The 1990's - "The Decade of Innovation" by Keith Raimondi

1990 started just like any other summer. One of my not so favorite memories was the Mothers day comp at De Kalb. The university decided to pull up the astro turf without telling us, so we were forced to paint lines on the concrete. If that wasn't enough it was cold and rainy. To make matters worse it began to snow later that evening, but the rehearsal must go on! I'm sure we have oil seen it before128 young men in layers of sweatshirts and garbage bags. The 1990 show was entitled "Cavalier Anthems" with music from Ron Nelson and John Rutter. The uniforms had a small face-lift this year. It was the first year that we went without buckles on the sash and white stripes on the pants. We had got ten new sopranos which were three- valve. For many of the guys (including myself) three valves were completely foreign because up to that point only two valve horns were used; for guys like me it was even more difficult because we had learned on valve rotor horns. We received the horns at Forest View High School during the winter. I'll never forget how exciting and nerve racking it was to open the plastic bags and see new shiney horns without dents. Now we had to be careful not to dent the instruments because if they had one dent we knew who had done it.

The show was new and exciting to all. We had success the year before with John Rutter pieces and this year was a continuation, with the hope for the ultimate success. The corps was led by Drum Major John Timmins (A.K.A. Packy). When the Drum Major was chosen we were all shocked. Packy was our best baritone and the show not only had a baritone solo but also a duet. Well, we had nothing to worry because the spot was filled quite nicely by Brian DesBiens and Brian Souders. I think the greatest memory of 1990 was the Whitewater Regional show. We went into the show to face the Blue Devils and Phantom Regiment, who at that point were both undefeated. The showdown wasn't even supposed to include the Cavaliers; we were never mentioned in Drum Corps World but in the spirit of the corps we went out had one of our best shows and were rewarded for it. We had won our first regional. I'll never forget waiting to hear the scores. The fourth place corps had been announced and the captions were announced next. It turns out that we had won all the captions. As we were announced the winners Tim Salzman ran down to the field. He ran up and down the horn line giving all of us hi five's, which for all of you who know Tim, is completely not like him. I remember looking into the stands and seeing the staff as well as the crowd going nuts. After the show we were on top of the world nothing could bring us down.

For some reason that summer we had a lot of rain and where there is rain there are rainbows. There was one sign after another. During the season we are always in a bubble; we never seem to be up on current issues. While we were in Canada we found out that the United States had sent troops into Kuwait and Iraq. This brought on a lot of concern for all of us. We were all at the perfect age to be called if there was a draft for full out war. The show must go on, though. We made our way through the rest of the season with the usual competitions and the usual bus breakdowns.

We headed for our final destination in Buffalo, New York. 1990 was my second year in the corps and this was to be my initiate year. We didn't have the time or the place to hove initiations so we ended up having it at the school in Buffalo. I'm sure you can imagine the pressure of being an initiate all season. While in Buffalo we were asked to perform for the half time of a Bills and Giants game. All I remember about it was that football fans are nothing like drum corps fans. As we lined up to go on people were making fun of our uniforms and throwing things at us. One drunken New Yorker had propositioned me to trade my hat for his beer. After careful consideration I had to decline the offer. After the performance we set our minds on rehearsing for the rest of the week. In 1990 we all felt that we were a contender for the D.C.I. title. I remember how eerie the rehearsals were; we moved quickly and no one said a word. One morning a member of the horn line, Dave Warner, got up early and went for a walk to see The Cadets practicing. He came back later to inform us that, in his opinion, they were scared of us. At finals we put on a stellar performance but the Cadets ended in first and we were second. Many people felt and still feel that we should have won, but none the less, we were all proud of our efforts.