The Sound of Chaos

( Give me a beat! D.J. and his drums.)

Last week D.J. burst through the front door out of breath and grinning from ear to ear, trying to tell me why it was, in his own words, the "greatest day ever!"

"I found one hundred dollars! I found it! On the road- a hundred dollars!" He pulled the crinkled wad of green from his pocket and quickly smoothed it out in between his little fingers for me to see. "One hundrend dollars! It's the greatest day ever!"

At first I thought it was play money and felt the pangs of guilt that I would have to crush his excitement by telling him the truth. "Let me see," I asked, and he handed it over proudly.

Watermark, check. Fiber band, check. "It is the greatest day ever!"

After explaining the principle of tithing and giving him his choice of paying it or not (which he decided to), David and I asked what he planned to do with his new found wealth. The first words out of his mouth were, "I want drums."

"You mean you don't want a new video game?" I tried to hide my surprise, "Transformers for the Wii?"

"Can I have both?" His eyes doubled, "I have that much money?"

"One or the other, D.J. but not both."

His smile never faultered and neither did his answer, "I want to play the drums. The Cat in the Hat song."

(Hey Pachuco by The Royal Crown Review... The Mask soundtrack http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3821288&JRSource=nsa&nsa=1
It has an awesome drum solo. He hasn't seen the Cat in the Hat for ages and only the once, but I do have the song on my iPod under my soundtracks playlist; I have to admit, it's a swing'n song!)

The next morning we decided that the best place to look for a drum set within his budget would be a local pawn shop. I had purchased Devin's trumpet from a very clean, well-run store with a large selection of insturments two months earlier and thought it was worth a try.

Everything on the floor was too big and too expensive. We had almost talked ourselves- and D.J.- into buying a snare drum to start with, when the music department employee found a smaller set in the back, just his size and just his price. He threw in a kicker for the bass drum, which it was missing, and D.J. proclaimed it once again 'the greatest day ever'.

I will never forget his expression when another employee, who happened to be a drummer for a local rock band (he was very nice despite the tats and peircings) played for D.J. and explained how to hold the sticks etc.

One week, an empty bottle of Tylenol, a trip to the music store to order practice pads and D.J.'s rock'n the house... and he's pretty darn good!

Labels: Farmers