84Cadet

1950 at a performance in Garfield, NJ.

1945 marked the end of the war and resumption of drum corps field competitions. The Cadets, looking markedly younger, pose on the church steps with a flag marking the number of men from Garfield, NJ (70) who served the United States during World War II.

The 1941 Holy Name Cadets. Many of these Cadets entered the service during World War II. As the older boys left, younger ones joined so the Corps could continue to perform in parades during the years.

The 1940 Holy Name Cadets perform at the World's Fair.

The Holy Name Cadets adopted the West Point uniform for their own use in 1939.

The 1937-1938 Holy Name Cadets. The Corps won their first major title in 1937 when they captured the Eastern States Championship.

By 1936, The Holy Name Corps had abandoned fifes and used only drums and bugles in competition.

Holy Name Cadets march in Garfield, 1936.

Holy Name Cadets, 1935. Members bought their own uniforms through Otswald Uniform Company for $14.75.

Holy Name Field Music, formed around 1914 was the predecessor of the Holy Name Fife, Drum and Bugle Corps. The groups disbanded in 1918 as many members were called to fight in World War I.

I know we won the CYO show in 1984.

Whitewater -- by far. It was the only place we slept in beds all summer. Our prelims show was just sick. We were so pumped to see SCV and BD. Our finals show?

82 Blue Devils 83 27th Lancers 87 Garfield 82, 99 Santa Clara Vanguard

I LOVE the '82 DVD and watch it all the time. Everyone was SO great that year. So when can we see you?

Like Bo said, the early 80's Santa Clara "Red Snare" shirt is hands down my favorite drum corps shirt of all time. Every summer I wish they would bring it back. I'd probably buy six of them if they did. (hint hint) You listening Santa Clara?

Those players must have been pretty darn good to go from SCV's matched grip snare line to BD's traditional grip line. And then win drums to boot! Sure, most people can play both ways, but I know I play one way (traditional grip) much better. It is very impressive to me that some of those folks switched grips and performed in two excellent drum lines.

Our tour fee was $450 in 1984. Camp fees were something like $20 or $30 each -- I can't remember exactly. But I do know that the tour was $450.

I marched in Garfield because it was close to home and I dug their style. My dream corps was SCV though. So I'd have to say Santa Clara with the 27th Lancers being a close second.

I would have marched until 1988.

Wow! Thanks for sharing all of those fantastic stories. Sam and I tend to talk a lot about the 1984 Garfield/BD stuff, but it is REALLY nice to hear what some of the Vanguard people remember about the summer of 1984. I certainly remember the "slammin' pants." Our uniforms were just rags. And as Sam likes to point out, my uniform was older than I was. Dirty and smelly does not even begin to describe it. Anyway, I would have liked to have had just ONE nice uniform, but to actually have a choice of what pants to wear on any given night was too much. It made me SO jealous of SCV. Everything they did (and still do) was first class all the way while Garfield was just scraping by. We had a lot of shows with BD that summer but very few with Santa Clara. So whenever we had a show with the Vanguard it was a very big deal to all of us in Garfield. And we knew it was a big deal to SCV because they always wore their white pants when they saw us. I had no idea Santa Clara was so young in 1984. They seemed like every other SCV corps I had admired since the late '70s. They just had this aura about them. For whatever reason, we kept our distance from the Vanguard that year. All of us in Garfield had this notion that Santa Clara hated us. It is too bad because I never once spoke to an SCV member all summer. And that is a shame. I would have really liked to have told them how much I admired their corps and their show in 1984 -- especially their amazing drum solo and gorgeous horn line. Later that year I was honored to perform at the PASIC show in Ann Arbor with the Garfield cymbal section. Folks from the Santa Clara pit were there performing with Ralph. We finally got to hang with some of the Vanguard members and even perform a little bit together. It was an experience I will never forget and I was so happy that I was able to finally meet some of the people I had admired so much. I say this all of the time on the BD forum, but 1984 was a great year. All three of those corps could have easily won and nobody would have thought twice about it. We just got lucky.

Sorry, but I have no idea.

When was that, Dave? After finals someone asked for my gloves, but I was too distraught to answer civilly...I still have them, in fact...they're my practice gloves in Dream! Well, it happened a few times during the summer but after finals was overwhelming. There were LOTS of kids and they were all asking for autographs and uniform parts -- gloves, shoes, cymbal straps -- ANYTHING. Like Rob said -- I felt like a rock star.

My biggest thrill was having a fan ask me for my autograph. I was just... shocked.

Is it just me, or is there is something... I don't know... FUNNY about all of these church based drum corps getting into fights with one another?

Barbara Maroney. And yes, she was awesome.