the winter camps wore on, we learned the show, and in april our new YAMAHA Bb horns came. i showed up to camp, and they were lined up against the wall. gino made us all sit down in the middle of the room. as soon as we were all quiet, and he was satisfied that he had tortured us long enough, he said 'merry christmas.' immediately we jumped up, and started picking out our horns. this was the first time in my three years that every member of the contra line had a working horn simultaniously. [in 1999 we had to borrow a horn from the crossmen every night- including finals.] after rehearsal that night, hop told us that magic had folded. i lived with magic's contra section leader, and felt absolutely horrible. i asked joe fussell if i could bring him and another magic guy. he agreed. i called devin at about 12:30 am from camp, but he wasn't home. our other roommate said that he was really depressed, and was off doing something.the next morning we took buses to giants stadium, and learned the first 12 pages of drill. wow. that was a reality check. i had gained back all the weight i lost in 1999 plus some. [fried rice at 2am three days a week is bad news] i was huffing and puffing to say the least.
after i got home, i convinced devin and matt that they should be in the Cadets. we started spring training on may 19- the day after matt graduated high school. this was the first time i had been around for all of spring training, and i must say that it was much much easier than jumping in four days before the tour began. we learned the rest of the show up to the end of the third song, and they told us that the closer would be 'staged'. huh? the brass line would march more or less in the background while the guard and the battery stood in the front and performed all these tricks. we played half notes while the rest of the corps tried to get the crowd going. the only problem was that there was no crowd. performing a supposedly 'crowd pleasing' production to a scaffolding tower and a dell of ponderosa pines is really difficult, and kinda scary. what if they don't clap for that little quad thing? will people see them toss their flags to each other? is this whole section too cheesy? i remember predicting one night during spring training that 'all that stuff will be out within a month.' wow. i was wrong.
our first complete show was in lima, ohio. we went on immediately after the phantom regiment. it was a dreary evening- windy and pretty grey. i remember standing at the gate full of butterflies. are people going to like this thing? gino came around and wished each of us good luck. we put on the shakos, sang the song, and hit the field. our show was an absolute mess. the people in the stands in midwest america went absolutely bonkers. our show- in its worst, dirtiest form- was a hit. whew. retreat was rained out. we had the high score by a point or so. tomorrow night we would see the cavaliers at the boa symposium in illinois.
the next june evening was something i will never forget. we got off the bus at the show to warmup, and somebody spotted some old friends- some of the old star boys- ray linkous, brad green, ben harloff. we would get a chance to show how good we thought we were to parts of our old staff. gino took us up to a parking lot to warmup. all of our friends followed us. our warmup was amazing- excercises were in time, chords were deafening, horn moves were together. the last thing we always did before walking to the gate was to play 'rocky point holiday'. it was such a hype this night. as we walked to the gate, i could feel the energy of the crowd. the colts were on the field, and the audience was going nuts. there is a point every season when i first get 'the goosebumps' in uniform. it usually comes from being so excited that i could pop. the adrenaline starts flowing, and doesn't stop till the last note of the closer. tonight i got the goosebumps. we took the field, and 7,000 band kids erupted. we could do no wrong in their eyes. i think they were all standing up for all of the closer. when we got to the company front after the brass feature, i couldn't even hear myself play- and i was playing really loud. i can still picture the look on zak's face. [the dm] we got to the end of the show, and as i put my horn down i was overwhelmed by the prospect of what the rest of the season had to offer. it was june 21.
hop told us after the show that he hadn't seen a crowd reaction like this one since he became director. we went out for retreat, and we again had the high score. we set up the arch to do a victory concert- the only problem was that we didn't know what to do because we thought t'here was no way we would win this show.' we had played the nbc news theme on the today show 10 days earlier, so hop had us play that, cadillac, and rocky point holiday. a very eclectic mix... the kids in the stands were awesome, and we got multiple standing O's. time to get on the bus, and go to the next town... sigh.