There are many pleasant moments that I had with Sunrisers but I remember one particular time that made me know that I was a member of this family.
The four of us from Rhode Island (Dana Read, David Malinowski, Brian Kagan and myself) had to drive to an outdoor rehearsal in Long Island, New York. This was in 1984 or 1985 when cell phones were not that popular with us. We left at 3:30pm so we could get to rehearsal around 7:30pm.
What we did not know was that a bridge in Connecticut collapsed at around 4:30pm and all cars were being rerouted. The Sunrisers' staff tried to contact us but we were on the road and being true drum corps people, we were playing drum corps music instead of listening to the radio!
We got to rehearsal just when the corps was playing their last song. It was 10:30pm. Seven hours but we made it. The corps ended and they were in a semi-circle talking about the upcoming show when we walked up. They were real glad to see us and they were just as tired as we were. But someone in the circle said, "Let's run through the show one more time for the guys from Rhode Island!" Everyone....EVERYONE!!! agreed. You would have thought that we were at the championships performing!! Then we got back in our cars and drove back to Rhode Island.
We felt like we were special. But the members of that corps were the special ones. What a great corps!!!!!
Ritchee Price ....1984-1985 Sunrisers
