GOOD OLD DAYS:

At high school reunions, most people just reconnect with friends, talk about the good old days and reminisce. They rarely get to go back and actually recreate moments from their past, especially in front of 15,000 spectators.

Costa Mesa resident Garrison Kean got to do just that, along with 285 other members of the Kingsmen Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps when the group performed at the 35th annual Drum Corps International World Championships at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in August.

This weekend, about 200 members of the group will come together to perform at the National Assn. of Music Merchants annual trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center. They planned today to take a nostalgic march down Main Street at Disneyland.

Kean was 14 when he joined the Anaheim Kingsmen in 1968, a junior drum and bugle corps, complete with color guard, that represented the city of Anaheim, performed at Disneyland and competed in summer tours across the country during the ’60s and ’70s.

“The drum corps were spun off from the military,” Kean said, adding they were steeped in tradition. The color guard marched with rifles and sabers and was in charge of carrying and guarding the American flag. Part of the show included saluting the flag, and the corps would perform at openings for naval bases, parades, and for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Anaheim Kingsmen’s crowning achievement was capturing the Drum Corps International World Championship title in 1972, the first year the title was awarded.

In 2005, Kean said the group was asked to appear at the 2007 championship event taking place in Southern California for the first time.

“We were invited to perform there and join in the celebration of the 35th anniversary of us winning the first National championship in 1972.”

Easier said than done, Kean said. There wasn’t an active alumni group at that time, and many members had moved away and lost touch with each other.

Kean helped contact former members, who were more than happy to dust off their instruments and get back in uniform, even though many hadn’t played since leaving the Kingsmen many years before.

Wally Buice played French horn for the Kingsmen back in the day, and said he was too busy working and raising a family the last 30 years to even think about playing a horn. It didn’t take long for Buice, and the 190 other people in his section to get the hang of it again, he said.

“It took a little bit of practice and the next thing you knew we were hot, putting the lip back together.”

The Anaheim Kingsmen were a unique group that Buice said was as close to perfection as you could get.

“Other corps may have been better in one aspect, but we were good in all phases. Drums, horns, marching, color guard, everything all came together,” Buice said.

That level of determination and skill returned in force during the two years it took the alumni group to prepare for the Rose Bowl performance, Kean said, but they nailed it.

“The Rose Bowl was an amazing event. We were on the field on Friday night at 10:30 in front of about 15,000 people, and we received standing ovations.”

Laura de la Torre was a member of the all-women color guard for the Anaheim Kingsmen in the ’80s, and said for years her fantasy was to be able to march again.

When she got the e-mail asking if she’d be interested in joining the alumni corps and performing again at the anniversary event, she jumped at the offer.

“I’m marching again in my 40s, reliving my teenage years. I get to go back and be in high school again. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” de la Torre said.

For more information on the Kingsmen Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps, visit www.xkingsmen.com.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at [email protected].