alabama. Only the top 12 corps in a massive preliminary competition get to compete in the nationally televised finals.
In 1979, The Guardsmen placed 10th overall in the preliminary competition, giving us a chance to compete in the “nite show” championships. We improved our position in the final competition, finishing 7th overall, with our dynamite horn line placing 3rd in horns.
While I have recently obtained a DVD from DCI of the top 12 corps that competed in the finals, someone was nice enough to post on youtube a video of our performance. Because of the technical limitations of posting long videos to youtube, they broke up the video into two parts, and I am going to link to those videos below (should you feel inclined to see what it was I did for an entire summer in 1979).
If you watch the end of the second part, you’ll see some of the post-performance commentary by the on-air talent. In 1979, Maynard Ferguson was one of the televised announcers and he thoroughly enjoyed our performance…especially our horn line.
Sadly, the Guardsmen “folded” several years later, but their memory lives on in alumni like myself. Fortunately, one of the corps members from “way back when” has put up a website for Guardsmen alumni.
In a previous post I showed a picture I found of the 1979 Guardsmen Drum & Bugle Corps that I marched with that summer (Click Here for that Post).
Since SOME people were not able to pick me out of the line due to:
Me having so much more hair
Me weighing about 50 pounds less
My looking so young (I never WAS that young you know)
I have therefore decided to help you all out.
Hint #1: I am one of the few people in the picture that has their shirt on.
Hint #2: I am one of the few people who has socks still on their feet
Hint #3: This is hard to tell because we are standing on uneven ground, but I am the shortest person in the snare drum line
Hint #4: I am one of the few people who is wearing their shoes
**Spoiler**: If you STILL can’t find me, I am the 9th person in the snare drum line counting from left to right (I am the second person from right-to-left but I found that some people’s browsers clip the right side of the picture…leaving out poor Geno Garrett).
Hard to believe, is it not? I can hardly believe it myself!
It has been far too long, so we thought it was time to add another post regarding Donna’s health.
The process has been slow but steady, and Donna has been very patient in regaining her strength. Here we are, nearly a full year after she was released from the hospital/rehab, and she is now able to:
Drive again
Move around without her IV pole (thanks to a generous donation of a portable enteral feeding pump)
Eat occassionally
Get on the scale and see THREE digits in her weight (more than that I cannot say lest I be so uncouth as to hint at her weight…just know that she is looking SO much healthier these days).
The blessings continue to be poured down upon us, for which we are ever so grateful!