Okay, so I have been blabbing in the last few posts about the Guardsmen Drum & Bugle Corps that I marched with during the spring and summer of 1979. So what about them?

Well, back then, it was a group of percussionists, color guard, and bugle players who would perform and compete around the country in Drum Corps International (DCI) competitions. The “grand daddy” competition was the World Championships, which in 1979 were held in Alabama. Only the top 12 corps in a massive preliminary competition get to compete in the nationally televised finals.

In 1979, The Guardsmen placed 10th overall in the preliminary competition, giving us a chance to compete in the “nite show” championships. We improved our position in the final competition, finishing 7th overall, with our dynamite horn line placing 3rd in horns.

While I have recently obtained a DVD from DCI of the top 12 corps that competed in the finals, someone was nice enough to post on youtube a video of our performance. Because of the technical limitations of posting long videos to youtube, they broke up the video into two parts, and I am going to link to those videos below (should you feel inclined to see what it was I did for an entire summer in 1979).

If you watch the end of the second part, you’ll see some of the post-performance commentary by the on-air talent. In 1979, Maynard Ferguson was one of the televised announcers and he thoroughly enjoyed our performance…especially our horn line.

Sadly, the Guardsmen “folded” several years later, but their memory lives on in alumni like myself. Fortunately, one of the corps members from “way back when” has put up a website for Guardsmen alumni.

Here is Part 1 of 2:

And here is Part 2 of 2:

In a previous post I showed a picture I found of the 1979 Guardsmen Drum & Bugle Corps that I marched with that summer (Click Here for that Post).

Since SOME people were not able to pick me out of the line due to:

• Me having so much more hair
• Me weighing about 50 pounds less
• My looking so young (I never WAS that young you know)

I have therefore decided to help you all out.

Hint #1: I am one of the few people in the picture that has their shirt on.
Hint #2: I am one of the few people who has socks still on their feet
Hint #3: This is hard to tell because we are standing on uneven ground, but I am the shortest person in the snare drum line
Hint #4: I am one of the few people who is wearing their shoes

**Spoiler**: If you STILL can’t find me, I am the 9th person in the snare drum line counting from left to right (I am the second person from right-to-left but I found that some people’s browsers clip the right side of the picture…leaving out poor Geno Garrett).

Hard to believe, is it not? I can hardly believe it myself!

Greetings all!

On Monday of this coming week I will officially become a new employee of ProQuest in Ann Arbor.

ProQuest is a company that specializes in online databases, in large part for academic research. I will be entering the company as a Senior Software Engineer involved in support and development of their many online systems. I do not recall which system(s) they want me to work on first, but I am sure I will see many systems over time.

Donna and I are grateful that we have been blessed with this job, which should provide us with the health care coverage and large group that we need.

I can tell you that from my contact with ProQuest thus far, they have a wonderful team. I am very much looking forward to working with them.

For the first time I will be working in Ann Arbor. A much longer drive than my former employer, but it will be all free way driving. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

So that’s the news…such as it is.

Until next time!

Greetings all!

Just wanted to let you know that I am officially “between jobs” at the moment.

Friday was my last day at Pyramid Solutions. Pyramid is a good company and I can highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a job in the field of Enterprise Content Management software and consulting.

So why did I leave, you ask?

One simple reason: A broken health insurance system.

I am sad to say that with all of the health care expense we have had in the last 2 years, Pyramid was too small to not be adversely affected by it. I was therefore forced to look for employment in a larger company with a larger insurance group.

My new employer will be the subject of another post.

Peter

Here is a gem I found online. The photo was taken during the summer of 1979 when I was marching with a Drum & Bugle Corps from Illinois called the Guardsmen. That was perhaps the BEST summer of my entire life. See if you can pick me out!