Drum Corps historian Brian Tolzman (author of ""A History of Drum and Bugle Corps") has stated that Atlantic Guardian - or "A/G" - was probably the only corps in history to start off life as a car wreck.

The initial funding to pay for the federal 501(c)3 application came from the insurance settlement given to director Jim Alberty because his car had been dented in the Staples parking lot in Falmouth.

Bigger oaks have grown from smaller acorns.

The corps incorporated in 2002. With the generous donation of a set of old marching percussion from the late, lamented Dirigo Alliance drum corps startup in Waterville - and the critical help of Sabres alums Bob Butt, Mary and Ralph Brett - and the irrepressible Dick Henward - an effort was attempted to start a corps on a shoestring budget.

Not all decisions made (by the Director) were wise - but sincerity can sometimes win out. Sometimes.

In the Winter of 2003 the group began rehearsing at Portland High School. Friday nights in the basement - and we got in through the use of a lot of Tony's Donuts, which also served as fuel for the work.

A/G was mentored in percussion by Jason Beam, a former drummer with the Boston alumni corps. Jason has been responsible for teaching some of the best marching percussion students in Southern Maine and his name is still strongly respected in marching music circles.

The corps made its first appearance in the Yarmouth Clam Festival Parade in 2004 - at the cost of the back window of Jim Alberty's station wagon, broken as it was closed on a trunk full of bass drum cases.

The glass was brushed off and a remarkable performance (decked out in matching Hawaiian shirts) took place. The next day the group played in the Buxton Family day parade and a legend (or rumor) was born.

The next year saw performances at Portland Pirate Hockey games and the winning of the lease of a set of 24 bugles from the 21st. Century Foundation and Steve Vickers of Drum Corps World.

It is a truism (often quoted by Dick Henward) that it's easy to find drummers - much harder to recruit buglers. This became very obvious - in a variation of the famous Catch 22 of "no job>no experience>no job" it was hard to get enough students to commit to a brand new group (even with new bugles - only used once by Court of Honor in Atlanta) that didn't have enough students interested to make it interesting to students.

The corps appeared at the Clam Festival and added the Moxie Festival parade to it's list of venues.

The corps made its last appearances in 2006 at the Clam Festival, the Moxie Festival and the LaKermesse Festival.

The drums acquitted themselves with excellence - also taking time to march down Congress Street on a First Friday Artwalk in August of that year - to the astonishment and delight of revelers in the street.

Members of the corps - some of whom stuck with it from the very first practices at Portland High School - have gone on the march with the Citations, Spartans or to study percussion education the local university.

I can state (Jim talking here) that if you're going to start a drum corps you need support of a large group of diverse people with lots of various skills - and you need to LISTEN to them - that to try to do the whole thing oneself is the height of folly. It takes a big team - perhaps bigger than can be assembled in Maine these days.

Still, it's good to have been part of the legacy of marching music in Maine.

Here's to the whisper of feet still marching down Congress Street and the echo of drums and bugles in Deering Oaks and in front of a big red brick house on Deering Street.