DCI (Drum Corp International)

DCI (Drum Corp International)...I am a HUGE fan! Always have been, ALWAYS will be! For those of you who don't know...I used to be a drummer. I started in 5th grade. Yes, I have played piano since I was 5...but I started drumming when I was 10. I LOVED it. I played set through middle school, then once in high school, I went on to be in the drum line in Marching Band. Yes, Drum Line IS one of my favorite movies...I know you were asking yourself...and if you've never seen it...I have a copy I can loan you! :-) I started marching with 20 inch cymbals...I have a story about that for later. The following year, I moved to the bass drum line. That's right...little Tonya with a drum twice her size. It was only because that drum hung on my shoulders for the next three years that my back did so well during pregnancy! :-) Not only did I play bass drum, but they gave me the second largest drum. The tall 17 year old boy had the itty bitty one. Go figure. But I was a beast, and I was going to show those boys that I could hang with the best...and I did. One summer I spent time with The Blue Devils...that was an awesome time!

So, I was driving to Super Saver one Saturday and I saw signs that said, "DCI Parking". After I picked my jaw up off the street, I came home and looked up Millard South because that is the school that I saw the sign at....I live right behind the school. Sure enough, they were hosting one of the B team DCI tours! WHOA!!!! I IMMEDIATELY said to Jeff..."You know all those hockey games I go to because you love hockey? Well...now you can go to something that I love after 13 years of knowing me." I thought I would have to fight a bit...but he said okay and even found a sitter. It was close enough that we just walked to the school. It was AWESOME to say the least. It reminded me HOW MUCH I loved drumming! Here is a picture of Santa Clara Vanguard. The rest are pictures of The Blue Devil B corp because they hold a special place in my heart!

It was actually really fun to have the questions from Jeff directed to me. Usually he is the smarty pants and knows everything, but he didn't understand this drum corp thing at all. It was nice for once to be the one with the knowledge! :-)

I know you are all dying to hear my cymbals story. Okay...here it goes...I had the 20 inch cymbals. They were the BIGGEST cymbals, and of course...the freshman got them...even though she was the smallest one. When I crashed them, I had to hold my arms out completely straight to clear my body. Well...at one of the football games early on in the season I was marching with them, so we were going pretty fast. I got really tired and my arms limped a bit...I had a BIG crash coming up...it was a Drum Break, meaning the drum line was up front and we were showing the crowd what we had. Well...I know what you are thinking...you already know what happened in your mind. That is right...I crashed my little boobie in the big cymbals...and I crashed HARD. SO MUCH SO.....my white tuxedo shirt was soon coated with blood. Yes...that's right, I crashed SO HARD that I cut my boobie and it was pouring out blood. Needless to say, I finished the marching, ran to the bathroom with a "band mom", and she took me home and explained to my mom why I was holding ice on my boobie. I am sure my mom had a hard time containing her laughter...but she did. I was VERY embarressed...thankfully the drum line was very nice about it and didn't tease the freshman too much. I do still have the scar though. Yes...there IS a scar! Okay...enough said.