July 31, 2025 – Along the Mill Brook
9:00 AM
The forecast is grim. Heavy rain is expected in the Boston area all day and into the evening. This does not portend well for the match-up between the Boston Crusaders and the Bluecoats at the show in Lawrence, Massachusetts tonight. These two corps are neck and neck in the rankings and 1:1 so far in the head-to-head matchups. The entire drum corps world will be watching. I know that every Boston fan is thinking posistive thoughts and hoping the wall of rain on the radar lifts northward and by passes the stadium. This is an optimistic bunch of folks who have endured much worse over the eight and a half decades. I am going any way because we leave on Friday for Allentown to continue my drum corps odyssey for 2025. Meanwhile, I will be finishing the last-minute chores here at the Bohemian Chalet, my humble home along the Mill Brook, in preparation for the 10 days away.
I am also busy preparing for the next phase of my project to save the old Number Nine Schoolhouse. Four years in the making, the Friends of the Number Nine Schoolhouse has reached a deal to purchase the old two-room schoolhouse along the Mill Brook for half the appraised value. Thanks to the generosity of the Burley family, my neighbors and I have come together to breathe new life into the iconic and historic Number Nine Schoolhouse at 831 Mill Brook Road. The circa 1903 two-room schoolhouse was the seat of education for the Town of Fayston School District #9 prior to the opening of the current Fayston Elementary School just up the road. In 1963, it became the offices of the Burley Partnership, a renowned architectural firm. Now, the building hosts two non-profit trail groups, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and the Catamount Trail Association, sharing the lower classroom. The upper classroom will be transformed back in time, returning it to an open classroom as an environment for the community to learn, honor, celebrate, serve, and thrive. Now comes the heavy lifting, raising the money to pay off the loan and refurbish the building. My goal is to raise $25,000 this month for our down payment and closing costs by the end of the month. This comes at an awkward time as I will be focusing on my drum corps tour for the next ten days.
4:00 PM – Lawrenece, Massachusetts
I have arrived at the Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, the location of the home show for the Boston Crusaders. It is raining steadily three hours before show time. This is another annual pilgrimage for me, and the beginning of my auto tour for drum corps. Taking the fast lane of the interstate highway through Vermont, New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts, I arrived here in this parking spot near the stadium in about three hours. This is usually a great opportunity to watch a rehearsal. For now, I am sitting in the car because it is raining cats and dogs outside. The BAC crew of volunteers is undeterred from the tasks necessary to host the avid Boston area drum corps fans. This is all hands on deck. This particular year will be exceptionally busy with BAC in the hunt for a medal again. What color it will be is yet to be determined, but gold is in their eyes. The rain is easing up some, so I will venture out and see if I can help. Not a note or beat is heard. My guests may not be up for a wet evening, so I checked with my friend Mary from Wakefield. We made a plan for dinner at 6:00 and will wait and see what happens.
August 1, 2025 – Allentown, Pennsylvania
Hurray! Chuck, my drum corps associate and driver extraordinare, and I have arrived at the Hamilton Family Diner in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for the annual reunion and two amazing nights of drum and bugle corps competition. He honed his skills as a road warrior during our 2024 tour. We hit the high side of the left lane at a leisurely hour of 8:30 AM from the Boston area and kept the steady pace in the value, mid-sized SUV from the ‘We try harder’ folks in Burlington. The Silver Bullet is home alone.
These friends are like my family. How odd it is that I have some of the most dear friends that I see every summer, that I would not have known if it were not for my obsession with drum corps. My brothers and sisters from other mothers are a family that is growing and welcoming. There is such a passion and familiarity, no matter what corps one identifies with, the pathway to the heart is wide open among them.