Raggedy clouds hid part of the full moon, but the lights inside Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, more than made up for it. All the corps had performed, and now each was marching onto the field in formation to await the scores, scores that would determine who placed where among the final twelve competing groups.
They had traveled from as far as California and Delaware, Texas and Carolina; they had come from as nearby as Madison itself and Illinois and Iowa. Regardless of their home state, each corps had spent the summer practicing its routines, competing in various smaller venues, and eyeing the international championship in Madison. Distance was more than the miles on a roadmap.
Drum corps competition is an acquired taste; that is, unless you happen to be one of the people — probably tens of thousands over the past fifty years — who have actually experienced it firsthand. For those people, it is almost an addiction. They follow their former corps’ progress, summer after summer, studying standings and schedules with the passion of a groupie. They attend local contests and cheer their favorites; and a couple weeks later they attend again in another place. One reason for this is that drum corps routines are not static; what you saw last week may be embellished as the season progresses and the need to attract the judges’ attention becomes more acute. There is always something new.
Interest in drum corps must be gaining because there were trailers about it in various movies theaters these past couple weeks, and some theaters actually showed the quarter finals and semi finals, which took place earlier last week in Madison. I’m not sure if they showed the finals themselves, but it doesn’t matter. I was there, and I can report that The Cavaliers won first place. It was not unexpected, but it wasn’t taken for granted either. The distance between first, second, and third places was less that a point.
To Earl, who marched with The Cavaliers, they were the champions of the night. Who am I to disagree? At the same time, every young man and woman on that football field was a champion. And tonight was the last night they would ever be together. Tomorrow they disperse back to California and Delaware and even points on the other side of the globe. Tomorrow they are no longer drum corps members, but students.
By then the crowd will have dispersed too. The lights will have been doused, and the cleaning crew will be sweeping the remains of the 2006 Drum Corps International championship. But the sweet memory of music, of a couple thousand drum corps members, all playing their hearts out will seep into the stadium and remain.
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