Don’t think of me as ‘old’…
…just as ‘someone who’s seen a lot’.
My full name is Daryl Francis Jeffords and most call me ‘DJ’…
Welcome to the home of my TWO alter egos – the Vintage Drummer AND the Vintage MEEPLE!!
I’ve been a professional musician since 1975… my interest in the modern board game hobby (where a key component in many of the games is a player’s piece called a ‘meeple’) is much more recent – beginning in 2012… This website is dedicated to those things that are most important in my life – drumming, board games, drum corps and, of course, my family.
Professional Drummer…
I’ve been a professional drummer since I was 15 (again, that’s 1975 for those of you scoring at home) so 2024 will mark my 49th year (and 6th decade) as a professional musician!!
I don’t know if I ever thought I’d be drumming (AND marching) this long – let alone with groups of this caliber AND working full time, but here I am – still going strong…
Drum Corps…
I have the privilege and great good fortune to be playing 2nd bass in the Avant Garde Jr. Drum & Bugle Corps Alumni Drumline and Alumni Corps.
For those who think that means I play baseball for an oddly named team name, I offer this video as an explanation… This is a short bass feature we call ‘SCV‘ – loosely inspired by the Santa Clara Vanguard Jr. Drum & Bugle Corps in California…
SCV (30 second bass drum feature) as performed by the Avant Garde Alumni Drumline
Board Games…
And I’ve accepted (as I look at the almost 300 games in our collection) that I am addicted to board games and am seeking treatment… NOT… more on that inside…
The Family…
Ultimately, the reason I do anything and everything is my family…
At left is our daughter Selena, my wife Julie (pre-chemo), myself and my Mom who turns 92 in 2024 and is still sharp as a tack!!
More family stuff inside as well…
The ‘Reader’s Digest’ version (for those old enough to know what that means) goes like this…
Both marching in the Avant Garde Drum & Bugle Corps and playing with a solid local horn band (and being ‘on call’ for not one but TWO international touring acts) marked the culmination of 40 +/- year quests!!
In between I became infatuated with technology, played some sports and did some coaching and otherwise tried to overcome my ‘body-by-french-fry’…
In 2004 I settled into family life with my lovely wife and our beautiful daughter and in 2005 landed the best job I’ve ever had as part of a two-man IT staff with the Greenwich Central School District where I still happily work…
Otherwise, that’s pretty much my bucket list… land a great job, have a family, play in a horn band, march in the Avant Garde… there’s not much left… maybe, I don’t know… climb a pyramid and ride a unicorn… 🙂
The full, boring, long-winded story (but with pictures, audio, video and an occasional cuss word – you’ve been warned) can be found on the pages of this website which will probably be forever very much under construction as the saga continues…
So click around and welcome to my online home!!
And kudos to anyone who recognized that all my page names are song titles!!
