A picture is worth a thousand words, or a surprise drum set gift in this Montana town

BOZEMAN, Mont. — I heard the drums before I saw them. The snare’s upbeats punctuated the summer swelter of Livingston, Montana. A hi-hat filled the spaces in between, and an upturned five-gallon bucket provided the deep thud I recognized from street drummers in cities across the country.

It was a sunny day in late August, and I was just on time for another assignment, but decided to follow my ears and find the source of the beat. I found a twelve-year-old boy, set up under a shade tree on Main St. He had long blonde hair flowing from under a flat brimmed baseball cap. A friend was practicing skateboarding tricks nearby, bored from summer break. The young drummer had a handwritten sign that read “Saving for New Drumset” propped against a box where a few dollar bills had been left by passersby. As I snapped some photos, I remembered my own twelve-year-old self, collecting scraps of metal, wood, and plastic and arranging them in some maximalist impression of a drum set.

Mary Gaworski shows a video of one of the last times her late husband, Clancy, could play his drums on her phone on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

My newspaper, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, printed my photo of Finn Johnson busking, the soft spot in my heart thus sated. I filed it away in my mind as a successful “feature hunt,” a staple of my job as a community newspaper photographer in Bozeman, just over the pass from Livingston — an artistic railroad town where the plains of eastern Montana become the mountains of the west, and a popular stop for tourists visiting Yellowstone National Park.

The next day, Bozeman residents Mary and Clancy Gaworski were reading their copy of the Chronicle and saw the photograph of Finn. Clancy was a drummer in his youth, infamous among friends for denting their dashboards in fits of rhythm. Now 74, and unable to devote the same energy to his drum set, Clancy decided that Finn should have it. 

Mary Gaworski and her daughter, Cindy Soriano, pose in Gaworski’s back yard in Bozeman on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Gaworski and her late husband were determined to donate a drum set to a young musician they saw a photo of in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle busking to purchase new drums. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

And, so began the slow process of connecting in the age of COVID. Cindy, the couple’s daughter, tracked down Finn’s mother through mutual acquaintances. 

Clancy, unfortunately, would never get to hear the boy from the newspaper play his drums. He passed away on Halloween, and giving the drumset to Finn took on an extra urgency for Mary. Now when she passed the room with the drumset, she would break down in tears. Clancy used to play drums while Mary matched his pace on the treadmill. When he picked up the tempo, Mary would protest. “What’re you doing?” she’d say, “you’re going to kill me!”

Clancy was a dedicated worker throughout his life, leaving his mark around town as a foreman for a construction company. Among his projects, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle building from where I write today. He warmed immediately to anyone working to earn their way in the world, and was equally dismissive of people he saw as trying to take the easy way out.

“He saw that picture in the paper and said, ‘You know what, if this young man is trying to earn the money to buy his own, I want him to have mine,’” Mary told me. In Finn, Clancy saw a kindred spirit.

Mary Gaworski sits behind her late husband, Clancy’s, drum set on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Before he passed away, Clancy and Mary were determined to donate his drums to a young musician they saw photographed in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle busking in Livingston for a new drum set. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

From a young age, music has been the focus of Finn’s life. This wasn’t his first time being photographed for a newspaper, having been featured playing a hand drum at the age of four, his tongue sticking out in concentration. His mother, Lesa Maher, says he would get scolded in school for drumming with his palms and fists in class. “For the mom of a 13 year old boy,” she gushes, “it’s really nice to have something that so feeds him. It’s just so nice.”

Cindy Soriano, left, her husband, Jesus Soriano, and her mother, Cindy Gaworski try to put together Cindy’s late husband’s drum set in biting wind in the front yard of Finn Johnson’s house in Livingston, Mont. on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. The family wanted the drums to be a surprise for Finn when he got home from school. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

After several false starts, Mary and Cindy were finally able to deliver Clancy’s drums on the third day of 2022. They drove over the pass in a windstorm fierce enough that the highway would temporarily close to traffic behind them. While Finn was finishing school for the day, Mary and Cindy set out the drums in his front yard and put a red bow on the kick drum.

Finn Johnson, 12, plays a beat on a floor tom as Jesus Soriano, Cindy Soriano, Mary Gaworski, and Finn’s mother, Lesa Maher, watch in Johnson and Maher’s yard in Livingston on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. The drum set was donated by Mary, her husband Clancy, and Cindy after they saw a photo of Finn busking for money to buy a new drums in the Daily Chronicle. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

Finn arrived at the house, face glued to the passenger seat window of his mother’s car, wondering who the heck all these people in his front yard were. Nobody told him he was getting a drum set. Important introductions made, Finn grabbed a pair of sticks and played an enthusiastic beat on the floor tom. Mary was delighted.

Finn Johnson excitedly carries drums up to his room in Livingston on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. Johnson was photographed in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle this past summer busking for a new drum set, when Mary Gaworski took note and offered to give her late husband’s drum set to the young drummer. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)
Finn Johnson and Mary Gaworski hug in Johnson’s living room in Livingston on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. Gaworski donated her late husband’s drum set to Johnson after seeing a photo of him in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle busking in downtown Livingston to buy a new drum set. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

After visiting for a half hour, Mary and Cindy left Finn to the drums. He rushed them, piece by piece, up the narrow stairs to his bedroom, past walls covered in posters he drew of his favorite bands. I offered to help carry the heavy kick drum.

Finn Johnson plays a drum set in his room in Livingston on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. The set is a combination of drums he had previously acquired, along with a full kit donated by a Bozeman family who saw a photo of him in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle this summer busking to fund a new drum set. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

“So,” he asked, “are you the one who took the picture of me?” I told him I was. “Thanks for putting me in the news. I certainly didn’t think it would lead to this.”

“Me neither,” I said.

Finn Johnson sits behind his drum set in his room in Livingston on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. Johnson was photographed in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle this summer busking in downtown Livingston to fund a new drum set when a Bozeman family noticed and offered to donate their drums. (Photo by Sam Wilson/Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

—-

Samuel Wilson, a visual journalist, is a Report for America corps member at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *