A happy drum corps Canada Day 2018 on the second Souther

Happy Canada Day, the first of three patriotic holidays in July.  Today is also Souther, a holiday John Michael Greer and I co-founded that falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Summer Solstice, the mascot for which is a wombat, an Australian animal.   Now, how do I celebrate both at once?  Is there a Canadian corps that wears Aussie hats and plays "Waltzing Matilda?"  Yes, there is!

I begin today's festivities by reaching back into the archives for the 1959 Preston Scout House.


The first year of this series, I shared videos of the Oakland Crusaders and Seneca Optimists.  The next year, I featured their predecessors, the Toronto Optimists and De La Salle Oaklands.  It was only a matter of time before I kicked things off with the other famous pre-DCI Canadian corps, the Preston Scout House.

Follow over the jump for Canadian corps from the 1970s to the 2010s, along with some ice cream for Souther.

For the 1970s, I'm going back to the well for 1975 Oakland Crusaders - Final 1:00.

The final minute of the Oakland Crusaders 1975 6th place show.

Moving on to the 1980s, I present 1984 Dutch Boy Semifinals.

1984 Dutch Boy - Semifinals 24th Place

No celebration of Canadian corps would be complete without a representative from Quebec and L'Insolite Drum and Bugle Corps 1993 represents both the Francophone province and the 1990s.


Moving on to the 2000s, I conclude the drum corps performances with Kingston Grenadiers Prelims 2002 to represent the all-ages part of the activity as well as the current century.

Kingston Grenadiers 2002 DCA Championships Prelims performance of "By George" - the music of George Gershwin in Scranton, PA. The last 15-20 seconds of the show is cut-off - sorry, if I find the original compact VHS recording, I'll re-post! A little extra bonus for the drummers at the end of this clip! * Concerto in F * I Got Rhythm (from Girl Crazy) * Embraceable You * Rhapsody in Blue Corps Director: Don Dean Brass Arranger: Dave Orser Percussion Coordinator & Battery Arranger: Scott Atkins Pit Instructor & Arranger: Rick Rogers Visual Design: Mark Ryder Guard Designers: Leslie Ryder, AJ Mann

That concludes the celebration of Canadian drum corps, but not the celebration of Canada Day and definitely not Souther.  Observing the latter involves eating ice cream, preferably with booze.  To combine the two, I'm sharing a recipe with ice cream, booze, and two classic Canadian ingredients, maple syrup and bacon in Bacon Maple Bourbon Milkshake from Son of a Southern Chef.

The best darn milkshake you will ever have! It's got maple syrup candied bacon, it's got bourbon and bacon fat, and of course, it's got ice cream. Everything wrong and right about life is in this cup of gluttony.

Yum.  The wombat approves.*


I conclude today's double celebration by repeating what I wrote last year and the year before, "it's time to recycle San.  It wouldn't be one of my Canada Day posts without her."


*So might The Wombats, whose latest album includes the song "Ice Cream."  Seriously.  That's perfect for next year, when Souther will fall on July 21, which will once again be National Ice Cream Day.