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FROM MUSICIAN TO REALT0R |
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FROM MUSICIAN TO REALT0R |
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Red Main Ramblers music samples About Marti Henry My German House
Entrance steps
Entry door |
In 1977 Marti Henry
was an aspiring bass trombone player who had Summers, for several years, found him in Fish Creek, Door County, Wisconsin playing in a jazz band that he named "The Great Lakes Rhythm Kings" and enjoying sailing with his friends on the blue waters of Green Bay. The need for income and the desire to play his trombone led him to auditions at far flung locations that included Nova Scotia, Chicago, Minneapolis, and overseas to Germany. It was in Hof, Germany that he was offered a position with the Hofer Symphoniker--The Hof Symphony Orchestra. With only some German that he came by during classes at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and with some reservations, he accepted the position in Hof. With the aid of German grade school books, he began learning the German language. In a matter of time, he was, to quote him, speaking "broken German" fluently. In due time, he was able to head the player's committee and make presentations to the orchestra management.
When Marti moved to Germany in 1981 he later had his MG shipped there. In recent years he completely restored it to the condition shown in the photo above. Now that he has moved to Colorado, he has had the car shipped to his new location in Lakewood. In March 1993 Marti started construction of the house shown below and at left. Marti and his father, an architect from Iowa, designed the house. He served as the contractor and relied on help from friends, local craftsmen and subcontractors. His parents worked along side him for two most enjoyable months in the summer of 1993 and again for several weeks in 1994. His mother pre-stained all of the wood siding before it was installed.
Now, after a quarter
of a century playing in the Hof Symphony for a living and playing in the
Red Main Ramblers jazz band for fun, Marti has resigned and is now a real
estate broker in Colorado.
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Picture
that a wall separated East and West Germany when this musician appeared in
Hof. He often ventured a few kilometers to a spot near the wall that, in
this area, was a fence with remotely controlled machine guns mounted atop
concrete posts. He reassured his parents that "The East Germans don't
shoot trombone players!" When the wall came down in the late 1980's there
was a flood of people who came to Hof to shop for the items that were not
available to them. They came in hoards and emptied the shelves in the
stores. Their transportation was small "Trabbie" autos that burned gas
mixed with oil. There was so much air pollution that the officials
banned them from driving in the city. Marti said it was like a lawn mower
convention.
