Was it a coincidence that Beatrix’ Drum & Bugle Corps suddenly went to Roggel for Easter camps instead of Brunssum? Long ago, before Roggel, Easter camps were always held in Brunssum. The sleeping hall was much the same. The showers were slightly different; there were cubicles that allowed one to pour a bucket of cold water over the person showering. This sometimes resulted in magnificent screaming concerts.
The rehearsals were also similar, even though musical rehearsals sometimes took place in strange locations. At that time staff members carried walkie talkies. Once, during a rehearsal, a staff member went to the toilet. He forgot to turn the thing off and so the entire staff could experience the sound of him forcing his bowel movement. Hilarious!
As you may notice, I am avoiding the Brunssum eight I mentioned earlier. Why? Because I was one of them. It’s not as great as it sounds, and was not so neat of our members at the time.
In Brunssum the corps had dinner at a local restaurant. We always went there by foot. Come to mention it, I once had a very frightening experience there. As a practical joke, I had hidden my neighbour’s plate of food (I won’t mention any names). I didn’t see this coming, but he got very angry when he saw that his meal was gone. My other neighbor whispered to me “Don’t tell him it was you. He’ll literally punch you in the face!” There I sat, with his plate on my lap under the table. Luckily, while he was walking about mumbling “Who took my food?” I was able to put it back on the table without him noticing. I ate the rest of my dinner with a steel face, and I’ll admit that I was very scared for a moment there.
Anyway, during the walk to the restaurant, some members had thought up the game of kicking street lights. Apparently they would sometimes go out as a result. I was walking up front with the drum major and members were really enjoying themselves with the streetlights. Suddenly a group of police officers with dogs stood in front of us “Come along, guys.” Eight people were taken to the police station. When the officers asked who was in charge, seven of them pointed at me (thanks, guys!). Nobody wanted to take the blame, and the youngest guys were pretty frightened. One of them is nowadays a member of Beatrix Brass, just to give an idea of how long ago this all took place. Luckily the guilty ones eventually confessed and we were all allowed to go back to the sleeping hall under police escort.
Of course an event like this is nothing to be proud of. It did however, in the end, have good consequences, because from the next year on Beatrix’ Easter camps took place in Roggel. In Roggel the corps has a great location that has been renovated to become a beautiful sports compound.
Stories like these, and of course many other fun, dramatic, spectacular and touching ones can be shared on the Beatrix’ Alumni Reunion on July 10th 2010. Enroll and be sure to attend! It’s as simple as sending an email to Dit e-mailadres is beschermd tegen spambots. U heeft Javascript nodig om het te kunnen zien. with ‘Reunion: <your name>’ in the subject line.
Henk
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