We haven't had a Fanfare "Love Connection" article since July 1, of last year, so we're due. Got a love connection of your own to share? Please contact me at boomike@dci.org. And, as always, any and all other submissions on drum corps topics are always welcomed.
Garry and Jan Parker were married in July of 2003. The following is from Garry. On July 31, 2003, Jan and I were married in a small chapel in Las Vegas. She called me the previous Tuesday morning from Chicago (woke me up at 4:15 a.m. Pacific time) and asked what I was doing Friday. I had to get some paperwork done for a new job, but otherwise the day was free. She asked, "You wanna' get married?" That cleared out the cobwebs real fast! I told her, "Why not?" She flew in from Denver on Thursday. I picked her up at McCarron Airport at 4 p.m. and we went home to let her change out of her United Airlines uniform, grabbed a sandwich, and headed out for the jewelry store. We found a matching set of wedding bands and headed for the marriage license bureau. Since it was just about 8:30 when we got the license, we figured why not just do it then? We had already called a friend who met us at the chapel, so we had a witness. We were married that night at 9:45. There were definitely some weird drum corps coincidences going on that night, too. During the ceremony, the music was "Ice Castles" (Madison) and "Music of the Night" (Santa Clara Vanguard), and the motel next door to the chapel was Casa Malaga. We played "Malaga" in SoCal Dream. We had to get around to a real honeymoon later as I was starting a new job on Sunday, and Jan had to fly to Maui the same day. I called her there and asked her how our honeymoon was going!
We've heard from Stephanie Louden in the past regarding 27th Lancers and George Bonfiglio. Now we hear from her husband, Roger. My wife and I both were members of the 27th Lancers of Revere, Mass., when we were kids. But we never met back then. I marched in 1978, when the Lancers embarked on a new life without Ralph Pace leading us in drill on the field. Could the young color guard instructor named George Zingali get the job done in time so we could even make finals? (Insert ironic giggle here.) My wife, Stephanie Alexander Louden, marched 1984 through 1986. 1984 was the last year that 27th would grace finals. Could/should a now legendary drill writer named George Zingali return to bring his first-love corps back up? (Insert ironic tear here.) My wife and I were both out-of-state members of the corps. She was from Memphis, Tenn., and I was from San Jose, Calif. We both were blown away enough to want to join—oddly enough—by two separate Lancer performances featuring "Gaite Parisienne" (Can-Can) that were also five years apart — 1977 for me and 1982 for her. We both could have joined closer corps, but the draw was too strong. So where would we meet? Would it be the 1994 alumni corps that performed at the DCI World Championship that year? Sadly, not. Not only were we both away from the drum corps world at that time with the challenges of life, we were also – as I said earlier – out-of-state members that were very hard to find by the organizing members of the alumni corps. The Internet was not quite in full swing in 1993. I did not find out about it until the winter of 1994, which was quite a blow. My wife found out after the fact as well. No, we did not meet then, but we were getting geographically closer. By 1994, I had already been in Nashville, Tenn., for six years, following music audio work. No, our moment would come when Stephanie was a member of the organizing committee for the 35th anniversary reunion. She was actually visiting her brother in Bend, Ore., when she saw my listing on the original 27th Web site back in 2001. But now, I was in Orlando to be closer to my brother's film production company. She contacted me by e-mail, not just to alert me about the reunion, but also to quiz me, for I had mentioned in my 27th bio that I was a sound tech at Universal at the time. She was a light tech in Memphis and wanted to know if opportunities were better in Florida. Unfortunately, I had already been out of the theme park biz for almost a year. You cannot call it dating on the Internet, because our first contact was not under that perception. We were just two Lancers reminiscing. Our five-year difference with the corps was interesting, in that people I marched with were her instructors. But something was happening immediately. When two people have gotten this far down the road without getting married and have the scars of broken hearts to prove it, you know the right one when they finally show up. It was incredible how many things we had in common. Soon there was an invitation for her to come down and check out Florida. It was love at first sight. It did not take long to know for sure, and it was only three weeks later that we found ourselves on the beach, and even though no one believes me, I swear I had no thought of the date. We were staring into each others' eyes when I knew. The sun was touching her brown eyes in just a way to make them almost golden and I said, "Those eyes, I could look in those eyes forever. Will you marry me?" The answer was a resounding yes, and the date was March 27. I didn't know! I swear! However, it was on purpose that we chose September 27, 2002, as the date. In honor of my own Scottish roots, I wore a formal kilt with the Prince jacket. In honor of 27th, we had a brass band recording of "Crown Imperial" for the procession and a symphony recording of "Sea Hawk" for the recessional. Before you 27 alumni think that was nuts, we did stop at having rifles fly over our heads. It was off to the Grand Bahamas for the honeymoon. And this all happened before the Lancers 35th anniversary reunion, the organization of which is what brought us together. We showed up at the reunion as married Lancers. Since then, we have really gotten back into drum corps. It is amazing how much of the activity is exactly the same as it once was and how much is different. We got involved in many ways. We are honored to run the 27th Lancer Web site. (www.27thLancers.net) It has been 19 years since the corps disbanded, but its legacy remains and we were thrilled to see kids loving the 1980 Lancers during the 2006 DCI Classic Countdown. We go to shows and went to DCI World Championships in Denver for our vacation in 2004, and we went to the championships in Foxboro, Mass., last year. We never pass up a chance to be with our corps parents, George and Patsy Bonfiglio. He is credited as the corps director, but we know that both of them really were. The honeymoon is still on. We have entered the field of love and happiness, and we like it here! On June 15, of this year, Ryan Evan Louden was born to parents Roger and Stephanie. As Stephanie mentioned in an e-mail, "Perfectly healthy, beautiful baby boy ... Mom Stephanie doing fine after delivery. All is wonderful with the world." Stephanie also noted that if you add up the numbers 6/15/06, you get the number 27.
Michael Boo has been involved with drum and bugle corps since 1975, when he marched his first of three seasons with the Cavaliers.
He has a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in music theory and composition.
He has written about the drum corps activity for over a quarter century for publications such as Drum Corps World, and presently is involved in a variety of projects for Drum Corps International, including souvenir program books, CD liner notes, DCI Update and Web articles, and other endeavors. Michael currently writes music for a variety of idioms, is a church handbell and vocal choir director, an assistant director of a community band, and a licensed Realtor in the state of Indiana. His other writing projects are for numerous publications, and he has published an honors-winning book on the history of figure skating. His hobbies include TaeKwonDo and hiking the Indiana Dunes. But more than anything, Michael is proud to love drum corps and to be a part of the activity in some small way, chronicling various facets of each season for the enjoyment of others.
Garry and Jan Parker were married in July of 2003. The following is from Garry. On July 31, 2003, Jan and I were married in a small chapel in Las Vegas. She called me the previous Tuesday morning from Chicago (woke me up at 4:15 a.m. Pacific time) and asked what I was doing Friday. I had to get some paperwork done for a new job, but otherwise the day was free. She asked, "You wanna' get married?" That cleared out the cobwebs real fast! I told her, "Why not?" She flew in from Denver on Thursday. I picked her up at McCarron Airport at 4 p.m. and we went home to let her change out of her United Airlines uniform, grabbed a sandwich, and headed out for the jewelry store. We found a matching set of wedding bands and headed for the marriage license bureau. Since it was just about 8:30 when we got the license, we figured why not just do it then? We had already called a friend who met us at the chapel, so we had a witness. We were married that night at 9:45. There were definitely some weird drum corps coincidences going on that night, too. During the ceremony, the music was "Ice Castles" (Madison) and "Music of the Night" (Santa Clara Vanguard), and the motel next door to the chapel was Casa Malaga. We played "Malaga" in SoCal Dream. We had to get around to a real honeymoon later as I was starting a new job on Sunday, and Jan had to fly to Maui the same day. I called her there and asked her how our honeymoon was going!
We've heard from Stephanie Louden in the past regarding 27th Lancers and George Bonfiglio. Now we hear from her husband, Roger. My wife and I both were members of the 27th Lancers of Revere, Mass., when we were kids. But we never met back then. I marched in 1978, when the Lancers embarked on a new life without Ralph Pace leading us in drill on the field. Could the young color guard instructor named George Zingali get the job done in time so we could even make finals? (Insert ironic giggle here.) My wife, Stephanie Alexander Louden, marched 1984 through 1986. 1984 was the last year that 27th would grace finals. Could/should a now legendary drill writer named George Zingali return to bring his first-love corps back up? (Insert ironic tear here.) My wife and I were both out-of-state members of the corps. She was from Memphis, Tenn., and I was from San Jose, Calif. We both were blown away enough to want to join—oddly enough—by two separate Lancer performances featuring "Gaite Parisienne" (Can-Can) that were also five years apart — 1977 for me and 1982 for her. We both could have joined closer corps, but the draw was too strong. So where would we meet? Would it be the 1994 alumni corps that performed at the DCI World Championship that year? Sadly, not. Not only were we both away from the drum corps world at that time with the challenges of life, we were also – as I said earlier – out-of-state members that were very hard to find by the organizing members of the alumni corps. The Internet was not quite in full swing in 1993. I did not find out about it until the winter of 1994, which was quite a blow. My wife found out after the fact as well. No, we did not meet then, but we were getting geographically closer. By 1994, I had already been in Nashville, Tenn., for six years, following music audio work. No, our moment would come when Stephanie was a member of the organizing committee for the 35th anniversary reunion. She was actually visiting her brother in Bend, Ore., when she saw my listing on the original 27th Web site back in 2001. But now, I was in Orlando to be closer to my brother's film production company. She contacted me by e-mail, not just to alert me about the reunion, but also to quiz me, for I had mentioned in my 27th bio that I was a sound tech at Universal at the time. She was a light tech in Memphis and wanted to know if opportunities were better in Florida. Unfortunately, I had already been out of the theme park biz for almost a year. You cannot call it dating on the Internet, because our first contact was not under that perception. We were just two Lancers reminiscing. Our five-year difference with the corps was interesting, in that people I marched with were her instructors. But something was happening immediately. When two people have gotten this far down the road without getting married and have the scars of broken hearts to prove it, you know the right one when they finally show up. It was incredible how many things we had in common. Soon there was an invitation for her to come down and check out Florida. It was love at first sight. It did not take long to know for sure, and it was only three weeks later that we found ourselves on the beach, and even though no one believes me, I swear I had no thought of the date. We were staring into each others' eyes when I knew. The sun was touching her brown eyes in just a way to make them almost golden and I said, "Those eyes, I could look in those eyes forever. Will you marry me?" The answer was a resounding yes, and the date was March 27. I didn't know! I swear! However, it was on purpose that we chose September 27, 2002, as the date. In honor of my own Scottish roots, I wore a formal kilt with the Prince jacket. In honor of 27th, we had a brass band recording of "Crown Imperial" for the procession and a symphony recording of "Sea Hawk" for the recessional. Before you 27 alumni think that was nuts, we did stop at having rifles fly over our heads. It was off to the Grand Bahamas for the honeymoon. And this all happened before the Lancers 35th anniversary reunion, the organization of which is what brought us together. We showed up at the reunion as married Lancers. Since then, we have really gotten back into drum corps. It is amazing how much of the activity is exactly the same as it once was and how much is different. We got involved in many ways. We are honored to run the 27th Lancer Web site. (www.27thLancers.net) It has been 19 years since the corps disbanded, but its legacy remains and we were thrilled to see kids loving the 1980 Lancers during the 2006 DCI Classic Countdown. We go to shows and went to DCI World Championships in Denver for our vacation in 2004, and we went to the championships in Foxboro, Mass., last year. We never pass up a chance to be with our corps parents, George and Patsy Bonfiglio. He is credited as the corps director, but we know that both of them really were. The honeymoon is still on. We have entered the field of love and happiness, and we like it here! On June 15, of this year, Ryan Evan Louden was born to parents Roger and Stephanie. As Stephanie mentioned in an e-mail, "Perfectly healthy, beautiful baby boy ... Mom Stephanie doing fine after delivery. All is wonderful with the world." Stephanie also noted that if you add up the numbers 6/15/06, you get the number 27.
Michael Boo has been involved with drum and bugle corps since 1975, when he marched his first of three seasons with the Cavaliers.
He has a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in music theory and composition.
He has written about the drum corps activity for over a quarter century for publications such as Drum Corps World, and presently is involved in a variety of projects for Drum Corps International, including souvenir program books, CD liner notes, DCI Update and Web articles, and other endeavors. Michael currently writes music for a variety of idioms, is a church handbell and vocal choir director, an assistant director of a community band, and a licensed Realtor in the state of Indiana. His other writing projects are for numerous publications, and he has published an honors-winning book on the history of figure skating. His hobbies include TaeKwonDo and hiking the Indiana Dunes. But more than anything, Michael is proud to love drum corps and to be a part of the activity in some small way, chronicling various facets of each season for the enjoyment of others.