A Member Of The Kingsmen (Finally!)

In 1972, I joined the Hamburg Kingsmen Drum & Bugle Corps. For years, in high school marching band, I had watched them at parades and marveled at them playing in impromptu concerts at the county fair. If only, I wished, I could belong. There was just no sound more exciting to me than that of of 50 bugles and a 20 man drum line playing right in your face.

The Beatles were cool enough, but the Kingsmen blew me away.

But given their, um, "bad" reputation for heavy partying and the fact that I lived a good hour from suburban Buffalo meant that I had to wait till I got to college to join up.

When I finally did, I found that their glory years were passing fast. The economy in Buffalo was turning down and the drum corps fad of the fifties and sixties was winding down. Nonetheless, I spent four of the best years of my life marching with Hamburg and the memories still remain with me.

I was elected Secretary of the corps in 1972 and the responsibility for maintaing the group's record book fell to me. I reproduce it here -- word for sometimes ungrammatical word -- for those of you who are interested. If you stumble across this blog, please comment and if you have pictures or stories you'd like to share, please email them to me. CraigWHoward at gmail dot com

I'll be sure to add them.