Monday Memory: When the Banquet was after Thanksgiving
1991 Banquet: Color Guard members and Caption Head
For about half of the existence of the Bluecoats, the season-ending banquet happened the day after Thanksgiving. It was a day of endings and beginnings, as the first rehearsal of the next season began the next morning. Mostly held at the (former) Four Winds banquets facility in northeast Canton, it was a time for everyone to dress up (for once) and to hug and cry and laugh and smile.
Long before there was social media and cell phones, when long-distance phone calls actually cost money, the Banquet ended a long “off season” where you had virtually no communication with your drum corps family. Out of towners would get a hotel room and arrive early (and stay up late). Other than perhaps move-ins, Banquet night may have been the most anticipated date on the calendar.
Letter showing the 1987 award winners and process for 1988 selection.
While the typical awards were given out for best marcher, most improved brass, Rookie of the Year and Bluecoat of the Year and so on, the most anticipated moment of the most anticipated night? The end of the year video. This was started in 1988 by parent-volunteer Bill Tietjen who was the first real corps photographer. His idea was to put the best pictures of the year in a video and set it to music.
Not only was it an instant hit, but it became the highlight of the night. That may sound strange in the era of instant everything, but “back in the day” of film photography, members didn’t get to see their pictures posted online hours after a show. Or even during the season. In fact, many would watch the corps Finals performance on video at the banquet for the very first time. Only the top 5 corps would be shown live on Finals night over a national PBD broadcast and not all media markets carried the Top 12 replay later in the Fall.
Today the Banquet is still a special time for Bluecoats, but it falls the morning after Finals. It serves as one final gathering for the membership to hug and cry and laugh and smile. So while a different time and place, and with different elements than earlier in history, all the feels are still the same. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
