Friday, August 08, 2003 - 3:22 PM
Denny,I thought about writing a history of the corps a while ago, but when I considered the scale, if done right, I came to my senses and decided to keep quiet. :-)
This undertaking would require tons of input from other FMMs from various eras, including Don Warren's personal memories. It would also require a HUGE collaborative undertaking from me (or preferably someone with even better skills and more free time) as the point man to pull everything together and write up the raw data to give the tone of the work a unified integrity throughout.
If done right, I envision a basic framework like this:
1. Cavalier history in detail (music played each season, drill comments, innovations introduced, any new equipment added, changes in uniform, details on uniform design and manufacture, every contest with dates, location, and scores, details on every individual and ensemble contest, and so on).
2. Sidebar personal remembrances from FMMs from each decade, as many as would like to contribute.
3. Don Warren’s personal remembrances for each of the years since 1948 or even a bit earlier (starting from his first commitment to lead a Boy Scout troop).
4. Remembrances of volunteers and instructors (a chapter on the Genglers and other saints like them, how Frank Arsenault revolutionized drumming in the Midwest, Sal Ferrara’s era as music director, and Larry McCormick’s influence on drumming, for a few examples).
That would be so exciting, because anybody who was ever connected with the corps (including volunteers and instructors) would be encouraged to contribute.
To be discreet, we’d tactfully leave out a few sensitive facts, like the lyrics to the colorful songs we sang (and the 2003 corps currently sings) on the buses, details of initiations, and of course the ever illusive meaning of Splooie (or is it Spoolie?). :-)
By the time we'd finish, I would have been long dead (assuming I'd allow myself to follow that well-beaten path), and the resulting tome would take up 10 times the available bandwidth on this Web site, and the hard-copy book would destroy about five forests.
But it does sound like an exciting project. Too bad a guy also has to keep interrupting himself by earning a living, not to mention running off to France during the worse heat-wave in history!
Curt
