Winterguard

The first "un-Caroline" post in a loooonnnggg time. It's about Color Guard. Most people don't know anything about it. I used to be really, really involved, but chose school and work (and now my family) over the 30+ hours of rehersal time a week from October to April.

There will be more posts with pics soon - we just have to get some from this weekend of the super-duper, double-secret birthday party...

We are now three weeks into the 07 Winterguard season. Jim and Caroline were nice enough to indulge me and go to a show last weekend at Milton High School. It's funny - and I'm sure it's the same everywhere you go - but even 10 years after finishing marching, you go to these shows and you see the same faces and these people never change. They never grow old. Still teaching the same units. Still hanging out with the same people. It was very interesting. Now, especially, being on the outside looking in.

We were able to see some great shows, even if they were still being tweaked abit. Let me tell you this now: If Blessed Sacrament can pull off their show it has M-E-D-A-L written all over it. WOW. It has been a long time since I've seen a show this good. We're talking Blue Devils '96 good. The show is called "Remembrances" and it's two Johnny Cash songs. "Hurt" and "If You Could Read My Mind". You know that they mean business when they pull out the Gordon Lightfoot covers. Dolores definetly means it this year.

For those of you not familiar with Winterguard, Blessed Sacrament performed to two Gordon Lightfoot songs, "Circle of Steel" and "If You Could Read My Mind" in 1989. They won the silver medal that year (should have been gold) and totally revolutionized Winterguard with their performance. It has been considered Sac's high water mark (even though they ended up winning the gold medal a year later with "Mr Tanner's Song" and have made finals every single year since - something that no other guard has done) and people still talk about it. If the guard can keep the show together this year, they might even surpass that.

My first year marching, my Mom and I were able to see Sac perform and it was at that point that I decided that I was going to be in Sac someday. Unfortunately, the year that I marched we were less than spectacular (14th place is nothing to write home about for one of the most prestigious guards in WGI history), but I did it. I was a Sac Girl. And I'll always be proud of that. In St Ann's the next year, I fared a bit better (we came in 8th). But the best part was having the whole UD Arena on their feet at the end our our show (make sure you watch the video to the end and you'll see what I mean - you can also see just the very top of my head in the back).

Also - I just found this on YouTube of Gates Chili. Looking very good for January 20th. It will be interesting to see how they far in Open Class this year...