the kid was me lol

[Don Rose]

Hi Les:

The kid was me! And the piano was a Henry Herbert blonde oak 40" console. I
eventually became a piano tuner and the dip was 1/4 rather than 3/8.

At 10:16 PM 3/24/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Greetings, all!
>
>It probably comes as no surprise that I have a short, true story to tell
>for the benefit off all who offer a vacuuming of the interior of the piano
>as part of a normal service call. The story came to me from an adult who
>was recollecting a personal experience from his youth. Here goes.
>
>When "Jim" was about eight years old and taking piano lessons, his mother
>always had the piano tuned by the same gentleman, apparently because every
>time he tuned the instrument, it took it apart and vacuumed it thoroughly.
>By thoroughly, Jim said, that on their old upright, the tuner would re-
>move the front , the fall board, AND ALL THE KEYS and then proceed to
>vacuum out the dirt under the keys. All this technical stuff apparently
>really impressed Jim's mother. Anyway, one day after removing the keys,
>and having just started to vacuum out the dirt, the tuner had to use the
>bathroom. As he left to use the facilities, he handed Jim the vacuum and
>asked him to finish up. Jim was determined to do a good job, so, as he
>relates it, he vacuumed up not only all the dirt, but all the felt and
>paper washers around the key pins as well. When the tuner came back and
>saw what jim had done he slapped him across the face and took care of the
>situation as follows: He put all the keys back into the piano, without re-
>placing a single one of missing regulating felt/paper washers, somehow
>managed to tune the piano in record time, took his tuning fee and left.
>Jim said that in response to subsequent phone calls, the tuner refused
>to ever return again. The moral of the story is WATCH OUT FOR LITTLE KIDS!
>
>Les Smith
>lessmith@buffnet.net
Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.
"Tuner for the Centre of the Arts"
drose@dlcwest.com
3004 Grant Rd.
REGINA, SK
S4S 5G7
306-352-3620 or 1-888-29t-uner