Unbelievable. 24 posts and only three people made a pitch so far? Lol. Good on you Larry, and good on everyone else who cared more about recognizing your gesture than getting the drum.
Ok, here goes....Ever since I was a little kid growing up in a wet paper bag in the middle of a busy street, I have wanted to own a Black Beauty, just like the one in the music store window that I could see from our little bag. The same bag that I shared with my 8 siblings after our parents had abandoned us. Though it was cold and wet in our little paper bag, and there was little food aside from the occasional bits of pizza crust and cigarette butts that we found in the gutter, the thought of one day owning such a drum kept me warm and dry at night and filled me with hope and the promise of one day becoming a drummer.
I scrounged around the alley behind the music store for anything I could find which might help me pursue my dream. Soon, I started practicing my rudiments with an old Q Tip in one hand and a rolled up copy of Crochet Quarterly in the other. I slowly accumulated a rag-tag collection of hub caps and 5 gallon pails, with which I was eventually able to start busking so that I might feed my family.
Over the years, as my skill and talent grew, I began to draw bigger crowds, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 people, and I was able to make enough money to get us out of that dank, little bag and into the spacious cardboard box which we find ourselves in today. And to think, none of this would have been possible if that Black Beauty hadn't caught my eye all those years ago. If only I could actually own a drum like that one day... (sigh)