What if I had won the mouthpiece contest in 4th grade?

In 1973, at the beginning of the year, my fourth grade elementary school teacher announced that any children wishing to join the band and take music lessons could meet in the gym. I didn't have an instrument, but the school had one loaner trumpet. The other kid in my class who was interested in playing trumpet and I both competed for the loaner instrument by blowing through a mouthpiece and making it hum like a kazoo. Unfortunately for me, (Doctor William) Neal Woolworth was the better kazoo player, and he earned the loaner horn. Before school started for the 6th grade, my parents bought me a Conn Director for $100 at a yard sale (serious money in those days for us), and I began taking lessons in 1976. By that time, Neal Woolworth was already a trumpet wizard, and was playing a beautiful gold Bach Mercedes II and playing solos like "My Regards" by Llewellyn. That horn was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen at that point, until we went to junior high school, and Neal got his first silver Stradivarius. In those days, a Strad at Schmidt's Music Store in Sioux City, Iowa was about $900 retail, which seemed an absolute fortune to a kid like me. The only horn playing I did after high school consisted of playing bugle at over 200 military funerals, mostly retirees, as a volunteer member of various honor guards with the United States Air Force during my 22 years of service as a Hebrew Linguist. One of my other passions as a kid was coin collecting, which I took up with gusto when I lived in the UK back in 1993. I started selling rare coins, and eventually Beanie Babies. One fine day, my friend SSgt Rich Harrington came to me with a problem. He didn't have an anniversary gift for his wife for the following day. He asked me if I had any Britannia Beanie Bears, and I did (I was buying them for 10 pounds sterling each to all of the Hallmark Store owners in the UK I was bribing with cartons of cigarettes and bottles of gin from the BX). He said "You remember that I still have my old Bach Stradivarius?" "Yep" I replied. "Would you trade me a Britannia Bear and $100 for my Strad?" I gasped and said "Are you SURE you want to do that?" Affirmative -- "Sold!" I yelped. Up until a few months ago, I was employed by the world's largest Rare Coin company here in Dallas, until over 150 of us were laid off. Now, I'm dealing coins over the internet, and have a lot of spare time on my hands in between eBay auctions. I pulled out that Strad the other day and polished it like new. I'm currently in the process of getting my lip back, practicing a couple of hours a day. Baby steps.
Very respectfully,
David M Lewis