Memories

Steve Turton

I see Jose talking about the LA trip.... Made me think about the huge pillow fight.... who remembers this:

The Manager of the YMCA where we were staying had just come into the dorm room (must of been 20+ guys on cots) and told us in front of Doug Saunders how well behaved we had all been, etc and that it was such a pleasure to have had us (I guess we were going home the next day). But soon after that, for a reason I can't remember, and maybe no reason at all.... a pillow fight erupted and everybody got into it. I can still see the feathers floating through the air..... looked like snow. Then Doug came in..... yelling at everyone, telling us how disappointed he was etc.... and we had to get brooms and clean the place up. Not sure if we all had pillows that night to sleep on? Did we have to sell more chocolate bars to pay for the pillows?

And I remember one of the fund raisers we did.... Car Wash at the gas station on the corner of Eglinton & Dufferin. This one car came in.... a Mercedes or Jag..... and it had one of those large chrome ornaments on the hood. While we were drying it (with wet towels and making everything streaky).... someone knocked the ornament right off the hood. The owner hadn't seen anything, so we just put it back on as best we could and moved away fast. The thing probably fell off about 1/2 block away after the first big bump in the road. And if he had ever come back to complain, I'm sure none of us would have remembered who did it..."All for one, and one for all"!!!

Steve Turton

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Life has been exceptionally good to me. For a kid from the war time housing development in North York (Jane & Lawrence) to have done the things I have done and seen the places I have seen, it's been beyond my wildest. York Lions developed in me a sense of team spirit, a love of music and a passion for travel that remains with me today. I have nothing but very fond memories of my Drum Corps days (York Lions & The Ambassadors) and certainly relive a lot of the friendship and camaraderie through the DCAT (Drum Corp Alliance Toronto) Chorus of which I and my wife Gillian have been members for a little over a year now.

My fondest and proudest memory of York Lions is presenting the New Canadian Flag for the first time in the US at what I think was an indoor show in upstate New York . There are also amazing memories from the Lions Club conventions in Miami, New York City and Los Angeles. A bit gross but I remember the flight to Los Angeles (first time in a plane) in a Turbo Prop plane that took over 12 hours and all of the guys getting air sick . I can't remember who it was but someone went through 3 airsickness bags. We were all throwing up, laughing and counting bags. I also remember skate boarding at night in the hallways of the YMCA.

cheers for now ... Pat M.

Patrick Maloney

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To this day , I am proud to say that I was a member of York Lions for five years and I still retain many unforgettable memories.

The trip to Miami Beach ,Florida ; coconut palms in the hotel courtyard; swimming in the salt water ocean ; getting sun burnt to a crisp ; totally drenching my uniform in sweat in the Lions International Parade ; playing our show at the entrance to the Fontainbleau Hotel ( just down the road from the then famous Surfside Six ) ; and who could forget the plaintiff cry "BARTENDER" as it echoed through the halls of our hotel ( who was that ??????)

And how about the L.A. trip ? Sure I remember that god-awful flight down , " the pillow fight " in the dorm at the "Y" , and Dave Parkers' "orange juice " . But other than participating in the Lions International Parade ( and taking top honors ) , most memorable was the parade, show and free time we had, in Disneyland. I also took advantage of some free time to shop around in a Mexican style village on Olverra St. where I purchased one of those velvet "bullfight scene" paintings to take home to my parents ( they still have it.....somewhere ).

When we went to the Lions Convention in New York City , I seem to recall getting pretty close to the Radio City Rockettes as we waited our turn to go on stage for the "Flags of Lionism" ceremony being held in Madison Square Gardens. Also , as I recall , a certain guard sergeant spent more than a few sweet moments at the lip of the "porcelain bus' after consuming one too many zombies and the hottest sub sandwich New York had to offer I'm sure .

Do you remember the elation that we all felt after surpassing Sertomanaires to clinch the fourth place in finals in Montreal in ' 66 ? The one moment I will remember with greatest pride in Corps and Country is , without a doubt , the unveiling of our new Canadian Flag .Inspired by our Champion Drum Major , we played our hearts out and received a standing ovation with thunderous applause as our flag was held high for the first time in Rochester ,New York.

I will cherish these and many other memories for years to come and in doing so I would like to acknowledge the great debt of gratitude I owe to our sponsors the York - Lions Club ; to the corps director Doug Saunders ; to the many volunteers and to John and Gord Moffat for introducing me to this great activity.

Looking forward to a reunion

Cheers to all

Dave Kirton

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Miami

Dress attire for this trip was Bermuda shorts, knee high socks and Hush Puppies or the Junction shoes. (letter to parents from Doug)

After all these years a lot has been forgotten and the story may grow like the 20# Steelhead I caught last week but this is the little I do remember,

I'm sure Bob or Steve will be able to embellish it even more.

I remember the day myself, Bob Elliott, Steve Turton and probably Gates, Doyle and/or others from the Drum line went to a drug store to get either Sun Tan/Burn lotion, when the lady behind the counter walked into it "You boys talk funny, where bouts you from?"

Well that’s all Bob and Steve needed to carry on their act and after leading the

Lady on for about 15 minutes, it came up about how lucky it is to have running water, how we have to fight off the Indians, going to the Well each day, then getting Bob to lift up the back of his shirt [where he had a few scars and some marks] to show her the Arrow Wounds!

"Oh, you poor dears" she would say! Then we would walk out gasping for air.

LOAO

Bruce Dobbin

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David Kirton, one of my sons, became involved with York Lions Drum Corps soon after he started playing a trumpet in High School. It wasn’t long before my husband and I became involved too! We were spectators at many of the practices and attended as many parades, shows and competitions as possible.

We had a second son who was too young to join the corps at that time but he made himself useful, helping to clean shoes for the guys and running errands, etc., until, finally, he was accepted as a member of the colour guard.

Many times on hot summer days my husband would act as water boy during parades, and we got into the habit of taking cut up oranges, apples or candy for the Corps to their events. I also found myself putting a sewing kit, aspirins and Band-Aids in the car for "emergencies"!

"Your web site brought back so many happy memories of drum corps days. The first time they became champions was a huge thrill - and I remember one event where a corps from the U.S. was competing on York Lions home ground. The U.S. Corps had recently experienced difficulties due to racial tensions in their home town but our guys, in the true spirit of drum corps camaraderie, made them feel so welcome, at one point even trying on each others shakos. We were so proud of them that day.

On another occasion they had an event at an institution for the mentally handicapped in Orillia, which had formed their own drum corps from inmates. York Lions guys turned it into a great, and never to be forgotten day, marching around the grounds with the residents and entertaining them along with the visitors.

We were not able to go to the events in Florida, California and New York but we were there to see them off along with a lot of other parents. Yes, we do still have that picture of a bullfighter painted on black velvet, that was brought home for us from California - and a very much worn beach towel with big pink flamingos on it that was a gift from Florida

Another incident just came to my mind - when the Corps was going some place -without Chuck Saulnier, who was getting married that day. Who should show up at the wedding but the whole Corps and they formed a colour guard with sloped flags as the couple came out of the Church - unknown to the bridal party I think - and I am not sure if the Corps played "Married I can always get"!!!!!!

You may some day see a posting on this site from our daughter, Wanda, who also came with us to almost if not all of the events. She was always happy to be among the guys and got to know many of them as friends - not to mention that she had a crush on the Drum Major! And he didn’t even know!

Where to begin. So many memories, I guess it all began with the Richmond Hill Hilltoppers a parade corp. that Kerry, Tom and myself belonged to. I remember going to Waterloo for the Nationals and for the first time sitting in the stands watching Optimist, Dell and of course the Leeside Lions. By the time they became York we along with a few others had made the move to the big time York Lions. Over the course of the years I was with the Corps I was able to bank a lot of memories. The trips to Rochester, sleeping in fields because we were broke but just had to go down the night before. Wonder why. The return trip from Rochester made in about an hour and a half or so with John Dickinson at the wheel of my car and then I who was passed out( ill) in the back seat getting hell from the police because Kerry was speeding. By the way Rita it must have been true love as you were the reason for all the rush. Remember spending the night at Scout Houses' hall. The Franklin Oil City trip where we had to stay over and the billeted us in the "Y" with a warning from Doug to stay put. We did for about 5 minutes. What the corps directors didn't know is there was a back door through which we made our escape. I think Fred Blazey and staff rounded us all up at least twice before they realized what was happening.

Remember LA......the flight down...we ran out of food and almost caused a mutiny...the flight back where we were all given air sickness pills. Right. Meeting Santa Clara Vanguards for the first time and listening to their warm up....Half their repertoire was the same as ours so when we warmed up and played the same it freaked them out...Running around the downtown Y in LA trying to catch the Gentlemen who were bothering some of our younger corp. members. Disneyland and on and on and on.

Great memories great friends and great times. And last but not least thank you to all the parents who followed and supported us. God knows we had to be your children or you could never have done it. Thanks all and I look forward to seeing you this year.

those days will NEVER be forgotten.

Ron Zahodnik

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THE FIRST CENTRE SHOT---It was a wintery Wednesday night rehearsal out at Fairbanks Hall. Doug had called the corps together at the end of the night to thank us, both for coming out and for a good rehearsal, as was his custom. Before he dismissed us, he said he had a letter to read to us. It was addressed simply to: York Lions Drum Corps, Toronto, Ontario. Within the envelope was another sealed envelope and a note requesting that the enclosed letter be given to me, and it was signed, Marg A. of the Hanover District High School Girls' Drum Corps. You can imagine the hoots, hollers, and eee-hhaahhs that I received from the other corps members as Doug called me up in front of everyone to receive my mail. I responded to Marg's letter, and on July 1st of that year, Marg and I had our first get re-acquainted date at the Port Dover Dominion Day Parade and evening concert, at which York Lions participated. I have lost contact with both Marg and her sister Nancy, and if they come across this site I would be delighted to hear from either of them.

Tom Menagh

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THE 12th OF JULY (ORANGE) PARADE---One year, York was hired to march in the Orange Parade. This was in many ways a good contract. The Orange Parade was long in both distance and duration, and because it commanded such a large audience at that time, it provided us with a truly high profile appearance which would give the corps a lot of public exposure. At the end of the practice on the Wednesday just previous to the parade, one of our members informed Doug Saunders that he didn't think he could march Saturday because he was Catholic and he didn't think his parish priest would approve of his participation. I remember Doug's exact response upon hearing this:

"I don't give a damn whether you are Catholic, Protestant or N.D.P! When you are a member of this corps you have a duty to be present on ALL occasions. Give me the name of your priest and I will give him a call."

Well, we all knew what a phone call from Doug meant. Doug had a pleasant but persuasive manner about him. I am sure he could convince Caribbean resort operators that their facilities were not complete without snow-making equipment. To my recollection, the lad DID march in the parade.

On the Saturday morning of the parade, I drove the East York gang down to the vicinity of Hoskins Avenue and the Queen's Park area where we were to form up. I was having tremendous difficulty finding a place to park the car, when I decided to turn onto the campus of the University of Toronto. Almost immediately, I spotted a parking lot with only a few cars in it. We wheeled in and disembarked from the car in full dress uniform. As we emptied out the bugle cases and assembled the instruments, I noticed a figure dressed in black approaching on foot at a fairly good clip. As the person drew closer, it was apparent that he was "a man of the cloth". Just as he arrived he called out in a distinctive Irish brogue:

"And what would you boys be doing here t'day?"

Sensing that perhaps we were trespassing, and since after all it was me who was driving, I felt an obligation to do the talking. I responded that we were in the York Lions Drum
Corps and we had to report to the area for marshalling for the parade. I then offered:

"Is this private property?"

"Well you might say it is" he replied. "This parking area belongs to St. Michael's College".

Well I suppose my complexion turned to the hue of a French merlot having realized the gravity of my faux pas. I proceeded to apologize profusely, to which the "priest" responded:

"How long do you think you will be gone for the parade?"

"Perhaps three or four hours." I suggested.

"Ochh!!" he replied, "That'll be alright. You boys run along now and have yourselves a good time."

With that he did an about turn and headed back from whence he came with me following for a short distance, now THANKING him profusely. Since I can recall that incident to this day, it demonstrates how powerful an impression an adult can leave on a younger person's mind by an act of kindness that not everyone could have offered, given the man's ethnicity and religious faith, combined with the nature of the activity in which we were about to participate. He was someone light years ahead of his time. I only wish that he is able to read this today.

Tom Menagh

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ON VINNIE RATFORD---Not too many people could ever forget the character of Vinnie Ratford. Vinnie was a very creative and talented writer of the Marching And Manoeuvering portion of a drum corps show. I recall a mild, Spring, Sunday afternoon in Keelesdale Park. Vinnie had driven up from his home in Rochester to instruct us in some of the new drill he had written specifically for our musical repertoire. At one point in the drill, he was teaching us a "waterfall" manoeuvre and then a subsequent "falling in" to face the "crowd". As we were attempting this move, Vinnie spotted something that displeased him immensely. Waving his hands above his head, he hollered:
"STOP!....STOP!...." and began thundering over in the general direction of the Bass Line of which I was a part. As he got closer he bellowed out: "NO!...NO!...NO!...JUM-PING SHIT-HOUSE- MOUSE......" Well upon hearing that, there was absolutely no point of him illustrating what error had been committed, nor by whom, nor how it could be corrected, because I was collapsed in tear streaming laughter. I had never heard that turn of phrase before and decided right there that it was a "keeper". All through my career and to this day I employ that phrase, with one minor modification most of the time: "outhouse".

Of course, the skill of Vinnie's drill writing came to fruition for us on the field. Who can forget the famous disappearing horn act? Vinnie had hooks installed on the flagpoles of the Colour Guard. The Guard assumed a position at the far side of the field facing the crowd. He then had the horn line march away from the audience towards the Guard. When the brass line reached the Guard, they hooked their bugles on to the flagpoles, the Guard made an about face putting their backs to the crowd and then the horn line did an about turn to face the crowd, now apparently without instruments. You can hear on our 1964 recording of "The Fugitive" available in the "Sounds" section on this site, someone from the stands yelling out: "Who stole your horns?" York Lions must have picked up a basketful of points from the M & M General Effect Judges due to the abilities of Vinnie Ratford.

Tom Menagh

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1963 LIONS' CONVENTION IN MIAMI---Up to this time, this had to be the greatest excursion York Lions had taken. And who could imagine a more opulent way to "fly" than in our Trailways special highway coach for long journeys into the sub-tropics in summer. We all remember the luxury of an air conditioning system that would reduce the blistering outside air from 96 F to a frigid 94 F. Don't you remember, they told the 50 bodies stuffed into that rolling steel can, to close the windows and the system would work better? And the result was, two miles later down the road, 50 faces were pressed up against the glass with gnarled fingers clawing at their throats. I'm sure some of the locals thought we were some very well deserving members of a southern chain gang being taken out to do some meaningful brush clearing along the highways.

Then there was that decision at one of our comfort stops. Someone decided that 50 guys crammed into a bus for two days and two nights without exercise--well--might lead to the listlessness of irregularity, and that certainly wouldn't bode well for us competing in the big parade. So a stop was made at a drug store. How I would have loved to have seen the expression on the pharmacist's face when someone went in to order enough laxative "for 50 teenagers". Since there were no washrooms on board the bus, I gratefully declined my ration so that we had a fighting chance of getting to Miami for the START of the convention.

I remember upon hearing that we had come first in the parade competition, we had our bus driver take us through downtown Miami, with windows OPENED, as we favoured our American hosts with our VOCAL rendition of O'Canada, over and over for I'm sure, four score and seven times.

Some may recall a group of us paying a visit to Paul Dufort's room to find him cooling off in the bath tub happily slurping away on giant slices of what had to be the "Mother" of all watermelons.

Tom Menagh

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THE ARNPOIR SKINNY DIP...I too, recall the Arnpoir skinny dip, but from a slightly different perspective. The park area in which the bus was waiting was also a "parking" area for couples in their cars. What struck me as noteworthy was that there appeared to be an abrupt change in the mood set in those cars when large numbers of unclad adolescent males ran among and in front of them to get to the lake. Whether it was a change of ambience, a reaction to some type of inferiority on the part of the males in the cars, or perhaps the couples genuinely feared for their safety, but a tornadic dust storm kicked up as each of those cars screamed out of the area.

Tom Menagh

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ONE OF THE BUS BREAKDOWNS...It was a pleasant Sunday morning around 7:00 A.M. and we had travelled all night returning from a competition in Warren Pa. on the Saturday evening. Before we got to the drop-off point, the bus "quit" on a "clover leaf" of the 401. It was up to us to find our own way home from there. The East York gang had the furthest to go since the breakdown was in the west end of the city. We picked up all of our equipment and hiked to one of the major East-West arteries and then proceeded to walk east, hoping to find a phone booth. On Sundays in the early 1960's, very few people were found on Toronto's streets much before 10:00 A.M. and then, generally those that were out driving, were heading for church. As we journeyed along, we attempted to "thumb" our way, but as one can appreciate, no one appeared to be interested in picking up several teenage males carrying large black boxes. Finally, Paul Dufort suggested that if the rest of us hid part way up a
driveway, he would lie down on the road as an apparent hit-and-run victim, and see if he could get a car to stop. As the first car slowed to a crawl, we charged down the driveway bugle cases in hand howling in laughter. Needless to say the driver did not stop to share in our hilarity.

Tom Menagh

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THE LAST CENTRE SHOT...Many years later, after I had left the corps (1964), I made one of my very infrequent visits to the C.N.E. As I was walking around the grounds, I heard and saw a band performing off in the distance on a stage. Like most former corpsmen, I MUST answer the magnetic beckoning of the music of an outdoor-performing band. As I approached closer, it turned out to be a "steel band" proudly displaying the colours of its sponsor, the York Lions. And who was conducting this band was none other than Doug Saunders. For a split moment, I felt a little twinge of nostalgia as if a time machine had propelled me back to my teen years for a brief snapshot of performances of times past. I angled my way through the crowds surrounding the stage until I was positioned off to Doug's right side and where I was able to bid him a hello while he was conducting the band through one of its tunes. He looked at me and nodded to acknowledge my presence, however his arms never broke stride as the band continued to perform. At the end of the piece, instead of coming over to speak to me, he turned and picked up the microphone. What followed, non-plussed me on the spot.

"Ladies and gentlemen" Doug announced, "I just noticed that we are honoured today with the presence in our audience of one of the first members of the York Lions Drum Corps. Would you join me in giving a terrific round of applause for Tom...."? There, a couple of hundred people broke into applause for someone they had never heard of before or since, and probably many wondered why they were giving any recognition to me anyway. I dutifully tipped my cap in gratitude and thanked Doug. What possessed him to do what he did? I will never know now. Maybe for a brief moment MY presence took HIM back many years to a former time and a former musical group. Maybe it was his way of saying thank you to me and by extension, all of the former corps members, for years of great memories. Maybe he just wanted, one more time, to make one of his band members feel really good about himself and his accomplishments with York Lions, as he was doing with a new group of youth on that day. And
he did. Thanks, Doug.

Tom Menagh

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Moments To Remember :

York Lions Band, great times to remember as we had 2 sons Rick and Mitch Smith who enjoyed every moment of taking part in it, and as my husband and I did enjoy travelling to wherever they went to watch and listen to their band. Weekends were very busy for them, lots of practice and travelling to the states and different places for competitions. I remember this one particular weekend, they had a competition somewhere in the states and as usual we went as well, always wanted to be there for support and enjoy watching and listening to all the bands. It was 2:00 AM by the time we got home and in bed nicely sleeping when we heard something hitting our bedroom window. Mr. Smith got up and yelled, what's going on, and one of the band boys said, can we stay here for the night Mr. Smith, as we live out the east end and have to be back here to Keelesdale park for practise in the morning. So the door was opened and in they came, 2 or 3 car loads, and they slept on the floor or wherever they found a place to lie down.

My husband Bill and I got up in the morning stepping over this one and that one to get to the kitchen, made bacon, eggs and toast to feed them, and off they went to practise. I had just finished cleaning the house and washing dishes, time to relax, when back they came for lunch. I said, MY GOD, we just got rid of you and here you are back for lunch, so to the store Bill and I went for more bread, cold cuts etc. for sandwiches, fed them and they left again.

We were having company for a barbecue supper that night, just getting hamburgers, hot dogs and pork chops on the BBQ when 2 car loads of band boys came back, sat and talked for awhile and BEHOLD, if they didn't stay for supper. Not having enough food for all, back to the store we went for more hamburger, hot dogs and buns to feed them all.

These were great times, always knew where our boys were and they brought their friends home. My husband was always taxi for some of them needing rides, we loved it and they were a great bunch of boys.

Joyce Smith

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A story I related at the Reunion Dinner Sept.20,'03 in the presence of Mr. Blazey who was seated at the head table.

How many of you know that Mr. Blazey is somewhat of an amateur horticulturist ( the fact of which even he is not aware )? Well I'm sure you all remember those many long bus trips we took when traveling to competitions so think about this....Mr. Blazey had this particularly uncanny sense of knowing just exactly when to ask the bus driver to pull over to the side of the highway ( conveniently close to a good stand of trees ) and make the announcement that it was time to "water the potatoes"!!!!! Of course, all volunteers would dutifully file off the bus, do their duty and return knowing they had performed a service for Mr. Blazey's crop. I Wonder how those potatoes are doing?

Concerning Mr.Blazey, another incident I recall is when , as a surrogate father concerned about our health and welfare, he left the bus momentarily on the way to Florida to go to the drug store. A few minutes later he returned with the biggest bottle of Milk Of Magnesia he could find and proceeded to spoon feed each of us with the recommended dose......yuuuuuch!!!!!

Thanks Mr. Blazey, we know you truly cared about us.

Such wonderful memories!!!!!

Dave Kirton

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