After a few seconds of hissing static, John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever’’ blared from a cassette player at the Torigian Community Life Center in Peabody, and the women’s senior drill team marched on stage, cradling wooden rifles against their shoulders, the long thin barrels sticking up like antennas. Black Rockport sneakers, white tennis shoes, and one brave pair of navy blue pumps stepped more or less in time to the martial music. Drill team instructor Carol Spencer, 79, marched in place in front of the stage, surveying the opening sequence of steps and matching the music to the lightly padding soles in front of her.
Senior women’s drill team has all the moves
Led by a tough ex-Marine, they enjoy the practices, performances, and camaraderie
“Forward! Two, three, four… Mark! Two, three, four … Circle!’’ Spencer barked, as she ascended the makeshift steps to the stage. Her shock of cropped grayish-white hair bobbed through the group as she steered lost members back into step. Her eyes remained focused on the movements of her 10 mature marchers — a montage of neatly pressed slacks, wire-frame glasses, and pastel sweaters — circling and weaving in loose formation, breaking off into twos, coming together in threes, counting for four, contracting and expanding like a kaleidoscope. One marcher’s cane clicked on the wooden stage like a faulty metronome above the patriotic brass crackling through the speakers.
“Again!’’ shouted Spencer when the music stopped. The team shuffled back into its starting positions behind the maroon curtain on either side of the stage.
Spencer, a sprightly ex-Marine in a candy-red sweatshirt and white turtleneck speckled with tiny red hearts, has been directing and choreographing original marches for the drill team for the past nine years.
“It’s not a job, it’s a love,’’ said Spencer of her volunteer role.
Beginning last Labor Day, the Peabody Council on Aging Senior Ladies Drill Team practiced from 10 to 11 every Monday morning in the senior center auditorium, gearing up for its performance at the center’s annual variety show on June 7 and 8. Team attendance at the practices is usually high, but on this particular Monday in April, two of the 12 members were absent and the gaping holes in the drill sequence were causing some disarray. One sun-kissed member, just back from Florida, wandered despairingly in a circle before Spencer guided her back into place.
The lone spectator (and apparent drill team groupie), Ed Jaworski, 72, said he comes to watch every Monday. He didn’t seem to mind the occasional misstep.
“I just like watching the way they move,’’ said Jaworski with a grin. “They’re pretty good.’’
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