Finally, A New Trumpet (Cont.)
Screen 2 of 5At the end of my junior year, I had saved $150 for this purpose, but the trumpet I most wanted--one made by the Holton Instrument Company--cost $180. Even though the music dealer agreed to allow $5 for my old Carl Fisher trumpet, I was still $25 short. He was willing to let me start using the new trumpet if I would trade in my old one and pay him $150 cash, plus $10 at the first of each of the next four months. This proposed arrangement was not satisfactory to me, because it meant I would eventually be paying $190 plus my old horn. Also, my mother had taught my brother and me early in life not to buy anything (except a house to live in, she said) until you can pay cash for it. She would never buy things on credit.
In this case, Mother loaned me $25 so that I could pay the $175 cash required for the new trumpet, with the understanding that I would repay her $5 each month.
It was early in June of 1927 when I finally got the new horn. I knew, as did others who were familiar with the music instrument market, that this Holton trumpet was as fine as any being made at that time. The Conn Company also made excellent brass instruments, but its trumpets were no better than those made by the Holton. So, of course I was very proud of my new purchase. It was beautiful--plated silver and highly polished, with mother-of-pearl tops on the valves. The case came with it over a well-reinforced frame. The inside was lined with a velvet-like material, purple and soft. Everything even smelled new.
I took it home, laid it on the table in our small kitchen, and we all admired it for several minutes without comment. Then I picked it up carefully and said proudly to my mother and older brother, "Now that I have a good instrument I will be able to play in the National Guard band this summer."
Even the neighbors knew by then that, "Chester has a new trumpet," and several of them came to our house to see it. Some of them were particularly glad for me because as my newspaper customers they had known for some time that I was saving money from my paper route earnings to pay for the trumpet. So when they asked me to play it for them I responded with a few measures of "My Old Kentucky Home."
One particular reason for getting the trumpet early in June was so that I could go with the National Guard band to Fort Knox for two weeks of training-with pay. The Guard band was also to play for a county fair at Somerset, Kentucky, later in the summer and now that I had this fine instrument, I made my plans to go to both of these palaces with the band.
Our duty at Fort Knox consisted primarily of playing for the National Guard troops to march in review before high-ranking military officers twice each week. During those reviews the band would first march in formation past the reviewing stand and then continue to play from a fixed position on the field while the troops marched in review. We also practiced several hours each day, learning new pieces and improving our playing of the ones we already knew.
Those two weeks passed rapidly, even though the barracks' existence was not too desirable. I was particularly careful to keep the new horn with me all the time. I never let it get out of my sight, watching over it like a mother caring for a new-born baby. I polished it at least twice every day and at night I locked the case and kept it under my army cot, the canvas bottom resting lightly on the top of the case. In this way, I would know immediately if anyone tried to move my precious possession. Luckily no one did.
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