Energizing music with a lively rhythm can enhance motivation and productivity, making tasks feel more enjoyable and manageable.

An Accordion Story by HMC Ambassador Angelo Paul Ramunni

The Long Way Home…. February 7, 2026
Having the position of being a museum curator and collector of accordions for the last 17 years, has connected me with numerous folks who have taken interesting paths in their pursuit of music and life. I try to pass these stories along to all of you in the hope that they will be a benefit to you and serve as a guide and reference point for success in your own musical journey. The following story is a serious one, but it has, I think, a happy ending.
I met Ted while in Catholic grammar school. He was a couple of years younger than me, but we had something in common…the accordion. We were taking lessons from the same teacher and even played for our classes and the nuns at school. We stayed in touch over the years with Ted moving on to playing the guitar and soon thereafter he found his true love in a set of drums. He was very good with those drums, so good that he found himself on stage with a band at Woodstock in 1969. They played for the crowd between the big-name singers and rock bands.
I lost touch with Ted somewhere along the way, but he suddenly surfaced some years ago when I started our accordion museum. His story, I’m afraid, is all too common. He bought into the 60’s hard rock lifestyle 100%. As he would say, “I did it all, from the early days in the1950’s of booze, butts and broads, into the 1960’s and beyond when we did whatever we wanted and whenever the urge hit us.”
But more recently, I was surprised to hear that he was back to playing his original accordion. And he also told me that he came back to his faith. Jesus Christ was now in his life. He had been with quite a few women over the years and never settled down with anyone in particular. But he told me about someone he had stayed with for a while and then very suddenly, she left him. He happened to meet her again sometime later. To his great shock and regret, she told him that she left him to have an abortion and that it was most probably his child. That stunned and hurt Ted enormously, and he fell into a time of deep depression.
He credits the accordion music as it was a great help to him in coming out of his depression. It not only brought him back to a more sensible and simpler time in his life, but he felt that the songs and the music itself had a palpable effect on his recovery. By making music again, he also noted that the process of recovery rested, to a certain extent, literally in his own hands. However, it was his desire to someday see his child that brought him to his knees before God.
Ted’s gone now. But he sent me a few short messages before he passed, and he referenced Matthew chapter 25 in the Bible. He felt strongly that this piece of Scripture is the true roadmap for getting home. I think he was right, and I would like to think he made it home.
If you look at the actual words of Christ in Matthew chapter 25, you’ll see that it is Jesus’ final teaching to us before His death and resurrection. He is preparing His disciples for the long stretch of history before His return.
The more I talk to people like Ted about their experiences with the accordion, the more I believe there is something extremely unusual, beneficial and other worldly about its sound.
Walter S Landor, the English poet, once wrote: “Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.”
It may have been the long way home, but I’m very certain Ted made it.
Paul Ramunni
New England Accordion Connection & Museum Co.
NEACMC.com
860-833-1374

https://www.facebook.com/paul.ramunni.1

HAPPY MUSIC FOR A LONG HAPPY LIVE!

A World War II veteran and musician from Massachusetts recently celebrated his 100th birthday by hosting a concert for his family and friends.

“Music is in everyone and everything,” Roger Wonson, a drummer, saxophone player and retired engineer who lives in Beverly, told Fox News Digital. “I think I would’ve been a completely different person if I’d never been into music,” he said. “It taught me how to listen and, in some ways, even how to feel.” Wonson said music has not only been a big part of his life, but his family’s lives as well. “It’s funny because when I was five years old — in the 1920s — I was given a player saxophone,” Wonson said.

People in the community noticed the five-year-old sax player — and his musical career took off, Wonson said. “They named me the ‘Rudy Vallée Junior,’” Wonson said. “Here I was five years old, cranking this thing and playing chords and the melody, and people got a big laugh about it. Then, I looked down into the orchestra pit and I saw a real saxophone. And I’ll never forget that. I said, ‘That is something.’”

Wonson said he took to the drums a few years later when his older brother left behind a drum set after moving away from home.

He recalled listening to all sorts of big band music on a Victrola while sitting in the attic of his childhood home in Essex, Massachusetts. Wonson said he remembers his home phone number was 37. “When I was in the service and I would call home, I would call Essex, Massachusetts 37,” he said with a laugh. “The operator would say, ‘Well, the Wonsons are not there today.’ … It was really a personal operator in those days.”

Wonson was studying engineering at Northeastern University when World War II broke out. “It got around that if you wanted to do what you wanted in the service, you better enlist because if you get drafted, they put you wherever the draft is needed,” Wonson said. “So I enlisted in the Army Air Force, told them I was interested in communications, and that’s exactly where they sent me.”

After basic training, Wonson was sent to the University of Wisconsin for electronics training. “We had professors that were helping us, and I was teaching basic electric electronics,” Wonson said. “I guess they liked what I was doing because I was called before a board, and they sent me to Yale. So, I got my commission out of Yale.” Wonson served as a communications officer but did not go overseas.

After the war, Wonson took advantage of the GI Bill and enrolled in the Capital Radio Engineering Institute (now Capitol Technology University) in Washington D.C. He was hired as an associate engineer at Raytheon and spent 40 years at the company, retiring as a senior engineering specialist. “I had a wonderful career,” he said. “Raytheon was the first company to produce the transistor. It was invented by Bell Labs, and I worked all through that. There were unbelievable changes in my time. The digital revolution is astounding in every discipline. I loved every minute of it.”

While in D.C., Wonson met Mary Sue Littlejohn. They had three daughters and were married for 74 years until she died of complications with COVID-19, Wonson said. Throughout Wonson’s highly technical career, music continued to play a role — and when he retired, he played the saxophone and the drums in an 18-piece swing band for about 25 years. His band played in various venues, including retirement homes such as the one where he lives today. “It is such a win-win when you are playing and the people are smiling and join with the music, whether it’s a big or a small gig,” Wonson said.

Michelle Boudreau, program director at The Current Beverly, where Wonson resides, said his musical presence is a gift to the community. Boudreau plays guitar and the two have been making music together regularly. “Roger is a very positive and upbeat person. We had an immediate connection and I love playing with him,” Boudreaux said, adding that Wonson’s music inspires other residents. Wonson told Fox News Digital that some of his secrets to longevity are taking care of the immune system by reducing stress.

He added that he and his wife made a commitment never to go to bed angry because he didn’t want to make her a “musician’s widow” — and that the world needs more empathy. “When you’re talking with someone, you’ve got to listen,” he said. “Also, be careful what you say because you can never take it back,” he said. In honor of his near-century of musicianship, the Avedis Zildjian Company, which specializes in musical instruments, presented a commemorative Zildjian cymbal to Wonson, who had been using one on his drum kit for more than 50 years. “Clearly, Roger is a connector through his love and passion for music, and we’re so grateful to be a small part of his 100-year journey,” said Craigie Zildjian, executive chair of Avedis Zildjian. 

Wonson said music is part of everyone’s lives — and it triggers memories, even if it isn’t realized. “You step outside and even the birds and the trees make music … All I can say is, it’s important for everyone, whether they think so or not,” he said.

Article and photos credited to Fox News Digital