So, about a month ago, I'm at a trade show in Mexico City, Mexico. I'm walking around and I see a guy that looks familiar......the other fellow evidentially thought I looked familiar also cause he points to me and say's........" Hey, yo Larry, how ya doon? " just like the guy in the Bud commercial. Well, I tell him I'm fine and then ask where we know each other from. After ruling out trade shows in Guadalajara, Las Vegas, Chicago and New York.................we determined that we work about two blocks away from each other in Matamoros, Mexico and have actually known each other for about 5 years because of our affiliation in the Matamoros Maquila Association. He runs a mfg facility and so do I. I guess both being in top management and over sixty we couldn't remember that we had coffee at a breakfast meeting a month before!!!

Well, he looks at the show credential hanging around my neck and sees that I'm with Schumacher Electric Corp.............some conversation ensues about our companies and how we came to be in Matamoros. I mentioned that Schumacher and I were in a "drum and bugle corps" a hundred years ago.

He say's, REALLY, I WAS IN ONE TWO!!!! What corps were you in? As we have already established that my memory isn't what it should be, I guess I temporarily forgot about the Mel Tierney and Skokie part and skipped right to "I was in the DES PLAINES VANGUARD" !!!!!!

WOW.............you guys were great, he say's............ Hey, I remember there were some Vanguards came to Brooklyn to go to a show with some guys in our corps in the late 50's. So I ask him who his outfit was..............yep..........he played snare drum in the Floyd Bennet Golden Eagles from Brooklyn, NY. His name is Carmine Auditorio.

WOW.............what a small world................Bogie, Beedy, myself and....um.....damn can't remember who else it was, there was one or two other guys, maybe Marty Barret, that went on the trip in my 56 Ford Crown Victoria.

We drove all night and day, got to Brooklyn, went to the Floyd Bennet Legion hall to meet some guy's and then went to some stadium, watched a show, went back to Brooklyn and ordered two large pizzas at King's Pizzeria, they were so huge we couldn't finish them so we put'em in the trunk of my car and headed back to Chicago. I think Myron Brundidge finished eating them a week later.

Anyway, this guy that I ran into in Mexico City, that lives ten minutes from my house, that works two blocks from me, that I have known here for 5 years, I may have met in Brooklyn, NY over forty years ago.

He came over last Saturday and we watched the 2003 DCI championships from Orlando on DVD and cranked the speakers to 1000 watts.................whoa!!!!!!!!!! tears running down our cheeks every time a corps came forward with the horns blasting, rifles twirling, flags flying, drum sticks perfect.................God.................DRUM CORPS, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Note from Larry Johnson
"Hi Toni..........there was several fellows from Giles that I used to always talk with whenever we appeared at the same show they were at or parades.........I think we went out drinking a few times too!!! Wonder who those guys were or where they are at??"

Note from the Webmaster
You can be anywhere in the world and if you meet a person who was in Drum Corps, you have an instant friend ...