Can we ever retire?

[Newton Hunt]

Hi Wally,

> "Old piano tuners don't die - they just go beatless!"

Old piano tuners don't die - they just lose their temperament.  I can
attest to that.

We are independent, don't know when to quit, have to have something to
do, keeps our brains from ossifying (didn't work on me), and we are
one of the most underpaid of the crafts.

By grateful you still can and want to.

I cannot.

Another question may be, "Do you want to retire?"

	Newton

Wallace Scherer wrote:
> 
> Dear fellow piano technicians,
> 
> I saw the following note in a recent post from Dick Beaton, and don't know
> if I should react positively or negatively.
> 
> "I'm 82 yrs old now and don't usually do more than one tuning a day."
> 
> On the positive side, I'm glad that piano tuning is an occupation that a
> person with reasonably good health and hearing can continue well past the
> normal "retirement years".
> 
> On the negative side, I'm not sure if this is a clue that piano technicians
> geneally are not able to take a "normal retirement".
> 
> The 1997 PTG survey shows that 17.8% of members responding were over 65
> years of age. Of them, quite a few still put in 20, 30, and even 40 hours
> per week at piano related activities.
> 
> Maybe the question should be, "Would we ever WANT to retire?" Is this an
> occupation that only gets more and more enjoyable the older we get, or is
> it simply one in which the majority of us can never earn enough money to
> afford a comfortable retirement?
> 
> One question that we might want to ask on a future survey:
> "What percent of your total household annual income is from your present
> piano related activities?"
> 
> Wally Scherer, Piano Technician, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
> Associate member of the PTG, Hampton Roads, Va. chapter
> mailto:WallyTS@iName.com
> Web page: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2411
> "Old piano tuners don't die - they just go beatless!"
> 
>