Get On The Bus!

In honor of our trip to Rockford today for Phantom Regiment's Show of Shows, I thought I would give you a taste of what life was like in Drum Corps. Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Ah the smell of bus exhaust, sweaty bodies and hair gel. Those were the smells of summer for two years while marching Drum Corps. My first year I sat with my sister. Mostly because she didn't have a seat partner and I went home with an injury and came back. Her luxury of two seats with lots of room quickly vanished when she saw me.

However annoying it was to sit with your sister, we never really stayed mad at each other. So it was perfect. Oh sure, we had our arguments but I couldn't hate her. She was my pillow.

Bus life consisted of freezing cold a/c, bus feet (swollen from sleeping upright) and the occasional naked person. We always had treats in the cubby above us. It usually melted so we learned to never get chocolate. We also learned to get rid of things you didn't need. If it took up room and you never really used it...chuck it.

We played games like "Game" and "Bus Corps". Both had potential to be fun. "Game" is a simple trash game that everyone has to play. That's rule number one. The object of "game" was to pass up the trash. You gamed trash up to the next person. My object of the game was to sit at the back of the bus so the possibility of playing game was less. If you sat in the front, you always had to play game. Suckers.

One time while cleaning out my field bag (a bag that had everything I needed for the field. Sunscreen, bandaids, chapstick, etc.) I found a tampon that had lost its life in my bag. It wasn't used but it wasn't usable either. So naturally I gamed it. I was sitting on the inside and gamed it to my sister. She looked at it and laughed.
"I'm not gaming that!!"
"Yes you are, GAME!"

She tapped Delta's shoulder(nickname for...well we don't know people's real names if they have nicknames) and said "Game."

He reached then turned to look and said "HELL NO!" Heather and I just laughed. We tried again to the guy across to us. He just looked at it and didn't say anything. Jerk.

That was a fun episode of game. Needless to say I had to walk it up to the trash. I guess there's always an exception to what you can game.

I played "Bus Corps" my second year. 1999 was a much more active year on the buses compared to 1998. So my first time playing it I made people mad because I used the group of girls called the "French Connection." A group of 5 girls in our guard who were from Quebec. They were clickish and never really talked to us so they were fair game for "Bus Corps." (They didn't speak very good English maybe that's why they didn't talk to us. But the Japanese girls said more to us than they did!) This was also at the beginning of the season before they pissed a lot of people off. It was bound to happen.

In "Bus Corps" the rules varied from bus to bus. On my bus you created a corps and describe the show, what they are wearing and who was in it. So I made up some stupid Frenchy show with the "French connection" chicks wearing nothing but cling wrap. I was certain I would win because these girls were somewhat cute and they were wearing cling wrap. I knew that nakedness would win over these boys. But they all yelled saying it wasn't nice. What jerks!

As tour went on, everyone saw the true side of the "French connection" when they screamed, yelled and blamed the corps for sending their friend/staff member home. He had been causing problems with other staff members so they felt it necessary to send him home. Long story but they hated us after that.

Bus time was pretty good. It was an escape from staff members, the sun and heat and our place to relax with great games. And so as an unnamed person would say at the end of the day, "Let's get loaded on the bus!"