Your clarinet story hit me close to home. When I was a freshman in high school I thought I wanted to play the clarinet so my father signed up for purchasing one at $10 a month. I never was good at picking up playing the clarinet and wound up as the band manager until I graduated. Many years after I graduated my father asked me whatever happened to the clarinet. My older brother had this sheepish grin on his face but said nothing. Many, many years after that I got my brother to admit that he had taken the clarinet and hocked it during a 'not-so-good' time in his life.

P.S. What do you mean by your first sentence comment? Did you play in the tournament?