so as i rode away from college park, maryland on the evening of august the twelfth, 2000, i was fairly certain that i had worn the cadet uniform for the last time for a year or two. it was not a bad thing; perhaps it was simply time to move on- get serious about school, take summer classes, get a job- all those adult things that i had been able to avoid the past three summers. i felt pretty confident about this decision- i had just finished a wonderful season, the organization was running as smoothly as ever. it was time to take a year off.

i got home and school started. high school band season began, and i realized that i had been on a marching field pretty much non-stop from may through november. half my life was essentially dedicated to marching, or teaching others to march. how could i just leave this activity?

when the florida state band festival came around on november 16. i watched all the high school kids celebrating the completion of their season, and then going out on to a full retreat. there was no way i could leave this world...being a full-fleged adult can wait another year...

i cannot even begin to explain how high the expectations for the 2001 season were at the first camp. the entire staff had stayed in tact, the number of returning members was pretty good, and morale was certainly very high. george played through the music he was looking at programming for the season- �danza finale� by ginastera, �riffs� by bernstein, �moondance� by van morrisson, and a tune by the bulgarian women�s choir. quite the variety, eh? hop explained that the show would be like last year�s, but the big drum-solo-throw-down-play-loud-make-people-clap tune would be the ginastera. ok. sounds cool.

the rest of the weekend was spent auditioning people, and on saturday night, we managed to hack our way through about the first thirty seconds of moondance. ok...um...yeah...hmmm. we are really square. oh well.

a few camps later, moondance was finished, but the ginastera had been scrapped in favor of britten�s �young person�s guide to the orchestra.� this tune was the highlight of my season. by the time we were finished with it in august, it had become the most intense, energetic, simply overwhelming piece of music i had ever been lucky enough to perform.

soon after, the bulgarian women�s choir was dumped for a joni mitchell tune, which was then dumped for a ballad from the film called �hannibal.� alright. in april, we worked our way through �riffs.� at that same camp, we went to giants stadium, and learned the drill for the first minute of the opener. over lunch, george and tom just sat in george�s car and listened to bizet�s �farandole�over and over. by the end of the day, riffs had been dumped for farandole. ok. so we were going to start spring training in two weeks- not having seen the music for the closer. fun!

we moved in on may 18- [incidentally, we had been without gino since the march camp. his family had a crisis, and it was his place to be with them. no one was sure if/when we would see mr. cipriani again.] the corps plowed through the rest of the music, and got the majority of the drill done.

there is always a point during spring training when it just sucks. the end is not in site, the beginning is just behind you, and you are either sunburned, or everything you own is wet. morale is low, to say the least. i can remember this point during the 2001 campaign: the hornline was standing on a parking lot on a hill attempting to warm up- it had rained for three straight days, everything i owned was wet, i was cold, my horn was cold against my body, and i was once again wondering what the hell i was doing here. maybe i should have stayed home this time.

then the van pulled up.

a very gaunt gino hopped out. immediately, the sixty-something person group hug commenced. it was wonderful to see the man. i could tell he was very happy to be with us. he sat us down and explained that when something horrible happens, sometimes you just have to stop everything, and GO DO WHAT YOU LOVE DOING for a while. he said he loved being with us, and was looking forward to a great week and a half. [until he headed home for a few days.]

at this point, i felt much better about being on that parking lot. after all this man had been through, he just wanted to be with us.

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