Comments on: 6 Great Marching Bands That Never Were

By: Gayla

Gayla — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:41:38 +0000

Yep…I remember the bandcamp line… Our bandcamp took place at a college about 3 hours from home. We marched from 6 am till 10 pm with about 45 minutes for meals…(which we marched to) in august heat for 5 days straight. Oh, and halfway through the week we had this thing we called a deathmarch where we strolled around the local town in parade formation for about 5 miles in the afternoon sun. Our ends used to purposely set off car alarms during the deathmarch.

By: Mary Sue

Mary Sue — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:22 +0000

For some reason our band director packed up the entire colorguard one year and took us to a sleepaway camp in the woods for "guard camp". It was about three or four days, we did routines maybe two hours a day, and the rest of the time we were bullshitting and playing cards and watching movies. The problem was, we only had two movies, Disney's Aladdin and American Me. If you have no idea what the film American Me is about, do not google American Me at work. Just saying. Then we went back for regular band camp, which was two weeks of 12-15 hour rehearsals.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:45:02 +0000

Great list guys! I too had the privilege of attending my first ever band camp summer 1999 after American Pie came out. And being a flute player, we heard many references on an everyday basis.

Our band camp WAS actually at a camp! Well, first we had two “hell weeks” at school which were exactly as described, but then we went to a camp in Pennslyvania for the weekend to finish/work on the show and have fun. All of my best high school memories are at band camp: skits, bear-hunting, water-balloon fights, it was wonderful!

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:14:56 +0000

I really hated American Pie for that line. I too am a red-headed flute player, and I graduated high school in 2000, so that line was the bane of my existence for several years. (I still hear it every once in a while) And, my band camp was an agonizing 2 weeks of marching all day, on asphalt in August in Houston. YAY! Then, we had rehearsals every day from 3-5pm the first semester. I passed out a lot. Fortunately I was spared this horror for the first two years of high school (when we didn’t live in Houston).

By: Kristian

Kristian — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:49:52 +0000

Holy crap, I went to Wellsville High School and was a band geek…although we were the Lions, not the squids. Although it DID make for great fun, chanting “L-O-I-N-S!” in the stands, which I’m *sure* no other student had thought of ;)

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:57:42 +0000

Are you guys as cool as I am? I have the complete two first seasons of Pete and Pete on DVD. If you don’t have them – head over to half.com and get caught up in the awsomeness!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:28:10 +0000

Band camp for us consisted of a week at the local university, with a performance at the end. In January we went to a weekend festival at another university and slept in a hotel. Music or band, other than bad singing, were not options at our actual backwoods camps (our choices here in Georgia are Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or 4-H.) Although . . . 4-H camp did have air conditioned cabins.

By: Zenord

Zenord — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:10:44 +0000

My first marching shoes were dinkles too! Although we too have made the switch to MTX. Major sadness.

By: If I Get Old

If I Get Old — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:30:51 +0000

You failed to mention the Corey Haim film from the 80′s named Lucas. It prominently featured the marching band and has a special place in my heart because it was where my love for Winona Ryder began.

By: useless_fact_fairy

useless_fact_fairy — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:08:46 +0000

I too remember hearing the call of “one time in band camp..” but thankfully I was a clarinet player.
Our band camp was the third week of August followed by Tuesday and Thursday nights 6:30-9:30 and Saturdays 9-12.
I was also in the pit for the musical my senior year, which just happened to be Music Man. “He’s just a bang beat, bell ringing, Big haul, great go, neck or nothin, rip roarin,
every time a bull’s eye salesman. Thats Professor Harold Hill, Harold Hill”
And also, Dr. Dinkle is now retired and his former star pupil Becky is now the director of the band. We always had a few of those strips hanging up in the band room. Especially after my first band camp which occurred during Hurricane Andrew. (when it came up the coast to Jersey)
Thanks for this blog, it brings back terrific memories!