From the Road - Part IV

As Evie noted in her blog the standard marching band convoy consists of four buses, a van pulling a trailer with a gator on it, the two eighteen wheelers (food and equipment trucks), the Corps’s supply truck and souvenir trailer, and the Corps’ motor home pulled. The Corps pulled into the South Allegheny High School in McKeesport PA (south east of Pittsburg) around 1:10. Shortly after 1:30 the trailers had been detached and the Corps was bedding down inside the school.

Wednesday, the Corps was up at 7:15 for exercising and stretching before an eight o’clock breakfast. Following breakfast they Corps went into sectionals to hone particular elements. Sometimes a portion of the drill or music is rewritten to give it added strength or to help cover a flaw.

As I type this the pit is twenty yards away under a grove of trees working one particular series. The pit has xylophones, marimbas, timpani, base drum and various cymbals. For the last twenty minutes they have been working at perfecting a four bar segment.

This morning over breakfast I noticed that about a third of the Corps had a white band across their forehead. We noticed Josh has a band too, just not as noticeable or thick but it was still there an inch thick just below his hair line. The band is where the top of their head has been sheltered from the sun. The darker their faces have become, the starker the contrast with the band is becoming.

This evening they will finish at eight with dinner and then about 9:30 with a movie in the school’s auditorium. Josh opted out of the movie and spent the evening chatting with mom and dad, calling nana and pupa in London, as well as enjoying the air conditioning (the school has not AC).

As you will know the Corps’ schedule is tight. Most days there is no free time. The Corps goes from wake-up directly to stretching and running and then to breakfast. Between breakfast they are either in sectionals, sub sectionals or visual (working on the show as a whole). The schedule is so tight Josh had little time to get a few items from our camper when it was only fifty yards away and then take them to the gymnasium to put them with his luggage or put them at his seat on the bus.

Days before Josh left for Texas on 1 June Evie and I again read through the rules of expectations and conduct. One thought struck me as I read through them, they are more strict than many of the conduct rules we have for camp staffs. Smoking, drinking and profanity are not permitted, not even from volunteers. Even prescription and over the counter medication is handled by the Corps’ trainer as the members are not allowed to have drugs of any kind with their personal items.

Members are expected to be on the bus or at their rehearsal location on time. One of the complaints of Crossmen veterans is that when the schedule calls for members to be on the bus at 4:40, that there are sometimes two or three that are three minutes late. They see this as the discipline being a little lax. In some Corps when it says to be on the bus at 4:40, everyone is in their seat by 4:35.

As for romantic relationships, the Corps makes it clear it has not time to deal with such matters. They are not willing to risk esprit de corps on such matters. Hence, members can be friends but not romantically involved. If a couple were already together beforehand, the regulations make it clear, no PDA and hand holding. Remember, seating is assigned by section on the buses so anyone you would be dating would be on another bus. And frankly, given their schedule, there is no time for romantic involvements. At night when there is no show and everything is done around 10:15, there is just time to get a shower in before lights out at 11:15. On days where there is a show, more often than not the Corps is traveling to 2:00 to 3:30 in the morning.

Below are a few pics of Corps life. The posted schedule is typical of most show days. They were allowed to sleep a little longer as they did not bed down until around 4 AM.

In the one rehearsal pic, notice two things. A) The drum line is wearing one set of shorts and the baritones another (the contra-bases, mellophones and trumpets had their own too). That day the caption heads ordered their sections to wear the shorts they bought as sections while in San Antonio. B) Notice one of the baritones is rehearsing without his instrument. It is being repaired but he still marches using a cone.

One is of the lunch line. When the Corps moves toward the chuck wagon, the cook and volunteers announce, “the locust are coming.” The fourth pic is of the morning stretches that take place before a mile run.