Flames, Flickers drill teams start their last season
NORTH WASHINGTON — Early on a Monday evening the North Washington Rodeo parking lot was filling up with cars, trucks and SUVs as Flames and Flickers members began showing up for practice. That's normal for this time of year, as rodeo week looms and the drill team members prepare to perform in front of hometown fans.
But 2015 is special — not just because the drill teams are bringing back alumni to perform with the current generation of Flames. The group has been a keystone of the community for 55 years.
This is, quite literally, not the Flames' first rodeo. But it will, however, be its last. The Flames and Flickers drill teams are retiring.
The current members and alumni will be marching Monday night at 6:30 p.m. in the North Washington Rodeo Parade, kicking off a weeklong event that runs Tuesday through Saturday.
More than 1,000 people have called themselves Flames, Flickers or Flints since the drill team was formed in 1960. Driving across the country to compete against other drill teams, the group has logged more than 200,000 miles of travel. Members have performed in rain, sweltering heat, and through broken bones and other injuries.
It was just what the Flames and Flickers did.
“You never leave,” said Nancy (Bowser) Marano of what it means to be a Flame.
Marano and her siblings joined the group in 1967, and she marched in the corps until 1978. In the late 1980s, Marano returned as a Flames instructor for more than a decade, and watched her three children perform with the group.
That's not an uncommon story of Flames alumni. They join, grow up, leave, return, and never, ever forget where they've come from.
As she watched vehicles pull into the parking lot on Monday, Marano, idly twirling a baton, couldn't help but smile.
“Once a flame always a flame,” she said. “They're always there when you need them.”
Flames alums say they've come back this year to celebrate an organization that can be traced back to one man: Les Bell.Bell was the head of North Washington's Volunteer Fire Department in 1960, when resident Carolyn Sutton came to him with an idea. The department should fund a drill team, Sutton said.Bell's daughter, Beverly (Bell) Bishop, who now runs the corps, said she's not sure what about the idea appealed to her father, but he jumped at it.The group didn't have live music, so Bell spent hours with department member Craig McAnalien, recording drum beats at home while Bishop and her brother, Billy — who would go on to play drums himself in the corps — tried to stay quiet.Bishop, a twirler and eventually a head majorette in the Flames, ended up on the original roster of 35 girls from the North Washington area, and the group began traveling locally and competing in parades.“I don't think we ever were small,” Bishop said. “It just kept snowballing.”One year later in 1961, the Flickers — the Flames' younger counterparts — were born. Eventually the Flints — the group's youngest members — were added, along with male members and live musical accompaniment.By the time Stephanie Lukavich joined the group in 1969, it wasn't uncommon for the Flames to perform in four or five parades a week during the peak summer holiday season.“It was our life,” Lukavich said. “We were all a bunch of farm girls. We had nothing to do in the summer.”With Les Bell at the wheel of the Flames' bus, the group began racking up highway miles, traveling to competitions in Washington, D.C., Wyoming, Florida and Niagara Falls, where it won the 1970 Maid of the Mist Championship.The trips cemented friendships among the Flames, and grew their affection for Bell, who many say was a father figure to them until his death 19 years ago.Patti Schultheis, who joined the Flames in 1971 at the age of 5 and has never left the group, says she keeps a bracelet with her Flints charm to remind her of the group's travels, which were filled with singalongs and music from groups like The Beach Boys and The Guess Who.“He was honestly like a second father to us,” she said of Bell. “We respected him. He made us do exactly what he wanted. (But) he was always there for us. We spent half our lives with Les. He was just a great guy.”Bishop, who called Bell “my very best friend in the world,” remembers her father as a strict but beloved figure among the Flames.“They respected him (and) he respected them,” Bishop said. “He treated them like they were his kids.”Routines, times changeBishop took the group's reigns from her father 20 years ago, and has watched the times and drill teams change dramatically.The routines are more complex, the girls more daring and talented, and the competition for people's time more intense.Alums say the Flames are likely the last drill team of its kind in the region. Bishop, who considered shutting the corps down last year, said she knows it's time for the group to go on hiatus.There are 16 Flames members this year and, for the first time, no Flickers. Bishop was talked into one more season of performances by Flames president Melony Wagner and several other members.It just didn't feel right to stop so close to a milestone like 55 years, Wagner said, and it wouldn't have felt right to press on without Bishop at the helm either.“Bev tries to make it all about her dad, but ... she has carried on his legacy, with her own traditions as well as his,' Wagner said. “He would have been proud of what she has continued in his honor.”What hasn't changed is the Flames' affection for their leader.“Bev, she's like family now,” said Savanna Wagner, 16, of Butler. “You can tell how much this means to her.”Wagner, who attends Karns City schools and joined the Flames eight years ago, says Bishop helped her find her passion.“(Twirling) is something that's in your blood,” she said.Head majorette Sydnee Buczkowski, 16, who attends Moniteau schools, agreed.“This is like my only activity,” said Buczkowski. “I can't get enough. I will never regret joining. I love it.”That affection usually gets Bishop invited to numerous events throughout the year, something she said makes her feel appreciated.Bishop's only regret is that her father never had a chance to meet the Flames she's helped grow. But in making the decision to step away, she remembers something he told her years ago.“He always told me, 'You'll know when it's time',” Bishop said. “I'm not upset because I'm doing what is right. It's what my dad would tell me to do.”Things will formally wrap up for the group at the Flames' annual banquet in December.But members say they will never really be able to leave the group behind. Alums like Stacy (Beatty) Winslow watched their own children become Flames, stayed involved as instructors, and carry a love for twirling with them to this day.“That's my stress relief,” said Winslow, who joined the Flames in 1970 and became a twirler.Winslow, now an accountant, says she still keeps her Flames baton with her at the office.“When I have a bad day, I get it out and I twirl,” she said.
