one loose screw spoils the whole parade.

This article submitted by Laurie P on 9/22/99.

Topic: Give your tale a brief descriptive title

The Tale:

My friends daughter had just joined the community band on my urging. I have repaired her clarinet since she began playing. The day before our first performance, a Memorial Day parade with 4 stops, she brought it to me with a loose pad on the upper section. I replaced the pad and offered to check out the entire instrument, but told her I would need a few days. She took it that day, because of the parade the next day.
I took "Nikki" with me the next morning, she was so excited, she was going to march with the band. The director lined us up. I was right next to "Nikki" eventhough I was playing 1st and she had the 3rd book. We played the first part of the 4 part parade without problem. On the next segment, she looked over to me and said "I can't get my instrument to work." when we stopped in the cemetary I handed her mine, minus the mouthpiece. She took her mouthpiece and I took a look at her instrument.
Some how while we were marching, a screw had fallen out and the rings and pad section on the lower half was missing. I showed her and told her to keep her eyes open for the part on the way down the hill. Luckly, we did manage to find it. I didn't have any tools to repair it in my car, but I did have my brand new wooden, gold plated, Artley 110sg. (It was so new that I hadn't even played it, other than when I tried it out) I let her use my plastic one and I used the other one.

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