tumbling piano

[Tcoates@aol.com]

I remember the South Dakota tumbling piano.  I worked at the shop that did
the repairs.  To set the record straight it was Yankton College, not a high
school, located in Yankton, SD (Tom Brokaw's hometown).   Yankton College
closed a few years later and is now a federal minimum security prison.  Maybe
the piano incident was a foreshadowing of events to come.

Tim Coates
University of South Dakota

<Dave,
 Chuck Schuitt of Sioux City once told me a similar story about a
high school in South Dakota.  He was called out to do an estimate one
day on a Steinway D for insurance purposes.  When he showed up at the
high school, he found that someone had rolled the S&S D off the stage
out into the pit.  His estimate was high including a complete rebuild.
But the story had a happy ending.
 It turned out that the music dept. and the athletic dept. had not
been getting along very well for some time.  Several "football stars" (if
there is such a thing) had broken in and did the damage.  They found this
out during the investigation.  Several football players were permanently
expelled, put up on criminal charges and insurance had to pay for the
rebuild.  The music dept. had been budgeting a rebuild for several years
and could never get it approved on capital outlay.  They ended up with a
free rebuild and the troublemakers were gone.>