Bob Shreffler recently posted;

Yeah, the State Fair wasn't exactly known for great judging, was it? I think that was the judging equivalent of playing in a New Year's Eve band - you had to do it to keep your union card current! But it was always fun performing on the race track. And you can't beat corn dogs and lemon shake-ups!
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. actually, most of the judges for this show were friends of the sponsors, NOT qualified judges. In fact, CSJA advised the sponsors that several of their judges were no longer qualified.

.Yes, that race track setting was always 'fun'... certainly a challenge. A 'different' show.

.But, as Bob said, it was always fun to be at the Fair .. corn dogs, lemon shakeups, and 'other attractions'.

Ah, the 'good old days' of drum corps.

I have three particular memories of State Fair:

1) In 1972 it was raining for prelims, so they moved the show inside a building called the "Collesium", which featured a floor made of manure. You can imagine the smell, and the strong incentive not to pass out.

2) In 1973 we played "John Brown's Body" for our closer. The guard moved to the back corner of the end zone to change their flags to American flag replicas (don't start that argument again), then re-entered for the final effect in the show. At State Fair, that back corner was pitch black, so they disappeared and returned out of the dark with those flags. The crowd, mostly veterans, went nuts!

3) In 1979, there wasn't room at the front of the track for a drum major's podium (thank goodness we didn't have a pit!). I had to direct the corps from the wall of the racetrack - with one arm on either side of a light pole!

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Here is another memory about the State Fair show...t was always really HOT! Gosh, doing drum corps in that heat was NO fun.

It WAS fun to spend time at the Fair however.

For some reason, the heat never bothered me - until 1980, but that was because Spirit was broke and we barely ate anything all summer! I think I was always just so into what we were doing, and drumming all day long, that I rarely noticed.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob,
I loved that year at the State Fair. We were small, but we had an AWESOME horn line. The line sounded even better in that small arena. As I recall, we blew the stands back and totally killed it!

What did you do in the Corps? Horn line (You name it, I played it!)

What years were you a Corps member? 1976-1979