MilesandCassius

Joe Roche was a mellophone player. I think he played soprano in 83. But definitely mellophone in 84 and 85.

That's Aaron Oppenheimer on the left, not Aaron Goldberg. I don't know any "Goldberg"s that marched Cadets.

85. We switched that year in the winter for a multiplicity of reasons, not the least of which was to be "different".

Mike, I don't know you, although we do share an alumni associaton with the same corps. But I gotta say; I don't think in all the posts of yours that I have read, I've ever disagreed with anything you've written. I like how you think. I think you're right on the money. Thanks for that.

I like it. Stir things up.

Well said. All of it. I'm an alum of Cadets, and everything you say about them is correct.

Erie, PA in 1985. The stands were really low and really close as there's no track. We finish the OTL and put our horns, and I was real close to the sideline. The crowd just starts yelling and jumping, and there was this older lady who I focused on because she was right in front of me. She didn't stand up, but she mouthed something like "Oh my God!", covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears. One of those seminal moments in my marching career. That, and the US Open prelims in 85 again, where, before we went on, our staff told us "This crowd goes crazy if you seed the applause. So we're not going to sit together in the stands and act like regular audience members and clap at everything." Well, it worked. The audience screamed and clapped at spots we'd never heard applause before. They went crazy! And that was the first time we beat SCV that year.

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George Hopkins was angry about something one night and was dressing down the corps when he said: "... and I don't care if you marched in the Belgian Waffles or the Jo-Gypsy Pidours!" And there it is. The Jo-Gypsy Pidours. Rolls off the tongue. Certainly a fake name, (or is it!?!) but that, my friends, is my favorite drum corps name ever. Ever. "From Spockton, PA, The Jo-Gypsy Pidours!" Fabulous!!

Wait a sec!! There's homosexuals in drum corps!?! No way!! Where? When?! How??!! What a non-subject. Tl;dr. But if any of you did complain about people's sexual preference and having to march with them, remember how foolish you're going to look in 10-15 years. Remember the sentiment "Girls in the hornline? What's drum corps coming too?"

Oh, I'm all over this. First car? '72 Dodge Dart with a slant six. My mother worked with a woman who was a little odd. One day she came in and told my mom "I'm giving my car to God." (whatever THAT means.) My mom's pretty sharp. She said "You know, my son knows God... Why don't you give it to him and when he's done, he can give it to God." The woman said: "I have to ask God." One week later she drops the car off at my house for free. I gave her $20 'cause I felt bad. First thing I noticed was that the car was in great shape! Second thing, the ashtray was crammed full of peach pits and gum. Third, there was a bumper sticker with a pic of a fetus with the phrase "Equal Rights For Unborn Mothers!" on one side of the bumper, and on the other side it had "I Heart Fudge". It was my Fetus/Fudge Car. It was so rock-and-roll that I left the stickers on. I drove that car back and forth from Massachusetts to Garfield NJ for. Couple of years. More and more of the exhaust system would fall off on Route 95 over the years... And did I fix it? That'd be a "No." Instead, I spent some money on a power amp to make my stereo louder to hear over the din. Ahh, the priorities of youth! I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally peruse Craigslist looking for a 72 Dodge Dart for sale. I loved that car.

No kidding! Is that true? That's my first drum corps! I didn't know that!

There's not any clip in this thread I don't love! The Mummers, the Accordion band, and the black college band, wow! Outstanding! Just the energy coming off each group. Fantastic!

Hey, these guys are pros. Try to not tell these pros what to do. It's not a Cottage industry. Leave the Provolone.

As feta would have it, they're making this announcement during the "Frankenstorm", which I hear is gonna be a real muenster.

With that music I'm sure the corps'll shred. Sounds like a real Gouda show.

86 Cadets had the first backfield company front in "Christopher Street". Also the backfield sop solo in Cadets in 82. Well, it wasn't quite backfield. Shorty Bartholomew tells the story that they got into Olympic Stadium in Montreal before quarter finals and he and Donnie Van Doren got on the field before any other corps and Shorty played the solo at various angles backfield looking for the most resonance in the stadium. They found that by playing backfield at the angle of 10:30 o'clock that the echo was the greatest. If you look at the video you can see him backfield at an angle during that solo. On the recording it's haunting.

Having marched in the 80's, the "Z" pull was the most talked about single thing during the decade. If you could tally up the conversations about drum corps somehow, I'm sure that would be number one. No single drill move, then or since, has created more of a stir or harkened a bigger sea-change in the activity. There have been great moves and incredibly inventive moves since, but nothing as big or impactive, especially for the times.

In his defense, he does say openly that that's his biggest regret. I think he was disappointed in the fact we weren't going to have the perfect show we were striving for more than anything. Also, remember he was a young guy! At that point he'd been director for only his 3rd year and he was the ripe old age of 26? Maybe 27? Listen, if poor behavior became a crime, I'd probably have a life sentence. I was a knucklehead in my youth. Like I said, he's openly repentent about that moment. It's on the Cadets Championship years DVD in the interview section. I'd cut him some slack. He's older and wiser now. @ Dr. Pangloss- Sorry about that. I'm one of "those" guys because I marched through '87 as well. It sounds dumb coming from me, but I feel your pain. You guys were a great corps. Every year. All respect. Believe it or not, when I was in basic training for the Air Force 20+ years ago, it was SCV's exit, the "Red Pony" in '85 that kept coming into my head like a dog-roll when I needed to find a "happy place". I loved that piece. I wish I got to play it. No hard feelings.

Oh, and one more thing. The stand-still sop solo in Candide where he warbles on the high note is a mistake. He never did that before. He said his chops were gone and he was trying to hold the note and he just kind of shook off of it for a second. The rest of the solo came out fine. For most people it's another mistake that probably sounds fine or intentional. It wasn't.

Oh, and for the record, that "Hut hut hut" was the very same Tom Smith of "running from the tunnel" fame at the beginning of the show. He called the audible for most of the season because the form lined up with the drum major making it impossible for most of the form to see the count-off. Tom had the best vantage point.

Ha ha Sam! I knew there was a "YOU GOT MY RING!" angle in in there somewhere! It was a crazy moment. Made all the more weird for the fact that Rich Armstrong NEVER screwed up. I believe he was the best drum major winner at DCI more than once? I want to believe that. Anyways, the last set was the ink. Thats how it was written. Just Zingali's take on the music. Remember all the controversy in '83 over the arc that was off center in Garfield's show right before they formed the "Z" pull? Everyone thought it was a way to make it un-judgeable. You can't call an arc not correct if it was written to look not correct. Maybe in '85 in the last set that was what he was doing. Or maybe he just liked it that way. I dunno. I will say, you're the first person I ever heard bring it up before. I never really thought about it.

Yep. The drum major, Rich Armstrong "double-pumped". He silently went "One, two, (pause, longer than a beat, and looked at the pit for something that was supposed to happen), One-two-three-four." On the field there was panic. I remember thinking "What!?" and just kind of blindly stepping off listening like crazy to see if I was right or in step. There was a collective feeling on the field of "Oh no!! We just blew it!" which was quickly replaced with a feeling of "Oh well. Let's just play and make it the best we can. It was still a great year." Somehow it didn't seem obvious to the audience. I remember thinking that they'll have to use the prelims performance for the recording. After we played, we were on last because they were champions the year before and we'd won prelims, we wound around Hoppy like we always did and he just looked at us and said "Not this year, folks." and walked away. If you watch the video, you can see A) a ton of us out of step on the #1 side of the field in back and the form not clicking and B) Hoppy himself leaving and walking on the track half way through the tune. He says that's one of the moments in drum corps he regrets the most: leaving the finals performance half-way through the final run. As the final scores were announced, none, and I mean NONE of us thought we'd won. The score announcements were a shock. When they announced SCV in 2nd the world swam and I almost fainted. True story. The big lesson was that it happened in the final run-through at rehearsal. The staff chalked it up as a fluke and didn't address it. Never again. If it suddenly doesn't work, break it down and find the problem, no matter how late in the game. It was a crazy moment. Made all the more remarkable in what for me was a fantastic year. 85 Garfield was absolutely seamless. All the drama of bus breakdowns and food issues that happened in 84 didn't exist. It was the most collected, professional year I ever had in drum corps. It was a joy to be in that year with that corps.

Easy. Not the hardest day in the corps, per say, but hardest day for me. We're having one of those "legendary" Garfield-Death-Camp rehearsals in '86' when, in the last number, Thom Hannum gets the idea to get rid of this little call-and-answer two bar break where th horns play and instead have just the drumline play the roll-off from the 20th Century Fox fanfare. It's supposed to be cute. Well, you know how muscle memory gets the best of you? At that point in the show I know what I'm supposed to play, 'cause I've been doing it for 4 months. I play lead baritone. I heard them say for the horns not to play. I heard them. But when we ran it... I honked the crap out of my part. I'm the only one. "WHO PLAYED?" (Crap! That was me!) "Uhh, I did!" "WHAT ARE YOU, AN IDIOT!? AGAIN!!" So we do it again I'm beating myself up a little bit. We run it. I honk the crap out of my part. "WHO PLAYED!! WAS THAT YOU!!?? RUN A LAP!!!" (What the hell's wrong with me!? Get it together!" I run a lap just in tme to run it again. I absolutely NAIL the part. "RRUUUUNNNN!!!! RUN 'TIL I GET TIRED!!!!!!" I must've run +10 laps. It's 95+ degrees. I'm hallucinating. All I can see at the two lines on either side of me on the track. Finally Hannum tells me to get back in line. I'm physically toast. "IT DOESN'T WORK. DO IT LIKE YOU ALWAYS DID." All that for nothing. We played it like we did for finals. You know what? I didn't play it for 4 shows. I was too friggin' scared. True story. That was my longest day.

Actually, he taught my corps for a few years while I was there. His hands shook all the time. I asked him once why they did, and he said it was a side effect of the inhaler that he takes for allergies. His allergies are wicked and he used an inhaler constantly.