MY ETD IS MADE BY SIEMENS:THANKS TO RON

[pianotune05]

Hi Diane,
I agree with you there Diane. That was a great post. I mean that.  This even 
opened my eyes toward the necessity to protect my hearing especially that 
I'm already vision impaired, to protect the very thing I focus on more ,my 
hearing.  Thanks  Diane.
Marshall
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DIANE HOFSTETTER" <dianepianotuner at msn.com>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 12:47 AM
Subject: MY ETD IS MADE BY SIEMENS:THANKS TO RON


>
> List friends,
>
> I have a lot of early Journals from the days when piano technicians called 
> each other "Brother Smith" , "Brother Farrell", "Brother McCloud", etc. 
> (Today we would have to add "Sister Hofstetter")
>
> I believe that "Brother Ron May, RPT" did a very brave and helpful thing 
> in posting about his hearing aids and the need to get our hearing checked. 
> (I would add, annually and at higher frequencies than the audiologists 
> usually check.)
>
> You have no idea of the number of piano techs I have met at conventions 
> who have problems with their hearing and feel that they have nowhere to 
> turn.  How do they admit to their customers, their competitors, their 
> families and themselves, that they are having trouble hearing?  One man 
> arrived to take his hearing test with his hearing aid firmly implanted in 
> his pocket.
>
> My father was terrified when he was trying to decide to buy his.  He asked 
> "What will people think, if I arrive at their homes to tune their pianos 
> wearing hearing aids?"  I asked him what they would think if he couldn't 
> hear to tune their pianos?
>
> He eventually did buy them, and told his customers he had "bionic 
> hearing", from the TV show, the Bionic Man.  He passed both "the old" and 
> "the new" tuning tests aurally, but used an Accutuner in his daily rounds.
>
> When he started teaching me to tune, he could hear the beats far better 
> than I could. (because of his hearing aids and because he knew what to 
> listen for--trained hearing will always outperform untrained).
>
> After he died, I used a goodly portion of my inheritance from him, going 
> to PTG conventions to get the word out that it is necessary to protect our 
> hearing.  I had seen first hand how cruelly people can treat those who are 
> hard of hearing.
>
> And we all are at some degree of risk.
>
> We owe Brother May a debt of gratitude for being brave enough to bring the 
> topic up in such personal terms.
>
> Diane
>
>