MY TROMBONE
It’s been a long time since I tried
to play my trombone. It takes a
strong upper lip to really play a
horn, and if you haven’t played
COMMAERNTTARY
By John Wilson
John Wilson
in years, it’s likely going to take more
time than you’ve got to get back in
shape to play it. But every time I look at the trombone in my
closet, I am reminded how that horn changed my life and led me
into music as an inspiring avocation and as a sensitive foundation
to deal with difficult and sometimes disturbing issues that came
my way when I was covering the news over the last 50 years.
The deep-rooted and compelling nature of music has a way
of helping me lower the heat on subjects that sometimes shake
me down to my foundation, such as when I was sitting on the
front row of a state execution, talking sympathetically to political
misfits and people I had little in common with, or writing stories
about terrible calamities that wrecked the lives of those already
struggling with the challenges of life.
I started playing the trombone in the seventh grade and
changed schools to be in a high school band. Soon I was wearing
a snappy looking service cap, white pants and a gold and black
uniform jacket while marching in parades and putting on halftime
shows during football season. That horn also put me onstage
with a dozen trombone-playing band directors for a concert at
the famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. I even played
“reveille” every morning and “taps” at sundown at a “Four H”
camp that was about “Head, Heart, Health and Hands.”
During the Vietnam War, music got me promoted to a U.S.
144 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018
Army “Drum ‘n’ Bugle Corps” in Ft.
Gordon, Georgia, which led to the
start of my career in TV news. And
it was music that opened doors to
incredible events, including ballet at
the world-famous Kirov Theatre in
Russia and a performance in Tampa by the Moscow Symphony
Orchestra that I discovered was not conducted by a real musical
conductor, but a Russian Secret Police agent who was making
sure orchestra members didn’t defect to the United States. (I was
told about that by a staff member of the orchestra who I met on
another assignment in Moscow.)
That trombone and the music it inspired became a treasured
connection to many aspects of the world that passed in front of
me during a long career in television news, a connection that also
helped round out the careers of hundreds of other people who
joined me decades ago in St. Petersburg to form The Second Time
Arounders Marching Band. It is composed of retired professionals,
including band directors, bankers, doctors, nurses, firefighters,
school teachers and others who want to “perform one more
time” and are likewise inspired by the music that helps them
make the most of their various vocations and avocations. I hope
the music never stops. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: EDITOR’S NOTE: John Wilson, who retired from
Fox TV in 2014, worked more than 50 years in radio and television
news broadcasting.