Type
InscriptionLocation
back of photoTranscription
Repairing instrumentsLanguage
EnglishMaterial/Technique
InkNotes
written by Joyce WintersType
InscriptionLocation
Back of photoTranscription
Major Walt Winters CMI - Camp Wonderland, circa 1973
Doing minor repairs on instruments
When Wally was a camper at Little Pine Island, near Grand Rapids, MI, when he was a kid, he remembered a man from the Instrument Factory in town coming out during Music Camp to do some minor repairs on the brass instruments. He like to sit and watch him do the work.
He mentioned often in the ensuing years that he wished there was someone who would do that then. While stationed as the C O. [Commanding Officer] in Elkhart, Indiana, he became friends with the owner of the Conn Instrument Company there. He took a 'beat up' comet into the shop and asked if he could watch the gentleman make the repairs. The man said no, but he would help Wally make the repairs himself. So one day a month for about nine months, Wally would go in and the man taught him to change felts, apply new corks, roll out small dents in the valves, tap out larger dents in the bells, pull out mouth pieces stuck in the horns, and other things needed to put the instrument back in shape, and then polish the cornet When he had completed, the cornet looked and played like new. Wally bought his own set of tools and began doing the work on some of the instruments at the corps. Then he took his tools to camp the next year.
"When he was sent to the Metropolitan Division he was asked to 'work his magic' on some of the instruments the young people took out to CMI, This is a picture of that taking place.
This may be an overload of information.Language
EnglishMaterial/Technique
TypedNotes
typed by Joyce Thomson Winters