PFDC Tour Season 2010
Last fall when the tour committee decided to do a tour of New York City and Washington DC, we did not foresee what this tour and this tour season would become. In the last few weeks, many parents realized that this tour has the potential to be one of the greatest tours in the 39 year history of the corps. I agreed to try to place this year into perspective.
Corps members work very hard throughout the year to prepare for tour. Once the season begins, everything becomes a blur of K Mart, parades, performances one small town after another. It is easy to forget what these events mean in the fast pace the corps sets. Often the corps does not see or hear the impact they have on the people who watch them perform.
On tour, we are on unfamiliar ground. It easily turns into a blur of historic sites, statues, museums, performances, caravans and meals. So let’s think a little about where we have been and where we will be this summer.
In New Jersey, we will march in the footsteps of George Washington and the Continental Army as they battled the military might of Great Britain, the nation with the most powerful army and navy in the world. After initial success in the Boston area in 1775 and early 1776, (we will be there in 2011), the British and their Hessian mercenaries pushed the Americans out of New York City and chased them through New Jersey across the Delaware River toward Philadelphia, the new nation’s capital.
We will perform on Wednesday at Washington’s Crossing State Park where on Christmas night, 1776, General Washington and the army re-crossed the icy Delaware and attacked the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey. Budget cuts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had closed this park. Our performance will help raise funds to allow the friends of the park to keep the park open for future corps and other Americans to make the connection to the origins of our country and the sacrifices made to make us free.
After victories at Trenton and Princeton, the Army retired to spend the winter in Morristown, New Jersey, where we will perform on Tuesday. We will perform near the site where, General Washington’s personal lifeguard, whose uniforms we wear, stayed during the winter of 1776 -77. The army returned to Morristown for the winter of 1779-80, where it suffered through what the veterans called “the hard winter”.
After defeats at Brandywine and Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1777, the army spent the winter of 1777-78 at the now infamous, Valley Forge. On Tuesday, we will visit and perform at Monmouth, New Jersey where on June 28, 1778 the Americans won the last major northern battle of the war.
On Monday, in New York, we will perform at the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France in 1886, over 100 hundred years after the French army and navy helped us win our independence at Yorktown in 1781. Throughout this tour, we will see evidence of the long friendship between the United States and France, something that is largely forgotten today.
Today, Lady Liberty is the most visible symbol of the liberty we enjoy. From 1892 until 1954, this symbol was the first thing that 12 million immigrants to the United States saw as they entered this country. Many of our families entered this country through Ellis Island, where we will perform on Monday. Both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are symbols of the land of liberty and opportunity in which we are fortunate to live.
From the Statue of Liberty, we will be able to see Ground Zero from the same vantage point where the corps posed August 2001, five weeks before the 9/11 attacks, with the Twin Towers in the background. The same pose in 2004 shows the New York skyline without the World Trade Center, a memory that the corps carries with it every time we visit Lady Liberty.
This year we will experience the human impact of the war that the 9/11 attacks began. At our Kellogg Park performance on Thursday before tour, we dedicated our performance to Canton resident, Marine Cpl Jacob Turbett, who was killed this year fighting that war in Afghanistan. We will represent the Plymouth Canton community, when we honor Cpl Turbett, at his grave in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where men and women, who give their lives fighting this war, continue to be buried nearly every day. In the cemetery, remember, what happens here and be respectful of these women and men and their families whose have also given a part of themselves for this country.
At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, some members of the corps will lay a wreath to honor the Unknown Soldiers, who gave their lives to allow us to live in a free country. We will also watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb, where members of the 3rd Infantry Division, (The Old Guard) stand guard around the clock, protecting the memory of the sacrifice made by these soldiers.
The Performance for the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps on Thursday will be a highlight of the tour. While we are there, try to visit the stables and see the horses and caissons that carry many of the honored dead to their final resting place in Arlington. The Old Guard like Ellis Island, Arlington Cemetery and the Statue of Liberty represent all of the good things for which America stands. It is these things that many young men and women have given and continue to give their lives to defend.
On Sunday, the last performance day of this tour, we will honor others who gave their lives for this country. First, we will perform at the Lincoln Memorial, where the country honors, perhaps our greatest President. The President who recognized the great evil of slavery, who said that “a house divided against itself can not stand”. President Lincoln was willing to take the country to war to preserve the union and eliminate slavery. This memorial also causes us to remember the three hundred thousand, Union Soldiers who died in the Civil War. to preserve the union and end slavery in this country. In the end, Abraham Lincoln gave “the last full measure of devotion” for the same cause.
The second performance on Sunday reminds us of the Americans who died, in part to repay the debt we owed France, for its help in winning and maintaining our liberty. World War II was the second time Americans gave their lives to liberate France from German occupation. The World War II memorial features stars that represent the men and women who died fighting to free the world from the cruelty and oppression of Germany, Japan and Italy. Each of the 4,048 stars in the Memorial represents 100 men and women who died in the war. These stars are accompanied by the statement, “Here we mark the price of freedom.”
On Saturday we will perform at Fort McHenry where our national anthem was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, while being held by the British aboard a ship during the naval bombardment of Fort McHenry. This battle followed the British capture of Washington, DC, where they burned the White House and the Capitol. This fort and the Star Spangled Banner represent victory over an invading army and the liberty we have as a result. While on the mall on Sunday or during Free Day, please try to see the original Star Spangled Banner at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
At the Fort Meigs muster, we performed at the site of several battles in the War of 1812. Last year on tour we visited many sites where our current Canadian friends built forts and fought battles with American forces during this war. Fort Meigs represents the beginning of the war in 1812-13. The battles at Fort Meigs were American victories following defeat and the massacre of American prisoners by the Native American allies of the British at the River Raisin, in Monroe. We remember this humiliating defeat at the River Raisin muster every summer.
The War of 1812 has a direct connection to the corps. The corps original uniforms, the red and white stripes you have seen in photos, was inspired by the American naval victory by Oliver Hazard Perry on Lake Erie on September 14, 1813, which secured American control of the Great Lakes including the State of Michigan. Our victory in the war of 1812 was also aided indirectly by the French, who were at war with Great Britain around the world. This prevented the British from putting their full military might into our war. You will have the opportunity to wear the red and white striped blouse next year during on 40th Reunion.
As we leave on tour on Sunday morning, think back to last Sunday, when we spent the day traveling to perform in Arcadia. Living amid the hustle and bustle of a major suburb of a large city, it is easy for us to lose track of the values of the thousands of small towns in Michigan and the country. The people of Arcadia reflect these values. One of these values is patriotism and love of country.
Throughout the season, the corps performs in small towns, where the people only get to see us march by for a few seconds. However, that time is important to them. When they hear the fifes and drums, see the flags and revolutionary uniforms, and the outstanding young women and men who wear them, they remember all those things they love about this country. So the veterans stand and salute and the crowds cheer because the corps takes them on their own private tour of this country.
The corps represents the best of the United States to the thousands of people who see us perform each season. Each member and each season keeps that tradition alive. However, this corps is only able to do this because of the accomplishments of previous corps.
Next year, we celebrate our 40th anniversary. To honor the contributions of 40 corps, we are planning a weekend long event with a ”block party” on Church Street next to the Plymouth Historical Museum. The Museum will host a PFDC exhibit on the lower level, where they will display donated and loaned PFDC memorabilia from June through August. We will have the traditional Reunion picnic, a jam session Saturday night and a Welcoming Reception Friday night at the Historical Museum mixed in with this will be a couple of Dine to Donate meals at local restaurant and a Corps performance at the block party.
It is easy for the current corps to ignore the reunion celebration. Everyone is so “Old School”. I ask each of you to take time to thank the corps alumni and alumni parents you meet that weekend. They help create today’s corps and its place in the hearts and minds of the people who have seen the corps perform. Because of their efforts, we have the privilege of participating in this and every year’s season and tour. Please accept my thanks for everything you have done are doing and will do for the corps in the future so that we may continue, for many more years, to bring joy to thousands of people each year. Huzzah!
Mark Brown
July 29, 2010