Page 188 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

TR VMPET PLA YING STOPS, AND STAR TS A GAIN

Along about 2003 or 2004, when 1 was approximately 75 years old, 1 realized that 1 was getting tired of
playing a trumpet for an hour every day of my life, and I had been doing that for about 65 years. I
decided that I was not going to improve my playing materially at that age, and so I put the trumpet in the
case with the intention of not taking it out again.

After 3 or 4 years, it must have been about 2008, I began to miss playing the trumpet, and took it out
and started trying to play again.

At that age, and after being off of it for so long, it was just like starting over. 1 seem to make absolutely
no progress for the first 3 or 4 weeks that I tried to play it again, and I finally grew discouraged and
decided to give it up for good.

A thought came into my mind that perhaps I needed help, and just before I layed it down for good 1
talked to the Lord about it, and promised him that if he would help me to regain my ability to play like it
once was, that I promised him I would play for his Praise and Glory.

Well, it didn’t happen all at once, as if by magic, but I could begin to tell a difference in my playing
within the next day or two, and gradually the improvement gained momentum until after about six
weeks I think I was playing as well as I did when 1 played in the Dallas Symphony.

I had not forgotten the promise I had made to the Lord, and so I sought out my distant cousin Daniel
Harris, who is an absolutely terrific pianist, and talked him into playing the piano for me to record a CD
of old Baptist Hymns. We went to the studios of Donald Johns, and 2 nights a week for about two hours
each session, we began to record these old Hymns, Daniel on the piano and me on the trumpet. The last
selection on that CD was the Lord’s Prayer, which 1 and Daniel supplied the music, and Donald Johns
spoke the Lord’s Prayer in recitative form; that is, he just spoke the words, but not in prayer style, but
very forcefully and very emphatically. I think that turned out to be the very best selection on the entire
CD, and when we finished it I decided to name the CD “A Promise Kept”.

I had 6,000 of these CD’s made, with me getting 3,000 and Daniel getting 3,000, and I did not attempt
to sell the first one. I was happy to give them away, as my means of giving the praise and glory to God,
and 1 do not have but 3 or 4 copies of that CD left.

If I do say so myself, it was quite good, but it was not as good as the next one that Daniel and I decided
to do. The CD with the Hymns on it I believe was recorded in 2007, or 2008, and the next year we did
another CD composed of all Christmas music. About the first half of the numbers on that CD are just
traditional old Christmas Carols, and the last few numbers on it are more modern Christmas Music such
as “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”, “Chestnuts Roasting on the Open Fire”, and “It’s Beginning
to Look a Lot Like Christmas”.

Again, if I do say so myself, the quality of that second CD was very good, and was superior to the first
one.

th
After having played trumpet almost my entire life, from the time I was in the 5 grade, it would have
seemed a shame not to have left some evidence that I had been here, and had played the trumpet. These
two CD’s accomplished that for me.

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