Another
new thing I was introduced to at Marlington was the annual experience of the
summer band camp. Another one of those
things I did not know existed before my time with the band. I came into
Marlington late in the season in 1985 and had already missed the band
camp. This would have been a useful
experience because this is where the show formations on the field were
basically charted, placed, and practiced by everyone. Frame by frame, step by step, again and again
it all comes together in this intensive week of instruction. In those years, our band was going to Camp
Muskingum for this annual ritual. By the
time I was able to attend my first band camp, I had already miraculously
survived the 85 season by trial and error – lots of errors.
Marching Dukes 1986 Louisville Show: Heslop Video
I
had heard of summer camps when I was growing up. I never had an opportunity to attend
one. There wasn’t money in my family for
things like that. For me, summer meant
cruising my neighborhood along North Union Avenue on my bike with a few
friends. We would hang out at the bait
shop on Washington Avenue, stop by R & J’s Pizza across the street, and
make our way past Burger Hut and down to Early Hill. In between, we might stop at Lawson's for a
cold pop and play a video game of Ms. Pacman or Dig Dug. To me, this was a good summer – toss in an
occasional swim up the hill at the YMCA, and you had it all. I never expected to be dropped in the middle
of a camp in the woods to learn music, marching, and so many other new
things. My first taste of it came in
1986.
We
loaded up on the yellow school buses at the high school and drove about 40
miles south to the camp deep down in the woods surrounding Leesville Lake. Within a few minutes of arriving, we were
assigned our cabins and had our instruments out, and were tuning up to start
some practice parade formations.
The
camp was nestled in a thick forested area on the eastern shore of the
lake. Consisting of a few buildings for
lodging, barracks-style – girls in one, boys in another, a latrine and large
shower building on one hill, and all this surrounding the central pavilion that
served as a dining hall and multipurpose room that we used for full indoor
concert practice. There were meandering
sidewalks, ascending and descending between the different buildings, interspersed
with century-old stands of oak, maple, and beech trees. During the summer week that we occupied the
camp, the shade between the buildings from these trees was dense and a welcome
respite from the heat of the summer sun every day. The buildings were not air
conditioned, but they were comfortable – or at least, we didn’t know any
better. Maybe we just got used to
it. Beside the central pavilion there
were a few basketball courts that served as our central formation area. Further up the road from the camp buildings,
a few hundred yards along the paved road was the full-size, yet primitive,
practice field. Hash tags were applied to
the grass field on the first day that we arrived to duplicate the width and
length of a 100-yard football field.
Like
an intricate web of dusty capillary veins, small foot trails intersected the
camp, that lead into every direction around the hills, the lake, and the
surrounding forest. Leesburg Lake rested
along the western edge of the entire camp, and the waters there were cool and
inviting and clear. Morning light there
was dim because of the dense shade canopy that stood over the camp. The Noontime sun over the practice area made
the field like a humid oven because the field was in a bowl that forbade the
passing of any breeze. Hungry mosquitos
seemed to be drawn to this clearing from miles around. The sunsets were
depictions of glorious skyline beauty pregnant with surreal cloud cover reflected
over the mirror-like surface of the lake almost every day.
Time
was not wasted at band camp. When we
were not on the practice field learning our formations, we were in sectional
practices, or squad practices. Each morning started with some light
calisthenics, followed by breakfast and then we were back at it. Lunch, then more practice. Dinner, then some more time on the practice
field – usually until we started to lose our daylight. In 1986, our band left camp with all four
movements of our show completely set – every practice we had after this was for
polishing and refining.
At
night we usually found our way back to the dining hall where the lights would
be off and a large projection screen set screen up showing previous shows from
the band, or the shows of competitors.
This is where I first learned about schools like: New Philadelphia,
Centerville, Marian Catholic from Indiana, and Rocky Mount from North
Carolina. The level of competition was
intense and Marlington was in the thick of it with them – every bit as good,
every bit as committed and talented, and every bit as ready to improve. It was
in this room at Camp Muskingum that I was given my music for that upcoming
year. In four movements: English Folk
Song Suite[1], Romanian Rhapsody #1[2], the Thorn birds Theme[i], and British Band
Classics. Every note of this to be forever burned into all of our brains. We watched Drum Corps International
competitions dominated by Phantom Regiment, Garfield Cadets, and Santa Clara
Vanguard.
Not
every moment of camp was scripted and organized around a strict practice
schedule.
Shaving Cream Olympics
One
tradition that existed in those years was the shaving cream Olympics. Because I
had missed the 85 band camp, 1986 was my first – even though I was a sophomore,
the unwritten rules dictated that as a first-year camp attendee, I was
nominated for participation in this ‘ancient’ ritual. I had noticed a lot of shaving cream cans
being unpacked when we first arrived at our bunks on that first day. I saw cans of shaving cream everywhere – on
windowsills, under beds, on tables, here and there – and shaving cream of every
conceivable type, size and quantity. I
looked around and didn’t see a lot of my peers that needed to shave – but
didn’t really think much about it. I was
soon to find out why so much shaving cream would be needed. And I was to learn
why the shaving cream with menthol was to be the most undesirable.
So,
‘there was this one time, at band camp,’ that on a given night of camp, all of
us first-year campers were invited to stand in a line inside of our dorm. We
pretty much knew it was coming and we also knew that it was voluntary. I don’t recall anyone of us first-year
campers taking a pass on this right of initiation. There was no sense of
maliciousness among us in marching band.
There were bonds of friends of varying degrees; if there were
animosities, they seemed to be overridden by a shared sense of respect and
camaraderie. We were in a situation where every time we picked up our
instruments, wore our uniform, and marched – we needed each other to
succeed. We were only going to be as
good as the weakest link in our collective chain. We probably were all called ‘band fags,’ at
different times, and by different people and because of this, we needed to
stand by up and by each other in the halls of Marlington High School.
As
we stood in line, one by one, we were treated to generous applications of
shaving cream. On the face, shoulders,
legs, over every square inch of our bodies – about a three-inch-thick lather of
shaving cream. It took a while to
accomplish something like this, and every can of shaving cream was used to the
last ounce. Now, this is when I learned that not all shaving cream is equal, or
desirable depending on which part of your body it is applied to. In my own
experience, I began to develop an appreciation for shaving creams without
menthol. Here is why.
“Sorry
about that… really, I am.” Ben Koen said this with a devilish grin as he
emptied the entire bottle of menthol shaving cream into my shorts. I’m
thinking, ‘Ok, big deal… I’ve got shaving cream over my entire body, why
apologize for it being inside my shorts?’ And then, it began to dawn on me. Or rather, underneath me. It started like a little birthday candle
flame… a little annoying but not a big deal.
In about 10 minutes the candle was, two candles. Another 5 minutes, it was a cake covered with
candles. Plus, another five minutes and
it felt like there was a campfire in my pants, and I kind of didn’t like the
sensation. It did eventually subside, but it left me wondering if all my parts
would remain intact. They did.
In
addition to the variety of crazy mohawks the shaving cream provided
opportunities to create, it also provided a nicely lubricated concrete floor
for a few Olympic activities. I seemed to excel at the cookie push. In this event, the participant, fully
lathered in shaving cream is encouraged to push a cookie across the floor to a
designated finish line. Easy to do under normal circumstances, but when
lathered and fully coated in shaving cream – plus the floor fully adorned in
this gushy lubricant, the race proved to be rather difficult. In my case, I figured that loading the cookie
in my eye sockets and pushing it across the floor would be advantageous, in in
this I was correct. I won every
time. No; I didn’t eat the cookies
afterward.
Festivities
were concluded with a march of champions through the camp and up to the latrine
and showers for a quick cleanup. Shaving cream does wonders for your skin – but
I’d recommend keeping the menthol varieties out of your pants. Take my advice on this one. I know what I’m talking about.
In the following days I noticed the patches. For important parades, and for all the Bands of America (BOA) competitions, a patch was awarded. Depending on a preliminary round of competition at BOA events, a selection of finalists was chosen by the numerous judges.
Everyone was given the marching duke lapel pin before the first competition after band camp. It was simple silhouette of a marching duke in black with a subtle gold border, and these were given a significant importance when received. We would wear them on our uniforms – and when not in uniform they were on jacket lapels, in ties, on sweaters, coats, hats – their presence became ubiquitous among every member of the Marching Dukes. We were proud of who we were, what we did, what we accomplished; the lapel pin was a reminder to us of this fact. As I write this, almost 40 years after receiving mine, I’m fortunate to be able to say that I still have it and wear it for special occasions.
We
had some brief moments of free time; there were some opportunities for
swimming, exploring, and just hanging out.
I was alone at band camp at one of those times when I saw something that
probably changed my life forever.
[1] Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) “an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams
[2] George Enescu (1881 – 1955) “was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher and is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Enescu
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