Allow me to begin today’s column with one of our favourite words in Free Press country and, especially, in Winnipeg: FREE!
I personally think it’s a wonderful word and want to share my enjoyment of it by offering Mustard On Everything! readers an opportunity to enjoy the word as much as I do, by offering you something completely free!
Y’see, this stunning Dominion Organ and Piano Company antique pump organ I got recently — for free — is something I want to pass along to one of you.
But there’s a catch: It can’t go to a private home.
These old pump organs are so beautifully designed and built from old growth lumber and, now, seemingly have little or no value.
So little, in fact, that I’ve actually rescued three of them — including one from the Killarney Dump.
See, back in Killarney five or six years ago, I was delivering a load of garbage to the dump, only to find both a beautifully quarter-sawn oak pump organ and a beautiful antique deep reddish wood piano, chucked from a truck into the middle of the trash heap, left to be bulldozed into eternal stinkdom.
The unsub had already left the scene of the crime. The organ was sitting on its base, having suffered very little damage.
The piano, unceremoniously pushed off on its face, was destroyed. It was a beautiful piano.
Now the good news, fellow pickers, is that you can still "shop" at the Killarney dump. I do it all the time. It’s stunning what some people throw out.
Although I couldn’t save the piano, I went and acquired the assistance of the fellow monitoring the comings and goings at the landfill and was more than happy to give him a crisp $20 bill to help me lift the pump organ onto my trailer.
When I found out how light it was, I wished I’d done it myself. Rats.
I took it back to Killarney, but a little later I brought it to Winnipeg and eventually advertised it and gave it away to a couple of thrilled, antique-loving chaps whose intent was to restore it. Excellent! Mission accomplished. I hated leaving the piano there, but I saved the panel that sits just above the pedals, so all was not lost.
Now here’s the deal with this other pump organ: It has leaky lungs, would need some work to play well, but is pure eye candy to look at.
So I’m offering it — for FREE — to some restaurant or store, music shop or museum, to use as part of their ambience so that zillions of people will get a chance to see and appreciate this incredible example of vintage craftsmanship.
It deserves to be seen, appreciated and enjoyed by people with an eye for beauty.
And no, Willy, you can’t put it in your garage — even though I admit, a lot of people would see it (and set their beer bottles on it). Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
So if you want the organ, just email me with your ideas of where you believe it belongs and a committee of experts — probably Willy and I — will decide where it should go.
It kills me that some people out there would stoop to sending something such as this, or any beautiful antique furniture, antique stoves, sewing machines, or other pieces of equipment, to the dump. Such a thing is unconscionable.
These items, if unwanted or perhaps not in shape to be used for their original purpose, can be re-purposed, preventing old world craftsmanship from being consigned to rot in a landfill.
We have to find a way for "diamonds" such as this to be restored or at least saved so the wood and components can be used by local craftspeople to create something new.
Sending beautiful old growth wood to the dump should be cause for public floggings — and I’ll gladly do the flogging, with an antique... uh... flogger.
So send me your ideas, folks: Where should this beautiful pump organ be on display?
Should it be used in some way as a stand or centrepiece? In an arts store, perhaps?
There are just so many possibilities. Not only is it free, I might even deliver it, also for free. It just doesn’t get any better.
Hop to it!
lmustard1948@gmail.com
