Now mind you, the band was setting up and there were no other dancers to trade outfits with, so I did what any normal dancer in my situation would do. I started looking through people’s personal belongings for something to wear on stage. Being that there wasn’t much in our dressing room, I quickly ran out into the hallway and that is when I saw Tito. My heart stopped for a second, but not because it was Tito Puente but because I ran out so quickly that I scared the Sh-- out of myself when I saw another person right in front of me. We were arms length apart when he asked me, " you ready kid?" I said, "yes sir whenever you are." He said, "good." Then he turned around and went towards the stage and I started to go through anything that looked remotely like a cloth or scarf. 5 minutes later I heard the music play.

Both Candy and I knew, from doing multiple shows with Tito, that we had 2 songs before we were supposed to dance on stage. That gave us a good 10 extra minutes but I still had nothing to wear. My biggest fear was that Tito was going to tell his speech about music and dancing and how the 2 were inseparable and then, nobody shows up to dance. I quickly ran in to tell Candy that Tito was playing when our prayers were answered. She looked at me with a sleeve in her hand and a grin on her face and said, "let’s use Duplessey’s glove as a tie. I laughed and said, "you’re a genius" as she placed the glove around my neck. Now, the next problem was how to get a glove to look like a tie or at least a scarf and not a fancy, rhinestone filled dinner napkin. Within minutes she had finished, and that is when I looked in the mirror and prayed that Tito Puente didn’t stop the show and laugh at me or make a comment about my indescribably pathetic look. Tito was known for doing things like that, however, there was no time to spare for the second song was at the coda. At that moment we ran into the hallway to go to the stage and as we opened the hallway door, Eddie and Maria were there. I quickly told him the story as he laughed and told me that I had done a good job, but that the outfits I needed were in the bag. I almost wanted to go on stage with a sleeve around my neck for all the hard work we did, when Maria handed me my stuff. As Tito started to make his speech, Candy and I ran to the stage with the stuff in our hands. Eddie and Maria followed to give me my cue as I dressed and ran at the same time. I finally finished dressing when Tito started our entrance song, Mambo Inn.