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Mohawk Valley patriotism
Drum corps boosted Mohawk Valley patriotism
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History
After World War I, Amsterdam veterans’organizations formed drum and bugle corps. Most drum corps members were war veterans who had learned to march in the Army. The premier groups were those of the James T. Bergen and John J. Wyszomirski American Legion posts.
During World War II the number of drum corps multiplied and the organizations attracted younger, teen-aged members.
Amsterdam’s two Polish neighborhoods, Reid Hill and Park Hill, had separate drum corps. On Park Hill the all-female St. John’s Fife and Drum Corps looked sharp in blue and gold uniforms. The group was originally known as the Seventh Ward Fife and Drum Corps.
On Reid Hill the co-educational Polish National Alliance (P.N.A.) Drum and Bugle Corps took the field wearing maroon and white. Based at the P.N.A. building at Reid and Church Streets, many members were parishioners of St. Stanislaus Church.
One of the P.N.A.’s young buglers, Frank Ratka, went on to a career as business manager for symphony orchestras in Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City and Atlanta. “It was during the war and something that was very patriotic at the time,” said Sylvia Zimolka Stock in a 2004 interview, explaining why she joined the St. John’s corps at age 11. Stock began as a flag bearer then played drums. Frank Yazum, also interviewed in 2004, joined the P.N.A. corps in 1937 as a bugler.
Stock and Yazum said their groups performed traditional marches plus popular songs set to a martial tempo.
The St. John’s group marched in a Polish-American parade in New York City and played at Fort Smith near Peekskill where Company G of the National Guard from Amsterdam was stationed.
Another martial music group of the 1940s was the all-female Fort Johnson Fife and Drum Corps, who wore bright red uniforms.
Marge Vertucci Habla was filling in as a flag bearer with the Fort Johnson corps during one memorable Memorial Day parade in the 1940s. Habla and majorette Grace Bender had received conflicting marching orders. Habla took a turn and starting marching toward the Old Fort, with soldiers saluting along the way. However, the music got fainter. Behind Habla, Bender had not taken the turn and was leading the instruments in a different direction.
The drum corps competed against each other and out of town groups in appearance and performance. Inspections and competitions were held at Amsterdam’s Sanford Field, now Veterans Field on Locust Avenue. One Johnstown unit wore dressy black uniforms. Troy had the Mighty Callahans, who dressed in green.
When Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, the Allied victory in Europe, Stock said the St. John’s group “marched through the streets of Amsterdam because everybody was out celebrating.” Yazum did not recall if the P.N.A. corps marched that day, but said, “We just went around kissing all the girls.”
There were eight drum corps marching in Amsterdam’s World War II victory parade on September 15, 1945. Half of the groups were from the city and others came from Fort Johnson, Johnstown, Waterford and Syracuse. An all-female drum corps in Fonda sponsored a competition in 1947. The Fort Johnson drum corps entertained at the opening of the Mohawk Theatre in Amsterdam in 1949. For many years after the war, drum corps competitions were held in Amsterdam, Fonda, Fort Plain and Johnstown.
Nostalgia Corner
After URI Kaufman’s unsuccessful effort to turn the vacant Chalmers mill on Amsterdam’s South Side into an upscale housing protect, there was another developer who put a project together to rehabilitate the Chalmers building. Reader Bob Scott said that proposal also failed. The Chalmers building was torn down in 2011 and 2012.
Bob Cudmore is a freelance writer.
518 346 6657
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By Bob CudmoreDrum corps boosted Mohawk Valley patriotism
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History
After World War I, Amsterdam veterans’organizations formed drum and bugle corps. Most drum corps members were war veterans who had learned to march in the Army. The premier groups were those of the James T. Bergen and John J. Wyszomirski American Legion posts.
During World War II the number of drum corps multiplied and the organizations attracted younger, teen-aged members.
Amsterdam’s two Polish neighborhoods, Reid Hill and Park Hill, had separate drum corps. On Park Hill the all-female St. John’s Fife and Drum Corps looked sharp in blue and gold uniforms. The group was originally known as the Seventh Ward Fife and Drum Corps.
On Reid Hill the co-educational Polish National Alliance (P.N.A.) Drum and Bugle Corps took the field wearing maroon and white. Based at the P.N.A. building at Reid and Church Streets, many members were parishioners of St. Stanislaus Church.
One of the P.N.A.’s young buglers, Frank Ratka, went on to a career as business manager for symphony orchestras in Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City and Atlanta. “It was during the war and something that was very patriotic at the time,” said Sylvia Zimolka Stock in a 2004 interview, explaining why she joined the St. John’s corps at age 11. Stock began as a flag bearer then played drums. Frank Yazum, also interviewed in 2004, joined the P.N.A. corps in 1937 as a bugler.
Stock and Yazum said their groups performed traditional marches plus popular songs set to a martial tempo.
The St. John’s group marched in a Polish-American parade in New York City and played at Fort Smith near Peekskill where Company G of the National Guard from Amsterdam was stationed.
Another martial music group of the 1940s was the all-female Fort Johnson Fife and Drum Corps, who wore bright red uniforms.
Marge Vertucci Habla was filling in as a flag bearer with the Fort Johnson corps during one memorable Memorial Day parade in the 1940s. Habla and majorette Grace Bender had received conflicting marching orders. Habla took a turn and starting marching toward the Old Fort, with soldiers saluting along the way. However, the music got fainter. Behind Habla, Bender had not taken the turn and was leading the instruments in a different direction.
The drum corps competed against each other and out of town groups in appearance and performance. Inspections and competitions were held at Amsterdam’s Sanford Field, now Veterans Field on Locust Avenue. One Johnstown unit wore dressy black uniforms. Troy had the Mighty Callahans, who dressed in green.
When Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, the Allied victory in Europe, Stock said the St. John’s group “marched through the streets of Amsterdam because everybody was out celebrating.” Yazum did not recall if the P.N.A. corps marched that day, but said, “We just went around kissing all the girls.”
There were eight drum corps marching in Amsterdam’s World War II victory parade on September 15, 1945. Half of the groups were from the city and others came from Fort Johnson, Johnstown, Waterford and Syracuse. An all-female drum corps in Fonda sponsored a competition in 1947. The Fort Johnson drum corps entertained at the opening of the Mohawk Theatre in Amsterdam in 1949. For many years after the war, drum corps competitions were held in Amsterdam, Fonda, Fort Plain and Johnstown.
Nostalgia Corner
After URI Kaufman’s unsuccessful effort to turn the vacant Chalmers mill on Amsterdam’s South Side into an upscale housing protect, there was another developer who put a project together to rehabilitate the Chalmers building. Reader Bob Scott said that proposal also failed. The Chalmers building was torn down in 2011 and 2012.
Bob Cudmore is a freelance writer.
518 346 6657