The smell of pine needles in the air, people scurrying about doing their holiday shopping, baking cookies, sipping cocktails and prepping for the big day. Don't lose your head, we're Bridgemen and we've got more serious items to attend to, like a 6 hour rehearsal at St. Andrew.

That's the attitude that was pervasive at Sunday's practice. After George did his quick update, it was all business. The guard and hornline immediately went to work on marching basics. Having a full contingent of instructors paid great dividends as we paced the gym doing various basic drill exercises. The intensity seen on the faces was surprising being this is only December. It is very apparent that the membership is taking the challenge of “Raising the Bar” in 2007 very seriously. The 1 hour of marching went quickly and showed great results as the corps began its quest for steady improvement in our visual show.

While the rest of the corps was marching, the percussion section was hard at work cleaning and fine tuning My Favorite Things (MFT) and In The Stone (ITS). They were also identifying how to best utilize all the talent that has returned from 2006 and blend in the contingent of newcomers for 2007. The drumline continues to make incredible strides of progress and will surely wow the audiences with another spectacular Dennis DeLucia percussion book next year. Only Dennis knows what is up his sleeve to further enhance the level of entertainment. But, we all saw what a Delucia drum feature can do to a crowd last year. Expect more of the magic in June.

The hornline and guard now split and worked on their specialties. Without going into great detail, work they did. Larry, Dennis, Gabe and Jimmy did the impossible. The opener is now in the bank! Though we have much cleaning and fine tuning to do, the 55 + horns in attendance got the entire 1978 opener completed. It's a killer tune and many a horn player had to tuck their lips in their shirt pockets at the end of rehearsal. But, they did it. Absolutely amazing.

The day ended with our normal show and tell. The horns gave everyone in the gym a full preview of Ritual Fire Dance. The crowd was in awe. Is this December? After that excitement, we ran through MFT and ITS with the full corps. Again, is this December? The quality throughout all sections was astonishing for this time of the year. We all know there's a ton of work to be done but December's rehearsal set the tone for a very exciting winter in the Oil City.

If we can keep this level of intensity up, the bar will be raised. The question that remains is, “How high?”

- John Richard, Drum Major