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Corps history - as told by David King, the TFDC "Founding Father"

My love of history and genealogy began in my early teens. I started reenacting around 1990 when our local historical society prepared for a special event inwhich I was asked to form a Voyaguer choir that sang old french canadian tunes. Although the group did only the one performance, I was a marked man in the re-enacting circles as a person who "should" do music at reenactments. So, for 7 or 8 years, fellow reeanactors kept prodding me to start a musical group of some sort. After a while I finally decided on a fife and drum corps, but never thought I could learn to get a sound on the fife let alone talk others into learning the instrument. At some point, I ran into Tracy Ahrens. She too had an interest in fife (she already played flute) and participating in some sort of performing group. Not much came from the first discussions, but both of us, independently began to think about the venture and acquire information about fifes.

In the meantime, I convinced my son Joe and Heather Crooks (fifer-and flute player) to play at Theatiki 2001. So, with Dave and Heather on fife, Joe on Snare drum, and my wife Cathy, playing a homeade Bohdran performed during the opening ceremonies each day at the event. It was an odd sounding and looking entourage, but we did get a number of favourable comments. During the event, I ran into Tracy who had just purchased her first fife and we re-connected about starting the corps. A few more months went by as I researched and found music. In the spring of 2002, I started my recruiting tactics through connections I have at the music store. You would not believe how many people said, "That sounds like fun, sign me up." Our first rehearsals were in late April and our first public performance was June 14th, 2002.

The rest is history.............