{"id":888,"date":"2024-01-16T12:27:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T20:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/?page_id=888"},"modified":"2024-06-03T15:53:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T22:53:12","slug":"our-stories-david-gary-french-horn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/our-stories-david-gary-french-horn\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Stories–David Gary, French horn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"David Gary, French horn<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“We take our horns down to the beach and play.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s like talking.\u00a0 We don’t say anything.\u00a0 We just go on to the next song.\u00a0 ”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1933 at the Madison General Hospital where my mother was a nurse. \u00a0We lived in a house where my great great grandfather had lived when he came to America in the 1850s.\u00a0 He had been a silversmith in Ireland during the panic, the Potato Famine.\u00a0 People were dying.\u00a0 (editor: The Irish Potato Famine began in 1845 when a mold caused a destructive plant disease to spread rapidly throughout Ireland.\u00a0 Other vegetables, grains and meat animals were grown and exported but it was the property of the landlords and anyone who attempted to eat it was severely punished.\u00a0 Between 1845 and 1852 more than 1.5 million people starved to death while massive quantities of food were being exported to Britain.\u00a0 A half million people were evicted from their homes, often illegally and violently. More than 1.5 million adults and children left for America.\u00a0 Americans, particularly the people of Massachusetts, donated money, goods and food to ship to Ireland.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

He worked on the railroad when they were laying tracks across the country. \u00a0(editor: Union Pacific Railroad had Irish workers laying track from 1863-1868<\/em>.) \u00a0When they were done he went to Madison.\u00a0 He arrived on a summer day around 1870. \u00a0As he was walking up Dodie Street he saw an old woman sitting on the front porch with a fan, keeping cool.\u00a0 He went up to the railing at the corner of the porch and he said, \u201cHave you got a cup of water for a poor old soul?\u201d \u00a0She warned him, \u201cDon’t you come on the porch.\u201d \u00a0But she got him a cup of water and they had a little chat.<\/p>\n

The next day he came back, got another cup of water and two weeks later they got married. \u00a0He was close to 70 and she was around 55 but they had a child and that was my great grandfather and that was the house where they lived. \u00a0We never knew anything about my great great grandmother\u2019s family except that they had been there a while.<\/p>\n

My mom’s family was from Switzerland and Germany. \u00a0\u00a0She was born in Lake Mills 30 miles to the east of Madison towards Milwaukee, one of 9 children. \u00a0We would often go there to have picnics during the summer and visit family\u2014big, heavy duty family get-togethers, lots of relatives: grandmas, great grandmas.<\/p>\n

My dad’s family was from Ireland and Germany. \u00a0My dad had always talked about someday going to Ireland to see the country. \u00a0He had never been there but he talked about it and dreamed about it. \u00a0He retired in Santa Barbara, back of Mission Creek.\u00a0 Every afternoon he would sit under his oak tree with his coffee and I’d often stop by after work and say hello or visit a little. \u00a0A few months after he retired I said, \u201cHey Joe, when are you going to go to Ireland?\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cIf you want to go to Ireland, go yourself.\u201d\u00a0 So we did.<\/p>\n

We went to Ennis in County Clare and visited many burial sites where they list people’s names.\u00a0 There were a lot of Garys but not the right one, not our family.\u00a0 So I went to the courthouse and they sent me to the manager of the library who wrote down a name and said, \u201cCall this lady.\u00a0 She’s probably your cousin.\u201d\u00a0 So I called and it was wonderful.\u00a0 I told her the name of the hotel we were staying in and she said, \u201cCome to pub number one.\u201d \u00a0I walked down the hall and there she was in the sitting in a chair.\u00a0 She saw me and started laughing.\u00a0 \u201cYou look exactly like my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

And of course traveling around we would sit in bars drinking a pint of beer, not American sized glass but a real pint.\u00a0 Almost every bar in Ireland has musical instruments hanging on the wall.\u00a0 You can grab one, check the tuning and play. \u00a0It’s a robust family social moment getting together and I could feel that in my family growing up in a neighborhood where I knew everybody\u2014the O\u2019Brians, the Chapmans, all of them.\u00a0 I could look out the front window across the street and there was grandma’s house. \u00a0She would make six apple pies a day and sometimes I made them with her.\u00a0 I still make her pies.<\/p>\n

Two of my classmates lived on our street. \u00a0We went to Dodie School together just over one block away, the same school that my dad had gone to. \u00a0When I was in the second grade we moved over to Randall Street where they had built a new grade school, Washington.<\/p>\n

Madison has a circle of five lakes.\u00a0 We lived inside the circle. \u00a0The railroad was only one block away. \u00a0Madison had five railroads, a very busy place.\u00a0 I’ve been exploring ever since I could walk.\u00a0 I started by exploring our neighborhood but eventually I knew all of Madison and my folks and the neighbors never knew about it. \u00a0I\u2019ve been exploring ever since.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin has cold long winters so my father and his buddy hitchhiked to California around 1918. \u00a0They mostly walked because there weren’t many cars then. \u00a0They got to San Diego in the spring and they were excited about how warm it was.\u00a0 They hadn’t eaten in several days so they went into an orange orchard and ate so many oranges that they threw up. \u00a0\u00a0They had never experienced oranges before.\u00a0 They stayed the summer.<\/p>\n

So in 1943 when my dad was offered a job as a brakeman on the California Southern Railroad in California he jumped at the chance to get back out here.\u00a0 I was 9 years old.\u00a0 I finished the fourth grade and we followed him.\u00a0 My mother and her sister and us three kids got in our 1937 Dodge four door sedan and drove out at 35 miles an hour to save on gas because it was rationed; there were gas stamps.<\/p>\n

At night we would find a farm that had haystacks. \u00a0We would take a blanket and spread the hay out a little bit and sleep in a mountain of hay.<\/p>\n

When we got to the Great Salt Lake desert, it was flat and there were so few cars so my aunt said, \u201cDo you want to drive?\u201d \u00a0She put three cushions on the seats and I got behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

On the 7th day we arrived in California.\u00a0 Evening was approaching, it was dinnertime.\u00a0 We were in San Luis Obispo, low on gas and out of gas stamps.\u00a0 We pulled into a gas station and my mother told the owner that she didn\u2019t know what to do. \u00a0He said, \u201cThat restaurant over there has really great food. \u00a0Go over there and have dinner and then come on back and we’ll talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we had dinner, he closed his gas station and went home. \u00a0We sat in the car a while and my mom decided to drive down the road a little bit. \u00a0When she started it up she said, \u201cHey, look at that. There’s gas.\u201d \u00a0So we finished our trip to Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

We were there about two weeks and a neighbor was having a yard sale. \u00a0He had a 1935 Conn trumpet for sale. \u00a0I said, \u201cHow much is it?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, it’s $35.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had been doing garbage trash collection in Madison, recycling metal and everything.\u00a0 And I had helped deliver milk. \u00a0The milkman came by in a horse drawn cart and when he was in our block, I rode with him and took the milk from the cart up to the door.\u00a0 To me, that was a big deal.<\/p>\n

So I had the money and I bought the trumpet.<\/p>\n

And I had an immediate girlfriend, the girl across the street, Mary.\u00a0 It didn’t matter to me that she was Mexican. \u00a0I had no idea that there was that thing going about race. \u00a0She was just a cute girl and we went out in the field and had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

We only lived a block and a half from downtown State Street where Bennett Music Company was. \u00a0I told the salesperson that I had just bought a trumpet and I wanted to learn how to play. \u00a0He gave me a little five minute lesson on how to blow the trumpet, showed me one, two, three, the fingering, showed me a C scale and gave me a little book about a quarter inch thick with the scale and a few chords so I’d know what I was getting into.\u00a0 He said I could take this book home and study it and I could come back and schedule lessons.\u00a0 I learned to play the first song in five minutes.\u00a0 Cherry Pie.\u00a0 I never forgot it.\u00a0 I was 9 years old.<\/p>\n

The kids in the neighborhood all went to the same school and were mostly in my grade.\u00a0 A Spanish teacher came in one day a week and we learned Spanish and Spanish songs.\u00a0 She played the piano and as soon as I saw her having so much fun on the piano I wanted to do that too.\u00a0 So I started piano lessons. \u00a0My mom had had her piano sent out from Wisconsin.\u00a0 But after two weeks the principle of the school found out I was taking piano lessons and trumpet lessons after school.\u00a0 He said, \u201cYou can’t do that. You\u2019ve got to take one or the other.\u201d \u00a0So I quit the wrong one. \u00a0I kept playing the trumpet but I like the piano much better. \u00a0The range. \u00a0I have an electronic piano keyboard now, almost a full keyboard.\u00a0 You hit a button and you have all these different instruments on it too.<\/p>\n

I also go to the computer if I want to hear the Turk Murphy band.\u00a0 My favorite song is Weary Blues.<\/em>\u00a0 I\u2019ll grab my trumpet and play along. They could be anywhere in the world. \u00a0I sit here and watch them and they’re in France or Italy and I play along.<\/p>\n

In junior high and high school we were playing all the time.\u00a0 I rode to school on my bicycle with my trumpet case and briefcase for my books on the handlebars.\u00a0 I was in the band and the brass ensemble and the orchestra, anything and everything. \u00a0There was always a summer band and we had a concert every week at a different park.<\/p>\n

My music teacher in high school was Henry Brubeck, Dave Brubeck’s brother. \u00a0One day he came over and said, \u201cGary, here.\u00a0 You’re going to play this now\u201d and handed me a French horn.<\/p>\n

Our band, the Santa Barbara High School Marching Band, won all Southern California for three years in a row.\u00a0 They gave us a free night at the Palladium where Harry James was playing. \u00a0All of the musicians played good in those days\u2014the timing and slurring and tongue.\u00a0 I’m a Scorpio.\u00a0 Exactness seems to be part of my makeup.\u00a0 Today, it doesn’t seem to matter to them quite so much.<\/p>\n

I went in the bathroom and Harry James was at the urinal taking a leak and smoking a joint.<\/p>\n

\u201cMister Harry James, can you sign my band card for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

And he says, \u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I still have it.<\/p>\n

My dad obviously knew I liked music so he took me to the jam sessions at Disneyland and I met a lot of famous old musicians there.\u00a0 Louis Armstrong and his group were playing inside of that old replica sailboat.\u00a0 You could walk up and hang around with them.\u00a0 (editor: The Sailing Ship Columbia, located at the Disneyland park in Anaheim, California, is a full-scale replica of Columbia Rediviva, the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe.<\/em>)\u00a0 We went maybe 6 times.<\/p>\n

I went to the JC to continue being with my high school buddies but I didn’t know what I was going to be.\u00a0 I thought maybe I\u2019d be a heart surgeon because of my exposure to the doctors from the hospital every night at dinner.\u00a0 My mom was the head of surgical nurses for 26 years so she knew all the doctors and she had worked with them during the war.<\/p>\n

When I graduated in \u201851 from high school I was already into cars.\u00a0 In fact I was into making all kinds of things\u2014vacuum tube radios and communicating devices.\u00a0 I was also into painting, did my first painting of an automobile when I was four years old, a watercolor of a 1932 Ford roadster hot rod.\u00a0 It was light green, the fenders were off, it had headers on it and it was lowered.\u00a0 A lot of detail.\u00a0 Detail had already clicked into me.\u00a0 Going from our house to the high school down Delaware street every day I went past the hot rod shop and a year before I graduated, I started hanging out there. \u00a0One day the owner, Bob Joehnck, says, \u201dHey, you want to pump gas?\u201d \u00a0He paid me 5 cents an hour! But I got to see them building hot rods.\u00a0 I wound up studying it more than they did. \u00a0Bob had been an aircraft mechanic in World War II in England or Europe and he fixed the timing on planes, a real tough challenge.\u00a0 Most of the mechanics couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. \u00a0But he knew what was what. \u00a0So I learned from him and started building my own hot rod in high school.\u00a0 I had a 1944 two door sedan. \u00a0I bought a brand-new Mercury block and then bored and stroked it, added an Iskendarian cam, and put in a valve arrangement–a big valve and little valve. \u00a0You have to do that to get the flow energized of the combustion though most people don’t believe it. \u00a0I put in three ring pistons, relieved the combustion chamber and cleaned up the ports.<\/p>\n

I put a supercharger on top of all of this. \u00a0You have a powerful engine to begin with. \u00a0I had W headers on it that came along the outside of the car. \u00a0When the hood was closed, you didn’t see much except that pipe. \u00a0But you could probably hear it.<\/p>\n

And it went fast. It would go 70 in first gear, 105 in second, 165 in third. \u00a0I drove it around every night.\u00a0 We had nighttime drag races.\u00a0 One night we said, \u201cLet’s go to the drive-in in Ventura,\u201d which is 30 miles away. \u00a0We made it there in ten minutes. \u00a0We were passing the cars in our lane like they were going the other way.\u00a0 We were going around 140. \u00a0It’s a good thing the cops didn’t see us though they couldn’t have caught us. \u00a0My boss was a Bonneville racer and my street hot rod would go faster than his Bonneville roadster.<\/p>\n

I have an exacting level within me, a part that wants everything to be precise, so I went to UC Santa Barbara to learn drafting.\u00a0 Dr. Share was the teacher and he didn’t give an \u201cA\u201d but I got an \u201cA\u201d two years in a row.<\/p>\n

Then I went into the navy and became a sonar airman. \u00a0I went through boot camp in San Diego and then went on a destroyer 677. \u00a0I went all around the South Pacific.\u00a0 We chased submarines.\u00a0 Being a sonar man, I had to know our equipment, I had to know how to repair it and maintain it.<\/p>\n

I took my trumpet with me and there were five other musicians on the ship who had instruments so we played together or I just went on deck and played by myself.<\/p>\n

I got out in San Francisco, went in town and looked around, had a beer and decided, \u201cWell, time to go home.\u201d\u00a0 So I got on the Greyhound bus, came back home to Santa Barbara. \u00a0It was summertime. \u00a0I went down to west beach.\u00a0 A lot of summertime kids were there but I just saw this one girl. \u00a0And I said, \u201cUm, that’s the one!\u201d\u00a0 I went over and tried to talk to her, but she said, \u201cNo, I\u2019ve got to go to work.\u201d \u00a0She got on the bus and I followed on my bicycle.\u00a0 She worked at Newberry’s. \u00a0So I went in and walked around and found her.\u00a0 \u201cCan I meet you at the beach next week?\u201d<\/p>\n

That summer we really got cozy and decided to get married. \u00a0We lived upstairs at my folks two story house, kind of like living back in Madison but we wanted our own house and about six months later, we bought one and moved in.\u00a0 I went back to JC and picked up some odd jobs. \u00a0I delivered telegrams on my bicycle.\u00a0 (I’ve done a lot of bicycling in my life, ridden Highway 1 all the way from San Diego to Canada.\u00a0 I rode up Mount Baker in the Cascades and Mauna Loa on the Big Island.)<\/p>\n

I learned to play the Irish tin pipe, a penny whistle, on the street in Santa Barbara. \u00a0I was about 45.\u00a0 A woman from Ireland advertised for some students who would like to learn to play Irish music.\u00a0 We stood in a circle and she would play a little phrase.\u00a0 We played it back.\u00a0 And another.\u00a0 When we put all three phrases together that was a song.\u00a0 I still keep them in the car so I can just reach in the back and play if I\u2019m sitting waiting somewhere.<\/p>\n

You know, I was general contractor for much of my working life. And right behind the seat in my pickup I kept my trumpet.\u00a0 I\u2019d pull up to a stop sign, a three way light or something, sitting there a long time, I\u2019d just pick up my horn and play.\u00a0 People were shocked.\u00a0 When I go back to Santa Barbara, I usually visit with my music friends.\u00a0 We might meet at Goleta beach and take our horns down there, walk down the beach and play.\u00a0 We don’t even talk about it, just go to the next song and play.\u00a0 It’s like talking.\u00a0 It’s a way of talking.<\/p>\n

We got into square dancing and one night we were going around in a circle hand to hand.\u00a0 I come up to this woman and we grabbed each other’s hands, looked at each other’s eyes. \u00a0And we froze.<\/p>\n

Six months later we ran away. \u00a0She had five children. \u00a0We took the kids and her library of books. \u00a0She says, \u201cYou want me? You take my books.\u201d \u00a0But we didn’t know where to go and we didn’t want to go through divorce at that time because it took too long and was expensive.\u00a0 So I got my paycheck Friday, changed my name, got a different car, got a U-Haul, put everything in it and drove out of town. \u00a0We put a map down on the floor, made a dart out of a matchstick like the cowboys do, held our hands together and dropped it. \u00a0The dart landed on Carson City, Nevada. \u00a0Actually it landed in a place called Franktown which is about five miles north of Carson City.<\/p>\n

In the first week of December there’s no snow in Santa Barbara.\u00a0 But there is snow in Carson City. \u00a0We got there at 6 o’clock at night and it was already dark. \u00a0We got a motel, ate dinner and said, \u201cTomorrow we’ll go out to Franktown and look for a place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franktown turned out to be a ghost town. \u00a0There were three walls left of an old jail and crumbling foundations of a couple of buildings. \u00a0So we went up to Tahoe but we had a hard time finding a place to rent because that was the year of the Olympics.\u00a0 We stayed about two weeks and because money was running out we moved to Reno where I found work.<\/p>\n

I bought a science fiction paperback, went through and put a dot under each word that I wanted to build a sentence with and created a code.\u00a0 I sent it to my brother who decoded it and found out where I was. \u00a0He told my dad who then came to visit us. \u00a0\u201cLet’s go to a bar where we can talk.\u201d \u00a0He outlined my mistakes and where I was going to fail and what was going to happen.<\/p>\n

I decided to ignore him and we moved again the next day, this time to Portland where it rained or snowed five or six times a day in the winter. \u00a0I got work but when April came my brain code flashed off and on six times and I said, \u201cThat’s enough.\u201d\u00a0 I told my boss, \u201cThis Friday, I’m quitting.\u201d \u00a0We moved back to Reno and wound up living in Virginia City, got a house for $35 a month. \u00a0That weekend I got a job putting up prefabs at Lake Tahoe. \u00a0A group of us from Virginia City drove over every day.<\/p>\n

I lived there about 5 years.\u00a0 And heard a lot of good music because you know they have lots of concerts in Reno.\u00a0 They come to the casinos to play and also there’s a University of Nevada.<\/p>\n

One day at work somebody was using a crowbar and knocked a block off that had fifteen nails in it.\u00a0\u00a0 It went over the truck, down the other side and stuck in my head. \u00a0I screamed and went down.\u00a0 The boss took me to the Tahoe emergency where they put in fifteen stitches.<\/p>\n

On the way home we stopped at a bar. \u00a0I knew the owner and he says, \u201cHey, did you know they sold your house in Virginia City?\u201d \u00a0We were two weeks away from the birth of my son Sean. \u00a0My wife said she wanted the baby delivered by the same doctor that delivered the others so we decided to go back home.\u00a0 I got another U-Haul, loaded up and we moved back to Santa Barbara.\u00a0 My wife’s house was owned by her mother, grandma Kiel and it was sitting there empty.<\/p>\n

That night I called my old high school buddy Jim Gordon to see if he knew of any work.\u00a0 Jim says, \u201cI’ll give you a number. You can call and I think you can get a job.\u201d \u00a0So I called John Carter and went to work for him the next morning.<\/p>\n

And I still call John Carter every first of the month. \u00a0He\u2019s 96 years old now. \u00a0He\u2019ll say, \u201cHey, do you remember that job over at Hope Ranch?\u201d That’s where I went to work for him.<\/p>\n

I learned electrical and plumbing and framing and designing and real estate and cars. \u00a0I even took flying lessons. \u00a0I went to a ground school and I\u2019ve flown 15 different airplanes. \u00a0I learned to fly helicopters also.<\/p>\n

The most fun for me when I\u2019m flying is to take a friend along and put a little cup of water it on the dashboard of the plane. \u00a0When I want to give the person a drink I fly in a curve.\u00a0 If you do it just right the cup of water will lift up and sail across and they have to catch it or it will spill on them.<\/p>\n

That second marriage lasted about 8 years.\u00a0 Then I went to live with my brother.\u00a0 A Kuala woman named Sue came to Santa Barbara and needed a place to stay. \u00a0She found my brother\u2019s house through a rental ad.\u00a0\u00a0 She was from New York but she wound up in Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, she and I got married.\u00a0 I bought an old house from a weird nut case who had three wolves in the backyard in a broken-down garage.\u00a0 His curtains were shut all the time.\u00a0 He didn’t want anybody to see how he was living.\u00a0 The house was freaky.\u00a0 He was freaky.\u00a0 He may have had to sell it because of his wolves but in any case we bought it for $27,000.\u00a0 Both of us were working and making pretty good money.\u00a0 We paid off the loan in a year and a half and then were able to save money so we traveled every summer.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve traveled to Bali, South East Asia, China, Nepal, Japan, Russia, and much of Europe.<\/p>\n

About ten years ago we took a two-month trip around the world on our own, started in Shanghai, went to Kuala Lumpur.\u00a0 Then to India where we saw the Taj Mahal then went south and stayed on a rubber farm.\u00a0 The people who owned it were teachers.\u00a0 They offered a yoga class in the river every morning.\u00a0 They cooked and then ate with us in the patio under the rubber trees.<\/p>\n

From there we went to Dubai, Morocco, Barcelona and Iceland and then spent some time in the northeast of America.<\/p>\n

One winter in the early nineties there was a full moon on the winter solstice in Barrow, Alaska.\u00a0 It was 56 below and we stood in the cold looking at the sky.\u00a0 The moon rose briefly just above the horizon and then went down in its low orbit.\u00a0 But it came up a second time for about two hours and hovered large.\u00a0 Quite a sight.<\/p>\n

On the way home we visited friends in Bellingham, Washington where it rains all the time\u2014rain and snow but two days before Christmas it was clear and the sun was out so Rich took me rowing in a boat that he had built.\u00a0 We went to his crab traps and got fresh crab for dinner. The next day we hiked up Mount Baker. \u00a0I said, \u201cHey, Rich, what’s it cost to live here?\u201d \u00a0He said, \u201cWell, I don’t know, not very much, cheaper than in Santa Barbara.\u201d\u00a0 So we found a real estate lady, looked at five properties and bought one on the way to the airport. \u00a0We went back to Santa Barbara and put our house on the market. \u00a0It sold within two hours.<\/p>\n

We spent two years in Bellingham but it didn’t work out so we moved to Hawaii on the north end of the Big Island where we spent four months but that didn’t work out either. \u00a0We just couldn’t fit in with the people there.<\/p>\n

So we went to an astrocartographer in San Francisco. \u00a0He asked us a bunch of questions, drew lines on a map and said, \u201cWhere these lines cross, that’s where it’s good for you to live.\u201d \u00a0And one of them was here in Sebastopol.<\/p>\n

We came up in 1994 and built a house out on Tilton road. \u00a0It was our dream house. \u00a0We designed it and it was everything we wanted. \u00a0It was on a little ridge where the fog from the ocean came in, went over the ridge and stopped on that road.<\/p>\n

I was a contractor for 37 years, built over 400 houses.\u00a0 I designed and drafted many homes, often working with the owner.\u00a0 I\u2019d offer suggestions, add the feng shui element to house, orient the windows to the sun\u2014the equinox and the solstices.\u00a0 Right now I’m designing a new sundial shape.\u00a0 It creates a shadow, a little dot in the center that when the sundial body is lying down is a figure 8.<\/p>\n

I feel excitement every day, what am I going to build next?\u00a0 What am I going to design next?\u00a0 I think something clicks when you’re born or along the way, maybe when you’re a kid growing up.\u00a0 You have a number of prongs that can be clipped or picked. \u00a0They either get started or they don’t.<\/p>\n

I joined the Petaluma band and the Healdsburg band.\u00a0 When I joined the Healdsburg band, I played trumpet but one of the French horn players was someone who had sat next to me when I played French horn in Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Someone invited me to the New Horizon band.\u00a0 There were only nineteen people then.\u00a0 I was playing trumpet and I was helping out some of the musicians who had forgotten too much of the music.\u00a0 Lew Sbrana said, \u201cI wish we had a French horn player.\u201d\u00a0 And Craig Thomas who plays the euphonium went online and bought a French horn for me for $25.\u00a0 It needed some work so I took it over Stanroys and they fixed it up.<\/p>\n

We had five acres of gophers, poison oak, Doug firs and fog so we sold the house and in 2006 we moved to Hawaii for ten years.\u00a0 When that didn\u2019t work anymore we moved back here seven years ago but while we were in Hawaii I learned to play ukulele.\u00a0 I played in a group there and I learned how to build ukuleles from scratch. \u00a0I’ve got seven ukuleles in my workshop right now that I have made.\u00a0 I just finished helping a young girl who was in school here in Sebastopol.\u00a0 She bought a kit.\u00a0 Her mother had a dance class at the Park Point workout club with my wife, Sue, who told her that I made them so she brought it here and I helped her through it with all my woodworking tricks. \u00a0My garage is a shop\u2014table saw and drill press, band saw, all my carpenter tools. \u00a0\u00a0All my fun things.\u00a0 And I’ve got a few paintings on the wall that I’ve painted here and there around the world.<\/p>\n

And when we moved back I started up with all those bands again.\u00a0 So here we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Gary, French horn     “We take our horns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-888","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963,"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/888\/revisions\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nhbsc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}