Say it aint so.
Saturday April 7, 2007
A few of us were cleaning out the e|drumline storage closet and came upon a sweet little 18’‘ Ludwig bass drum. The drum was in bad shape – chipped paint, rusted lugs, cracked hoops. Even so, we had a certain respect for the drum as it had served some young drumliner well for many years.
Since we lacked any proper repair parts, there was only one thing to do. Toss it into the air and let it drop hard!
We did this a few times and marveled at how well it bounced. First three bounces, then four. The fun continued for nearly ten minutes, then… then it happened. With a loud cracking noise and then a bit of a creek, our super-bouncy-drum-ball broke. It was all over, or was it?
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Not satisfied with our destructive work, we ripped the remains open. This brought on what has been described as our creepiest drumline moment ever (The great guard make-out session of ’99 excluded, of course).
There, stamped on the inside of the drum’s mutilated shell was its manufacture date. Believe it or not, the date was exactly, to the day, thirty years before we broke that drum into many pieces. That discovery made us all feel a feel a little dirty.