We all met Rick while at Chico State in the music department. But he wasn't an instrumental music major... he was a member of the choir! Nonetheless, he saw how much fun we were having playing German music, and decided he needed to be part of the group too.
But we didn't do any vocal numbers back then, so how could Rick participate? He improvised. He grabbed a bass drum and helped Mike Eaton keep the beat! It worked out great, and Rick played with the group for quite a while in that early period when we were strictly a mobile organization.
Rick moved on after finishing at Chico State, and hasn't played with the band since the early days. But we have run into him from time to time and, although he seems to have given up his bass drum career, it looks like he's getting by OK without us.