September 01, 2012|By Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun
As a child in the early 1950s, Beans belonged to the Annapolitans, one of Annapolis' three drum corps. Beans said every neighborhood kid's parents would threaten to ground a child from drum corps as a motivation to finish homework or start chores.
Even then, he said, the corps scraped together old military equipment to outfit themselves, spray painting visors from World War I helmets white, picking up old shirts from the Naval Academy and stitching their own yellow stripe down black pants to create uniforms.
The group he founded in 2008 uses horns first lent out by the academy in the mid-1980s. The corps, formed largely from children in Annapolis' public housing complexes, has musicians from 5 years old to 80. They've done a few parades, but Beans sees the World Championships as a crucial turning point.
It's difficult to explain to children why they can't drop their horns an inch if a fly lands on their nose or why each step must be executed with precision, he said. There weren't any groups for the Annapolis corps to watch and learn, he said, until the World Championship came to town.
"Now they get a chance to see through their eyes what we're trying to get them to perform," Beans said. "It's just like Christmas for us."
ecox@baltsun.com
