Can we ever retire?

[Elian Degen]

Hi, Newton and List

I am almost reaching the age, Speaking for myself if I had the money I would
have retired at the age of 20. Now, my father is a piano tuner, he did rise
enough money for his old age, has a small pension,  so he could have retired
when he was 45, but no, he kept working until 75 when he developed arthritis
and ear problems.

Last week he had his 90th birthday, after already two occasions when we were
sure he was gone.
He still keeps working, he cannot tune any more, but every time I have to
repair an action he asks me to let him work on it... So you could say he
still works.

Elian Degen
Piano Tuner and Technician
Caracas, Venezuela  degen@telcel.net.ve




-----Mensaje original-----
De: Newton Hunt <nhunt@jagat.com>
Para: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Fecha: Domingo, 14 de Marzo de 1999 09:14 a.m.
Asunto: Re: Can we ever retire?


>Hi Wally,
>
>> "Old piano tuners don't die - they just go beatless!"
>
>Old piano tuners don't die - they just lose their temperament.  I can
>attest to that.
>
>We are independent, don't know when to quit, have to have something to
>do, keeps our brains from ossifying (didn't work on me), and we are
>one of the most underpaid of the crafts.
>
>By grateful you still can and want to.
>
>I cannot.
>
>Another question may be, "Do you want to retire?"
>
> Newton
>
>Wallace Scherer wrote:
>>
>> Dear fellow piano technicians,
>>
>> I saw the following note in a recent post from Dick Beaton, and don't
know
>> if I should react positively or negatively.
>>
>> "I'm 82 yrs old now and don't usually do more than one tuning a day."
>>
>> On the positive side, I'm glad that piano tuning is an occupation that a
>> person with reasonably good health and hearing can continue well past the
>> normal "retirement years".
>>
>> On the negative side, I'm not sure if this is a clue that piano
technicians
>> geneally are not able to take a "normal retirement".
>>
>> The 1997 PTG survey shows that 17.8% of members responding were over 65
>> years of age. Of them, quite a few still put in 20, 30, and even 40 hours
>> per week at piano related activities.
>>
>> Maybe the question should be, "Would we ever WANT to retire?" Is this an
>> occupation that only gets more and more enjoyable the older we get, or is
>> it simply one in which the majority of us can never earn enough money to
>> afford a comfortable retirement?
>>
>> One question that we might want to ask on a future survey:
>> "What percent of your total household annual income is from your present
>> piano related activities?"
>>
>> Wally Scherer, Piano Technician, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
>> Associate member of the PTG, Hampton Roads, Va. chapter
>> mailto:WallyTS@iName.com
>> Web page: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2411
>> "Old piano tuners don't die - they just go beatless!"
>>
>>