Lunchtime entertainment: Endicott janitor Doug Carlsen plays trumpet for students

Doug Carlsen, who is employed as the Endicott school janitor, plays his trumpet Jan. 14 for some Endicott students during their lunch. Carlsen plays for the students every Thursday, in his church band and plays the national anthem for Endicott home games.

Amidst the sounds of silverware clanging against plates and chattering youngsters during the Endicott Elementary School lunch, a musical note or two can be heard coming from the corner as the school janitor plays his trumpet.

Every Thursday, Doug Carlsen comes to the school before the start of his regular shift, which begins at 1:30 p.m., to play music for the kids during lunch.

The students go about business as usual as Carlsen plays, opening their home-made lunches or chowing down on the food the school provides, occasionally stopping to clap or pretend to be conducting Carlsen.

“Air conducting, that one is always fun!” Carlsen commented.

Carlsen said that entertaining the students with his trumpet at lunchtime originally started with the preschool students, who, at that time, ate lunch in their classroom. He would join them in their room and provide the music.

“It was funny because I would be teaching them old songs and they would be trying to teach me new songs from the Little Mermaid and all this other stuff,” he said. “I don't know any of those. So we're teaching each other, and it's very cool.”

When the preschoolers moved to the cafeteria for their lunch, Carlsen moved his location, too, and added a second lunch period.

Carlsen said he played the trumpet in high school and then “set it down for 25 or 30 years.”

“I set it down for so long,” he said. “When I started going to church, I started playing in the church band, so I started picking it up.”

He attends the Pullman Foursquare Church and said he enjoys playing in the band there.

“Those guys are so cool, and they are great musicians and they are really patient,” Carlsen said. “So they worked me in, now I practice so I can play stuff at my church.”

In addition to playing at his church and during the school lunch period, he also performs the national anthem at all Endicott home games.

“I just started doing the national anthem for them since I was here, and no one played the national anthem for them for basketball games and stuff,” he said.

Carlsen said when he found out that the national anthem was not played during the ESJ Middle School Wildcats' games, he felt it was needed and he stepped up.

“I said, 'what do you mean nobody's playing the national anthem?' It's like no way man, I'll do that if you let me. And they let me,” he said.

The home games, church and the lunch hour give Carlsen plenty of time to practice and play, he said.

“I've got gigs!” he said laughing. “I've got people!”

Carlsen said it is fun for him to play for the kids, and he enjoys the interactions he has with them. Last Thursday as he played, the students at times made sure to applause his performance. He said the clapping is fun, but he also wants to teach the students about “high-class dining.”

“I have got to teach them like, 'hey, when you go to a high-class restaurant, you don't clap. You just keep eating',” he said. “It is part of your dining experience.”

Some students make requests of him.

“Do you know how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb?” one girl asked him as the lunch period was coming to an end.

He obliged and then added some advice for her to play the tune.

“Start on any note and keeping playing it,” he told her. “You'll see. Then you'll know Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

For the most part, Carlsen sticks to older songs. He played the Bonanza theme song for the students last week.

“I bet not one of them knows that is Bonanza,” a teacher told him.

He also played the Lost in Space theme song.

“I'm doing the theme songs from a bunch of old movies I grew up watching,” he said. “It's kind of cool because I can play whatever I want. I never get any complaints. They don't know a lot of them.”

As he plays, he said he tends to watch the students to see if he can decipher their mood.

“I have got to watch it because sometimes if they're like antsy I can't play real jumpy stuff, so I have to kind of mellow it out a little bit,” he said. “I've got to watch my crowd.”

This was evidenced when he played an upbeat tune that got some of the students to conduct along and start jumping up and down in their seats.

“It's great having an enthusiastic audience,” he noted.

The fast-paced, upbeat tune was William Tell Overture.

“These kids don't have to go to the Spokane Symphony to hear the William Tell Overture” he said.

Carlsen said it is a privilege to play for the students and provide them with music they might not otherwise hear.

“Music comes from CDs and it is on videos and whatever and all that kind of stuff,” he said, “but it's the people that make it. That's the deal.”

He also said he hopes to inspire the students.

“I just think this is just the thing to take something to amaze them or fascinate them,” he said. “They have all got gifts, and some of them don't even know what they are. Hey, if they can see an old guy do it once a week, maybe they'll think they can do it anytime.”