[TPIN] Trumpet cleaning...

[Albertson, Norbert]

All--
 
I'm sorry, I usually just lay low on TPIN and absorb advice, but reading
this thread about trumpet cleaning has wakened a memory I have long
suppressed.
 
My nephew once played the trumpet in his school band, but gave it up
after high school. Many years later (my nephew visiting home from the
Air Force), his mother decided to sell the horn and asked me what it
might be worth. So I went to their house to look at it. While checking
it over, I worked the tuning slide out and looked down the mouthpipe.
I swear to God, there was about an eighth of an inch opening encircled
by a hard black mass of...god knows what. I asked my nephew, "When's the
last time you cleaned this thing?"
 
He replied, "Clean it? Whaddya mean, clean it?"
 
He played that horn all through grade school and high school, and never
cleaned it once.
 
I'm not making this up.
 
Norb
 
It was a student model (English) Besson; maybe it played better that
way.