In public school 4th grade, kids who “got it” with the plastic flutes the year before were offered loans of real instruments and lessons in their use.
Trombone was IT.
I turned down all proffered alternatives until a trombone became available. It was the only sound I was interested in making; instrument I wished to play.
Many decades later, acoustic bass snuck in as a possible interest. 
If ever I had to play something other than trombone, I decided the upright bass would be it.
Fate delivered me to a place where I have been unable to find people to play my trombone with, but a bass would be enthusiastically welcomed.
I still enjoy playing my horns with my ‘band in a box’ – a couple hundred songs with sheet music for the lead parts and the rest of the parts recorded for my playalong pleasure.
But every Thursday finds me playing the bass in a jam session with a bunch of string pluckers on mandolins, guitars, fiddles, and sometimes a banjo, dobro and more.
I like the irony of these two jokes … that what my instrument selections are renowned for are direct opposites.
