Below is a list of Queen City Cadets Alumni memories of their years in QCC.

NEAL SHADE - I was a member in QCC in 1975. My younger brother saw us perform, got excited about frum corps and joined the Garfield Cadets in '79 until he aged out. He found your site and I thought I would give you my info.

In 1975, I was recruited by our band director to be in the QCC along with other students from Miamisburg High School and Valley View in Germantown. Not sure we were totally welcome at first as we were seen as kind of taking over. That did not last long as everyone realized we were ther to have fun and play music. We all came together to become a single unit. Bill Theis was the band director that recruited us and I thought he helped with the music side for a while but I don't remember him on any trips we had. 33 years ago so the memory is a little foggy. Anyway, Bill Dixon was a lead soparano and I played in the soparano line.

I do remember a couple of compeitions we did that summer and the best was Marion, Ohio. It was our best show. We got into the finals and place 7th I think. Anyway, what a rush performing in front of the crowd and putting on an almost perfect show. You would have thought we won DCI and beat the Vanguard! DCI finals were in Philly that year and it was really hot. We did not do well enough to get into the (class A) finals but enjoyed the open finals that night.

Another show I remember was someplace in Illinios where we stayed in a hotel that was to be demolished in a couple of days. No one slept much that night (partying), it was 4th of July and we just watched Phantom Regimant beat everone else. Things changed by the end of the season but Phantom did place in the top 5 as I remember.

I still enjoy drum corp but don't get to see much of it. We have a competition coming to Murfreesboro, TN in a few days and I will try to get my family to go. My daughter has never seen a drum corp, she'll love it.


PAUL HAGEN - I had dug out the QCC 1969 recording from a tape that had been stuffed away in my closet for years, but I am really amazed at the 1972 recording.

The 1972 recording is the best recording of QCC by far that I have heard. The hornline really caught up to the drumline by 1972 and the corps overall sound was really well balanced. Both the hornline and the drumline were awesome.

I can tell from the announcements both before and after the show, it was recorded in August 1972 at Whitewater 1972 DCI prelims, so the recording equipment was professional. I remember the show. I haven't heard the recording until now. Wow !!! This is great.

It isn't until now that I realized how good we were that year. I remember we got like 25th in prelims with like a 55 something score. It was a really low score. We were scoring mid-70's all year until that show. Now, this is all coming back to me.

WE WERE THE VERY FIRST CORPS ON THE FIELD IN OPEN CLASS PRELIM COMPETITION. We somehow drew the short straw .... and went on at 800 AM Thursday morning !!! This recording was made at 800 AM ... In fact, this was the very first year of DCI. So we were the FIRST CORPS TO APPEAR AT DCI FINALS PRELIMS IN THE WORLD !!! So clearly no one, not us, not the judges, knew what to expect. I think that is the main reason why we got such a low score because the judges wanted to leave room at the top for everyone else. I know it sounds like an excuse, but it you listen to this recording, there's like two soprano horn ticks and one snare tick in the whole show. Its a clean show. No way that was a 55 show. No way.

If we could have drawn anywhere other than dead first, it would have been a much different outcome. For example. listen to 'Johnny come Marching Home' and compare our version against the DCI champion Anaheim Kinsgsmen's version of the same song from the 1972 DCI Finals Record. You are gonna tell me there's a 30 point spread there ?

Going on first, really put us in a jam. I think by the time we were checked into the dorms on Wednesday night it was late. We only had time for like one rehearsal, there were no practice fields available for us. The night before we were outside running through the music only, practicing and the F'in MOSQUITOs were eating us alive. We didn't have any insect repellent. No one expected the MOSQUITOS. The whole drum rehearsal was an absolute waste of time. We got nothing accomplished. The dorms they had us staying HAD NO AIR CONDITIONING. It was useless to take a shower because there were no vents anywhere in the dorm.

Then they had to wake us all up at like 6 AM. Everyone was still recovering from the mosquito bites and not being able to sleep because the dorms were 100 degrees at night and were half asleep when we went on the starting line. So it wasn't our best overall performance, but it still sounds really good given all of these factors that worked against us.

This is the way I recall it, We were the lead infantry solders in the battle that got massacred. You could argue that the others corps had to fight the same battles. No they didn't. Going on first, in the first DCI Finals was something that no corps would ever want. There was no time to warmup that morning before hand. The last good rehearsal we had was in Cincy the night before before we got on the busses on Wednesday morning. I would be willing to bet every other corps, had more than enough time to get settled in and warmed up. We went out there COLD but STILL did this performance.

I have to give everyone a lot of credit that year for putting together that show and making the corps what it was. we now have our place in DCI history, the first corps to ever appear and compete in DCI prelims competition. No one will ever take that away from us !

Thanks so much for providing these recordings on the Cincinnati Tradition Website, and thank you Tom for making this all possible.

BOB GRAUSE - The summer heat has been oppressive , and most of the members have gathered at the "morgue" after practice, somehow regaining a sense of their inner and outer balance. Steve Kroeger asks for another orange Barq's, while the rest waver between beer and "Vino Fino", perhaps an herbal lift of the spirit?

Collectively, we have striven to bring yet another drill and music combination to fruition. Yet, no matter what the result in some other plane, tonight we have found the brother and sisterhood that comes from common effort.
These are the moments that draw me back to that point in time.John is still alive, and so is Eric-so is Dona. At what price did we let these ties wither?

I give my love to those of you who remember the humanity of our common experience and who can revel in it to this day! One dork, no, several stoneacres closer to the edge, pushed on by the facility of the heat-energy equalizer in my '69 Chevelle!

For those of memory and integrity!
Bear

PAUL HAGEN - Queen City Cadets 1969 Alumni, Staff and Friends,
Everyone on copy to this note either marched in QCC 1969 or were part of the staff according to the Tradition Website with Tom Slade being the exception. Feel free to forward this note to whoever I may have missed from QCC 1969 if you want. If you do want to do a reply all, please detach the attached 1 MEG file.
There's much more music where that came from.

Picture this .... August 1969 ... Queen City Cadets Home Show ... Colerain Junior High School .. Do you remember that show ?

Dave 'Archie' Wolfson contacted me recently because he saw my comment on the Cincinnati Tradition website QCC page where I said for my most memorable moment : PAUL HAGEN - 1969 Colerain Jr. High School Show, SMOKIN' DRUMLINE! Dave "Arch" Wolfson had the killer drum parts.

When I started talking to Dave about how I remembered 1969, I told him I had a tape of QCC 1969 buried somewhere. He told me, YOU HAVE TO FIND THAT TAPE !! So without him pushing me again, just like he did when he was our drum instructor, it would have sat there in my closet forever.

I have the audio tape of the entire 12 minute QCC show that was recorded from the stands. It is incredible that this tape still exists. This will bring it all back to you in its full glory, every minute and every second of the performance. Remember what it was like to play and march our asses off for 12 minutes at 128 beats per minute for the VFW and American Legion judges ? Back when TICKS were TICKS !!!! Not this 'credit build-up' BS today ... Well, we THINK you have a nice line.. you MAY be better than that other one over there ... Yeah well ..You either tick or your DON'T tick DUDE !!! In those days, it was ALL ABOUT TICKS.

Remember the VFW and American Legion inspection lines ? Parade rest, then you came to attention while the judge looked over your whole uniform and your equipment and ticked you for loose threads or black scuff marks on your white bucks or finger prints on your bugle ? Remember those single valve GD bugles with the rotary valves ? Or remember being scared of tightening your drumhead right before the show, then you heard a snap and were relieved it was just the head settling or you busted the head and had to run out to someone's car trunk to get a new one in a panic ? Remember stepping off the starting line, and rush that was ? Remember hearing all of our parents and friends screaming, yelling and cheering for us hysterically in the crowd during the show ?

THIS WAS OUR OWN HOME TOWN SHOW. Everyone was there that supported the corps that year and we delivered a knock out punch !!!

The entire show is a 28 MEG file which I can't send over the internet but check out this one cut from the third drum solo which is only about a MEG.

Oh yeah, speaking of ticks ....THIS drum solo ... on THAT night ... I challenge you to find ANY ticks ANYWHERE. We were HOT THAT NIGHT !!! I count zero. Archie even marched with us that night and played snare. He's got a whole story about how we huddled around him while he put on Mike Hargis' uniform which was way too small for him. Even HE wanted to get in on the action !!! Once you get this drum corps stuff in your blood ...

1969 Repertiore

Fanfare and off the line - I think this may have been an original composition by Frankie Cappell III. I've never heard it anywhere else in 37 years.
First Drum Solo - Snares playing singles, drags, sixes and tap rolls flawlessly, effortlessly. Tenors playing singles and drags. Basses playing singles.
I Believe - First Flag Presentation
Second Drum Solo - Snares playing patty-fla-flas, hand-to-hand singles with accents, radamacues, triple paradiddles. That was one hard drum solo.
Frankie and Johnny
What Kind of Fool Am I - Concert - Snares playing Swiss Triplets !! All rolls perfectly clean. Perfect attacks and releases.
Never on a Sunday - Trademark Queen City Production Number
You'll Never Walk Alone - Second Flag Presentation
Third Drum Solo - Snares playing flam taps. Tenors playing drags, fours into left hand lead drags. What other tenor line was even playing drags ?
When Your Lover Has Gone
Fanfare - This unfortunately got cut off of the tape recording, but I remember it was a standstill extension of Lover.

I remember going to U.S. Open in Marion, OH that same month in August and we placed SEVENTH in Open Class in drum execution. It had to be like a week before or a week after this recording. We finished seventh when there were over a hundred drum corps in prelims. There were so many corps back then that every corps had to cut its 12 minute show for prelims to five minutes. I think prelims went on for two or three days with all of the Class A and Open class corps. Seventh put us in the thick with great powerhouse National Champion Corps like 27th Lancers, Garfield, Muchachos, Blessed Sac, Blue Rock, Boston, St. Lucy's, St. Rita's, St. Joe's, Anaheim, Kilties, Cavies, Skokie Vanguard, Madison, Toronto Optimists, De LaSalle Oaklands. The only powerhouse that wasn't there were the Troopers. I listed 16 corps off the top of my head and we beat over half of them !!! I bet we caught a lot of people by surprise that year in that show ...The Queen who ? The what ? From where ? What the F ???? Where is Cincinnati ? Never heard of them ... And THEY beat US in drums ???

I wish I had a copy of the prelim recap sheet from U.S. Open Marion 1969. Drum execution was 20 points. 17 points were for execution and 3 points were for difficulty. I seem to remember we got a 15 point something out of 20.

So here's the deal. The 1969 tape has been found in my pile of ancient stuff and through the marvels of modern technology converted to an mp3 file that is 28 MEG. Its too large to send over the internet. So I sent a CD of it to Dave Wolfson who is going to have his son edit out the tape hiss and eventually we will get a CD to you and anyone who wants one of these killer CD's of the whole show. All we will need is your mailing address.

We smoked. There's no BS about that. This tape proves it.

JEFF NEAL - Having just logged my half-century of life a year ago I read the others thoughts of their good and bad time and have the following to offer. The Top 10 Good Times:
1. When I first joined Queen City Cadets. I was actually a Black Shields of Sparta and was tired of getting my ass kicked by QCC and I was dating a QCC at the time. Anyone remember her name? I'll give you a hint. "Twig"
2. Any time I marched in the uniform of QCC regardless of winning or losing. Beating Marion Cadets for the first time was great though.
3. Going to Canada on several occasions and stealing the Canadian flag from the University we were playing at. Crossing over one other time only to have to be held up because a certain person told the border guards he wasn't born in the US. Any guesses? Hint: His dad was once Director of the Corp.
4. Like someone else said riding in the luggage racks on the busses with our favorite female bus driver.
5. Mooning some of the corp staff (we didn't know at the time) and then catching hell from it.
6. Meeting Frank and getting my ass kicked on several occasions. I still smell that old shitty smelling cigar.
7. Moving into Girls Town and our overnight stays. The tornado that went through Ohio while some of us decided if we were going to leave this earth we were going to do it while drinking MD 20/20.
8. Watching as some of our older and talented people left QCC to go to bigger and better Corps. Remember who left and went to Casper, Wyoming to join Troopers? At the same time a drummer left to join the Kilties. His nickname "Insanity" Great nickname. Got to see those that went to the Troopers while I was in the Air Force.
9. Being taught by some of the most giving instructors that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Taught so well that I was able to go and live my dream of playing with the Kilts and standing in the finals of DCI. Although I just about got caught as I was OA. Still remember having my name yelled by Burgess prior to starting my final show as a Kiltie.
10. Moving up in the ranks to that of M& M instructor and part-time drill writer for Miamisburg HS and working with the rest of the staff in allowing that marching band to win their first ever major competition at Cincinnati Gardens. The band had never marched Drum-Corp style before. My sister Linda met her then to be future husband while attending UD and working with the band. Now they've been married 20+ "Glorious" years.
11. I know I said 10 but I couldn't leave this out as it is personal. Watching my dad "Happy Jack" take over a Director of QCC and seeing him have the time of his life.

Now for the worst of times for in my book there was only a few.
1. Having to leave drum corp and all the friends and in some cases family I left.
2. Having to bury "Happy Jack" before his time. Only wish I could have had the two corps of QCC and Kilts there to play for him. Would have loved to hear "Never Walk of QCC and Zyne played by the Kilties.

Well, time moves on and so do I. Thanks to everyone that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and living with whether it be fellow, participants, instructors, bus drivers or anyone else I might have missed. Would love to play that baritone again or even carry around one of those damn tymps. For as some of you younger people don't know we use to have to carry all of our equipment. Boy do you have it easy now.

RANDY SCHULZE - It has been over 30 years since I marched my last show, and many memories come to mind and
many friendships I still hold in fond memory have gone by the wayside for whatever reason.
A few great people have passed on and are now in a better life but those of us who knew them will never forget them.
I want to take a few moments and thank Bill Schehr for his leadership. Frank Cappel Jr.(God rest his soul), for the
many tongue lashings for the betterment of the Corps. To all the parents who gave of their time so generously
without regret.
I actually have no regrets for having been a part of the comraderie, the feeling we had when we took the field, the
wins, the losses, because we all knew we gave it our best effort. Yes, the long bus rides could be brutal, tiring, but
at the same time a heck of a lot of fun.
The only regret I can think of is that I haven't kept in contact with all the good people I met while marching for the Queen City Cadets.
Although time has moved forward, men and women have passed, I will always remember the experience no matter
how old I get.
Thanks,
Randy Schulze

JEFF "WORM" WERNZ - The Worst: Having to say goodbye to dear friends and corps brothers John Nortman and Eric Beiderbeck. Both taken to soon. Eternal members of QCC who will never age out.

The Best: I'd say the best memory is "bittersweet". I'm almost certain it was Belfountine. I had gotten out for a little while. Eric was taken from us, Joe Horn and Kevin Klug had been injured. I returned and my first show back was there.
It was the show where Steve and Eric had opposing solos as the colorguard circled them. Im memory and respect to
Eric, his spot was left open. Steve bravely attempeted to play his solo, just the courage and fortitude there was incredible. How he even made it that far, I guess you could say it displayed the monumential love he had for his
brother and the corps. At that time in the show as the solos played the horn and drum line moved forward in a reverse arc. I remember looking out the corner of my eyes to get my position. What I saw litteraly took away my breath. It
was perfect!! Everybody, every horn, the guard, the drums all were moving as if a special force had taken hold. To this day I believe that was the case. We completed the show, grounded our instruments and came together in a mass
group hug. Yes the tears were flowing, but I think we all felt it. If there had been a more perfect show, a stronger
bond, a tighter family, at that time you would have not found it. We were one, all differences aside, we
were family. To this day almost thirty years later the feeling has not changed! Glassmen beat us that night, but who cared, we knew who the true winners were, we marched proud, held our heads up, and showed them all, QCC was a family!! Just look today at all who are still close friends. Chances are you aren't that close with former school mates!

MARGIE JONES-MOORE - Bests memories: Riding the old yellow school bus most weekends during the summer to get
to the many competitions. Getting to know everyone better and sleeping on the floors at different American Legion or VFW halls.

Worst memories: The old yellow school bus breaking down .... many times. But we never missed a competition. We brought our own mechanic with use. Thank God !

NORM ACHESON - Wyandot Michigan, Flood, Boston, Ohio Roundrobin, attacked by huge mosquitoes in Whitewater Wisconsin at first DCI. All the adventures of fun and competition through the years with a lot of great people.

MARK MASKUKA - At a show near Dayton, the entire drum line and some horn players eating and drinking beer before state, almost missing show. My least favorite moment is when we were skinny dipping at the '70 Nationals in the
"Pond" and I lost 2 joints of "Panama Red".

BETTY SCHRODER - It was great being part of an organization where we all shared the same goal & dreams. My least memorable moments is when we all cried together.

CAROL SCHRODER - Going on all the trips. Marion Cadets backing into a pole and turning off the lights on the corps performing.

LANORA SCHRODER - Boston Mass. - All the years were good memories. They were also unforgettable years.

PAUL HAGEN - 1969 Colerain Jr. High School Show, SMOKIN' DRUMLINE! Dave "Arch" Wolfson had the killer drum parts. My least memorable moment was 1974 when QCC played exhibition after Santa Clara Vanguard at Nippert Stadium.

DENNY RICH - When Linda Benzinger marched a competition with a dislocated shoulder.

KATHI GUDE - Our trip to Boston & Niagara Falls, the corps food, and practicing down on Aiken's field. The best time though was sleeping on the buses in the luggage racks. Mr. Schehr & Mr. Cappel yelling at me. (Just Kidding!)

STEVEN GRATHWOHL - Playing the show at Glen Este after our tradgedy in the rain & lightning and closing the show with "You'll Never Walk Alone". My least memorable moment was "Dock" and "Kenny's" idea of marching "PROUD
BALLS".

BILLIE PHILLIPS - Partying with friends! My least memorable moment was Royal Oak, Michigan, the first trip in 1972.

JOHN HEINOLD - DCI Finals 1972 Whitewater, 1973 Bellefontaine trip, and 1974 DCI Finals in Ihica, NY.

JOHN McARTHUR - World Open 1970 Boston Mass., Casper Troopers, the best I saw in my early drum corps career!

MICHAEL ROWND - Getting the bus stuck on a hill turned sideways. All the great people and the traveling. My least memorable moment was splitting the guys & gals up on buses.

KEN KLUG - YMCA at Cleveland, Ohio in the 60's. My least memorable moments were our losses to Marion.

JIM SCHEHR - Loraine, Ohio and making love in the field. My least memorable moments were Ontario Canada and missing finals by one tenth.

BILL SCHEHR - All the years!

JOE MEISCHKE - Boston, Mass. trip.