Your mom and I saw the movie “Fever Pitch” this weekend starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Fallon has a passion for the Boston Red Sox and from April until October, baseball is the first thing in life. Jimmy has to choose between going to Paris with his love Drew or staying home for a game with the New York Yankees. Drew or baseball. Drew or baseball. Drew or baseball. Let me see! I won’t tell you what Jimmy chose but you romantics won’t like the answer.
Well the passion for baseball got me thinking about my favorite daughter Kelly and her passion for the trombone. You know, that brass wind instrument with a sliding tube. Kelly may not admit it but it shaped her life. I don’t know if it was coincidence that Kelly’s mom played the trombone in high school or that maybe her mother’s influence caused her to pursue playing it. Only Kelly knows.
It began innocently enough. She practiced and played and pretty soon she was in the North High School band. I think we bought the first trombone on time waiting to see how commited she was to the instrument. Pretty soon she was competeing for “first chair” against all the guys. If you know Kelly that was like war because she could play as well as any male counterpart. Darn right!
Then somewhere along the line Kelly became aware that she had a rather cheap horn. So for Christmas she begged as only she could for a special horn she had seen at the local music store (I can’t remember the name). Kelly’s memory is vague on the cost but being a “numbers freak” I remember exactly. The horn was $750. We finally agreed that she would pay half and we would pay $375 as a Christmas present. We had one happy kid. I think her version is she paid of it. Let me say no other Grasshopper got a $375 Christmas gift.
It was worth every penny. She babied the horn. It led to a Dixieland band at North High School. Yes, I did attend several upbeat Dixie presentations.
Then there was a quintet of trombonists that played Chrismas music in different Churches in Sheboygan. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Yes I even went to church to listen. I think Mr. Hawke, the band director organized the group.
I recall a guy named Pat Schultz. He played trombone at South Sheboygan High School. The competition was intense. Even as nieve as I am, there was a crush on this guy named Pat. I think Kelly invited him to a dance at North High.
Between Kelly’s junior and senior year she went to Germany for two weeks. Imagine the trombone as the ticket to touring Europe. I’m sure we participated in a major way on Kelly’s trip financially. Her take is that she probably had to pay for it herself.
And then it was off to Madison where she would tryout for the marching band. My thought was “that’s nice”. We had no idea that the marching band was a focal point for most campus events and that it did presentations at football games. What a surprise! For Kelly it was a new instant family of 220 fellow band members. Again the horn was her ticket to involvement and success.
The Madison years were great. We attended many football games with Nana and Grandpa. Many games. We would come down early, spend time at the South Union, watch the Pep Rally outside the Union and then “high step” our way to Camp Randall. We would pick out Kelly on the football field with binnoculars, stay for the fifth quarter and many times follow her to Baskum Hill as they marched out of the stadium. I remember a rain storm where we stood with Grampa George under the stadium and said that maybe we should leave without seeing Kelly in the “fifth quarter” because of the weather. You had to see his face. We didn’t leave and we stood in the rain watching Kelly.
And today? Kelly goes back to play in the alumni band occassionally at football games but the great part is that alumni are invited to play when the normal band members are short at basketball games and hockey games. She plays. She takes Mitchell and Grant. Mitchell for sure dances to the music as mom blows her brass instrument. Ain’t that a cool mom.
Which brings me down to my theme of passion. Kelly, whether she has thought about a lot or not, has always had a passion for the trombone and excels at it. Hell, she was one of the early female trombone players in the marching band. The passion has been good to her. It has created great opportunities. It was a catalyst for family events. It was a source of great satisfaction.
I think everybody ought to have a passion such as Kelly’s trombone in their life. It gives meaning to life.
Go Kelly, go!
Love,
Dad