reflections (mushy)

[Farrell]

Brian, Carol, and all others with a heart: Some thoughts & info on piano
reflections & heartwarmers.
(You tough guys with no soft spot in your soul can/should simply delete this
post - it gets kinda mushy)

"Another time while replacing a bass bridge cap on an upright for a church,
I recruited the
ladies guild to clean and reglue the jacks on the wippens. They very
efficiently had a production
line going for removal, dusting, jack support removal/cleaning, reglueing
and reinstallation.

By the time I got the cap done and the strings back on, the action was done.
I liked that."

by Jon Page

"He played that piano every night after dinner all the years I was growing
up.  No one had
air conditioning in those days, and everyone in the neighborhood sat on
their front porches in the evenings listening to my Dad playing his piano.
The neighbors would purchase sheet music of the songs they wanted to hear,
and gave it to my father to learn.  All winter long, while the windows were
closed, he would practice these "requests" so he would be "ready" during the
summer when everyone could hear him practice."

by Carol Beigel

The above two partial posts are from my "Heartwarmers" subdirectory of
Pianotec posts.

On December 29, 1998, at the height of despair in my former career (broke,
no work, rotten clients), my wife gave me a book - "Notes of a Piano Tuner"
by Denele Pitts Campbell, RPT. Denele is a second generation technician in
rural Arkansas. It is a small book, 140 pages of heartwarming reflections
and short stories about the people and pianos she meet on her daily rounds.
I'm not much of a writer, so I find it difficult to summarize the book, but
I'm surprised the two above stories were not in it! IMHO, it is a must read
for anyone with an interest in the beauty of life - most certainly for a
heartwarmable piano technician!

I read the book that night (non-stop - could not put it down), thought
briefly about my former clients in my former life (yes, it was former from
that night on) - lawyers, bankers, developers, nasty owners of nasty-stinky
little machine shops and chemical factories - and decided right there and
then - "little old ladies and their spinets -trailer-residing old uprights -
here I come". Called Randy Potter the next day, told him to overnight his
course. Here I am! Fumbling about with pianos. BUT, much busier, much
happier, and my clients range from OK, to fabulous!

I guess my point to all this is: I love this stuff (and I just had to tell
ya'll - and make all were aware of the book). And be keenly aware of the
spiritual wonders of this profession and all the wonderful peripherals that
it has to offer.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Trout" <btrout@desupernet.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 8:59 AM
Subject: Re: reflections


> Hi Carol,
>
> Thanks for sharing a little slice of your life history with us.  I enjoyed
> reading it.
>
> I find the "real life" stuff the most interesting, even when it's not
highly
> technical, or even technical at all.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Brian Trout
> Quarryville, PA
> btrout@desupernet.net
>
>
>