Hi MG,
That was hilarious! Just being in Ted's music store was an experience. It was like a junk yard. I remember sheet music strewn all over the floor in the back room. If you asked him for a particular piece, he knew exactly where it was and would go right to it.
You would think breaking the clarinet in two would have been an embarrassing moment, but it was funny. It got a really big laugh out of everybody. Cover charge? Nah! Not at "Benny's Rebel Room" in Washington D.C. ( 14th and I Sts.)That's the same place I knocked my two front teeth out jumping off the bar with a saxophone in my mouth. I used to go to that place before I played there. In those days, the drinking age in Washington was 18.
Now that I think of it, I did own a good clarinet my dad bought me when I was about 10 or 11, but for the life of me, I can't remember what happened to it. I guess I sold it or traded it in on my sax. That's another wild story. I bought it ($600) when I was 15 or 16. I walked into a music store in downtown Baltimore and walked out with a brand new horn. I didn't give the guy 2 cents, didn't sign anything, and he did not know me from Adam. All he knew is I went to Calvert Hall, a private school 3 blocks away ( not a rich kid. I was there on a full music scholarship ), and that was all he wanted to know. I paid for it all by myself in less than a year. I only made $10 or $12 a night on weekends, but I wanted it real bad and I saved my duckets. I just had to find the girls who were willing to pay for the dates and put gas in my car
Cheers,
Fred