Thank you Roger Weisensteiner

[Carol R. Beigel]

Thank you Roger Weisensteiner, for  Kimball School.

Although this post is not very technical, I wanted to share my appreciation
of a project that was near and dear to Roger.   I don't know how many people
on this list remember Kimball School, but for some reason, all my memories
of it came flooding into my thoughts last night.  Kimball School was
elegant!

I attended in 1985.  I was one of  4 independent technicians sponsored by
Jordan Kitts Music.  Kitts sent a  PTG tech from Baltimore, Washington,
D.C., Northern Virginia, and Tidewater chapters - all expenses paid,
including the air fare. For several of us, this was the first time we had
been away from home since we were married, and became painfully aware that
our solo social skills hadn't been used since high school!

The week-long seminar was held in French Lick, Indiana.  Everyone flew into
Cincinnati on a Monday, and we were met by Kimball people, who drove us the
hour and a half into the woods in the middle of nowhere.  I had never seen a
15-passenger van, let alone ride in one.

The hotel was an elegant old resort.  There used to be a railroad line that
ran to the place, and some old  passenger and dining  cars were parked on
the grounds.  I had never seen a resort.  It had a spa and offered many
recreational activities like massage and skeet shooting - none of which, I
was to learn, we had time for, so I could only imagine what I was missing.
The hotel had a formal dining room, and the waiters wore starched jackets
and shirts with bow ties.  There was more china and silverware on the dining
table than I had ever seen in a department store, and had it not been for
the desperation of my parents in sending me to finishing school during one
summer in my youth, I might not have figured out how to eat.

We were lodged in private rooms; each equipped with two bathrooms - one on
each side of the room. This unusual floor plan went unnoticed at first until
we realized the hotel had been built on a very special location.
Apparently, the spring in the courtyard was once thought to have special
tonic effects.  People would come from far away places ( hence the railroad)
to drink the water (hence the toilets on each side of the bedroom).  I don't
think we ever did figure out the French Lick part, but by that time, we were
making sure that the only thing we drank in the evening came from the
bartender.  I had never had a drink in a bar before, so I had much to learn,
and very willing teachers.

Every morning the front desk would call to wake you up at 6:00 a.m.  If you
weren't at breakfast by 7:30, someone was sent to knock on your door and
make sure you were up.  Class started at 8:15 a.m. and the day was
programmed until after 9:00 p.m. each evening.  We had an hour free before
dinner so we could change clothes to be appropriately attired for dinner.
Some us discovered we didn't have the constitution for drinking consecutive
nights in the bar, so we hiked the golf course in the moonlight, and
explored those old railroad cars.  One night, though, I slipped back into
the conference room with all the pianos, and played every one of them.  I
was thankful that I had brought some music from home.  I played for hours,
late into the night on the Bosendorfers.  By Friday morning all of us were
fried!

We toured the piano factories at length.  What particularly struck me was
the respect the workers on the line had for us.  They were doing their jobs
with more skill and speed than I could ever hope to attain, yet they looked
up to us because they perceived  real piano technicians could do ALL the
jobs in the factory, not just one.  Since these folks lived in the middle of
no where, I asked them what they did for a living before Kimball built their
piano factories.  The answer was, "We cut wood".

The piano factory was in French Lick, but the furniture (cabinet) factory
was in Jasper.  In order to get us there, we were transported via local
school bus and driver after school let out.  I remember the Rathskeller we
ate dinner at, and those huge glasses of German beer.  And I also remember
there being no bathrooms between Jasper and French Lick, but that didn't
keep the driver from making a few stops that night!

Now, I realize that Roger probably had a different agenda in mind when he
set out to create an experience we all would remember.  Believe me, it was
the nth degree of its day.  We learned grand regulating, vertical
regulating, tuning and repair.  We learned things that I have never seen
presented elsewhere.  I am the technician I am today, in part, because of
the training that Kimball School provided me.  There was no other experience
like it.  Thank you, Roger, for a week I will never, ever, forget!

Carol Beigel, RPT