Sometimes people at church wonder why I’m not available on Monday nights. The short answer is that on Monday nights I play third trombone in Liverpool Community Band. It is very relaxing to be involved in a totally different kind of activity where I am not in charge of anything. It helps me keep up my ability to play trombone and to read music. I originally joined the band a year or so after Keely went off to college. It practices about three weeks and then plays a concert at a nursing home. Once in a while we get to play a public concert at Johnson Park if the weather allows. We play marches, Broadway collections, movie collections, and big band stuff. My favorite composer is Karl King as he wrote for trombone. Tonight we played his piece, Trombone King. Fun, fun—especially when our director, Cathy Stickler, repeated it at a faster tempo. In the fall, I enjoy playing the German music for our Oktoberfest concert—I frequently have the oomph-pah parts. I took lessons in grade school and high school. I really didn’t like playing much until I was about a junior in high school. By then I could play easy grade six stuff and I really began to enjoy playing. I took lessons at Eastman for all four years while I was at University of Rochester as an undergraduate. Then later, when JoAnne and I were at Houghton, I played bass trombone in the Houghton wind ensemble. I have not said much at band about being a pastor, but it is known and over the years, I have had the privilege of praying with several band members in the hospital or on the phone. I find it very enriching to have this added dimension to my life. Usually while I have been at band JoAnne has used the night to lead a ladies study, enjoy a movie with a friend, or go to art classes.
