Playing It by Ear

By Rich Shea

The "lawn mower story" is something Diane Downs half-jokingly asks her students not to repeat to grown-ups because, she says, "it might get me fired." But during a three-day period in mid-May, the music teacher at Norton Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky, told the story twice: first to a 5th grade class; then, two days later, to the Louisville Leopard Percussionists—the nonprofit, community-based music ensemble she runs, along with a board of parent volunteers, out of the University of Louisville. The first time, she told the "long" version, a 10-minute account of an incident that occurred when she was a kid. But the second time, Downs kept the story short, seeing as the 45 or so 7- to 12-year-olds gathered round her were due to perform for a crowd of 300 just as soon as two of the group’s veterans—known as "Dino" and "Snake"—showed up.

All the kids from her rural Louisville neighborhood were out that day, she recalled, preparing their friend Keith for a ride in a bucket down a mudslide and into a creek. Suddenly, Mr. C, who’d been cutting his lawn just after a rainstorm, reached under the mower to unclog it. "Can you imagine what happened?" asked the 41-year-old Downs. " Whack - whack - whack —three fingers shooting out in the yard."

While neighbors whisked Mr. C inside to prepare him for a trip to the hospital, Anne Downs, Diane’s mother and a registered nurse, told the barefoot kids to scour his lawn. The first finger was found by Diane’s older brother, Paul, now 42 and a longtime Leopards supporter, who was standing backstage, verifying the story’s authenticity. Another was found by Becky, the neighborhood priss, who refused to pick it up. So Diane did, begrudgingly giving Becky credit for finding it. But the last finger, still missing as Mr. C was driven to...