<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16608" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Things found by myself in pianos include:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>a shiny new 1918 U.S. Quarter</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>an unfired .357 magnum round</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>live mice, with nest</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>pre-Civil War  dust, undisturbed</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>part of a mid-1860's German postcard, used to shim the pinblock</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>about an entire bushel of dead roaches, plus their "stuff" so encrusting the action that it was utterly unusable at that time ( I did manage to salvage it)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>regurgitated cream soda float</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>various snake skins</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>blood splatters from wounded Union soldiers</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>USED condoms</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>a large number of opportunities to do heroic pitch raises</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm still looking for the matching $140,000 in cash that was discovered inside an old upright by a tech up in Minnesota about 18 years ago.....</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Keeps one guessing, though!!!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robin Blankenship</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Matoaca, Virginia</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=custos3@comcast.net href="mailto:custos3@comcast.net">Israel Stein</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:47 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Treasures in pianos</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>At 06:28 AM 2/28/2008, Paul T. Williams wrote:<BR><BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite"><FONT size=2>The coolest things I found in a piano was a 1905 Canadian penny (big like a 50 cent piece and brass, I think) and a liberty dime.  pw</FONT> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Then there are the tear-jerkers. One time inside an old upright belonging to an elderly lady I found an old photograph of a beautiful young woman (obviously herself years ago) with a man who appeared to be a "significant other". Or perhaps the "love interest of the moment"? Who knows. But she became visibly emotional when she saw it... <BR><BR>Sometimes the tears (of frustration?) are mine.There's the Stieff grand that I couldn't get the action out of for a long time - it just wouldn't move. I don't remember how I finally got it out - but it turned out that someone dropped a bunch of saltwater taffy into the keybed (in the treble, where there is a space between the strings and the rim). It melted and glued the keyframe to the keybed... Took a long time to scrape it all off..  <BR><BR>Israel Stein <BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>