Let me take another side trip. INITIATIONS H! But before I get into that, perhaps a few words on why we had initiations from the very beginning, and why we still have them to this' day. Webster's dictionary provides us with a definition that is most applicable to our corps. INITIATION: "the rites, ceremonies, ordeals, or instructions with which one is made a member of a sect or society, or is invested with a particular function or status." We started out from a single Boy Scout troop with all the members coming from the nearby neighborhoods. Many of the boys already knew each other, having gone to the same schools and churches. There were also several sets of brothers involved. We were a close knit group and felt a desire to maintain that closeness. We had the beginning of a fraternal order going for us right from the start. All we had to do was perpetuate it.

Back in the early fifties, initiations were common-place for many organizations, especially on college campuses, so we were no exception. But over the years, initiations have been associated with malevolent hazing and have tended to go out of vogue, often being replaced with pledges of community service to support various civic causes. Apparently these endeavors are supposed to instill pride and generate character in the individuals involved. Now I have no complaint with the do-gooders and volunteers of this world,(where would the Cavaliers be today without them?), but when it comes down to the issues of pride and character, there is another corps that we've tended to pattern ourselves after, the U.S. Marine Corps. They have done pretty well over the years in building a few good men, and we try to also. And in case you haven't noticed, the Marines still have initiations too, only they call theirs boot camp. Pride, character, and a spirit of belonging-that's what it's all about.

After a summer full of parades, contests and other appearances in 1950, our treasury was sufficient to allow us to hove our turn for new uniforms for 1951. After the example by Bell Corps, the selection and design for a new uniform was practically uncontested. We knew we wanted black pants and shakos with white trim, and there was to be a big silver buckle on the belts. But the color for the satin blouses,-ahhh, that was to be truly unique. What had us all inspired was the introduction of a new dye color for the clothes of the day, a color previously unseen. Dyemakers were now successful at producing vibrant colors in a variety of materials, and the one we unanimously zeroed in on was CHARTREUSE!!! We had seen samples of it in the satin trim of various sports jackets, etc., and the effect was electrifying. The mental picture we had of ourselves in those 220 Volt chartreuse blouses had us all drooling with anticipation. We had a few meetings to sort out the incidentals like size and color of the pant stripe and chin straps, and then Jarve Fiedler, our drum major and resident artist, drew up a final drawing in full color to seal the image in our minds.

Then come the big night for the uniform maker, Marcus Rubin, to come over and receive our final selection and start taking measurements. Mr. Rubin took one look at our choice of colors and uttered the words that nobody was prepared to hear. It went something like this. "Boys, you'll look real sharp in chartreuse, but these new colors haven't tested out yet, and I guarantee you that one summer out marching around under the sun will fade that color into insignificance". You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. We sat there and looked at each other with dejection written all over our faces. Nobody talked-nobody knew what to say. Finally it became clear that we would have to make another choice of color. And if my memory serves me right, it was Mr. Rubin who suggested, "How about green?-it's close to chartreuse. I've got a Kelly Green that looks great in satin, and the material takes the dye very strong, and won't fade on you". We looked at each other again and said, why not Jarvis redid the sketches and they looked great. So from these offbeat beginnings, Kelly Green was to become our Cavalier Green.

We put the uniforms on for the first time at dress rehearsal in the Spring of 1951 at Welles Park. Boy, were we excited. We went through the drill twice, cause once just wasn't enough to get us down from our high. The M&M was ragged and there was a lot of drilling yet to be done, but we were making our move on the drum corps scene, dressed in the sharpest uniform out there.