Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Rescuing beautiful old growth wood pianos, pump organs, and even vintage wood furniture to keep these pieces of history from ending up in the dump has became a passion of mine.
However, I see myself as more of a middle person in this quest, and so far, it hasn’t quite turned out that way.
But I still think it’s the right thing to do. I just have to find a way to move these treasures along a little more efficiently. Presently, I have an electric organ downstairs, three pianos and four pump organs upstairs, two more pump organs and three more pianos in the garage, and a dead electric organ out in the shed.
Two of the gorgeous old upright garage pianos would have been adopted by now, except when a piano tuner/mover came to check them out for an interested party, they were found to be beyond tuning. Darn.
Luckily a third old upright was good, so away it went.
Don’t worry about the other two. No matter what, they aren’t going to the dump.
Hey, I’m doing my part. I am keeping the electric organ downstairs, three of the pump organs upstairs, plus a Heintzman upright grand, and a Heintzman upright grand player piano.
Why? I just need them. Pardon? Do I play? A little. Some. Sort of.
And no, this is not hoarding.
A good friend of mine, an aficionado of all things vintage/antique, describes me as a cultural anthropologist. What is that? I didn’t know either, so I looked it up.
According to the Dartmouth Department of Anthropology, the aim of cultural anthropology is to document the full range of human cultural adaptations and achievements and to discern in this great diversity the underlying covariations among and changes in human ecology, institutions and ideologies.
That pretty much describes me and is much classier than hoarder, pack rat or junk collector.
Feel free to apply that label to your own situation. However, if you’re not doing the documenting part, as I am with today’s column (see what I did there), then the use of said label falls into a slightly different context than intended. To whit, when my old media buddies Jack Wells and Donn Kirton were working together at some radio station pre their CJOB days (I’m remembering CKY), they would occasionally, because of their on-air shenanigans, be called in to have a chat with the boss.
I believe it was Donn who told me just before entering his office, they’d pause outside the door, give each other a grin and say, "Remember, bullshit baffles brains." Worked every time.
Good to know. Now, back to my cultural anthropology.
I’ll find homes and purposes for these rescues, but somehow, whatever it takes, there has to be a system of sorts put in place to keep a lot more of the historical remnants of human culture from simply being discarded as if it were garbage.
I’m wondering how many seniors’ complexes, not personal care level, have a communal shop built where all residents can go to work on hobby interests, with all the tools etc. needed to do so, because these old pianos and other wood relics would make excellent repurposing projects.
Couldn’t some of the old pianos and so on be dismantled and the wood dispersed to the wood shops programs in schools? Would be great to see our youth working with this incredible old wood.
The thought of this old gold being flattened at the dump just kills me.
So I’ll keep rescuing. I just need some friends or even complete strangers with room to foster this kind of treasure temporarily to step up with a little storage now and again. And to those who do, just remember I love you, so, SO much. Big virtual hug.
Send pictures of your space.
Comments or feedback always welcome.
lmustard1948@gmail.com
