Jason, thanks for the wonderful memorium. You knew the same Sheldon Smith as I. Unfortunately, I knew him for less time, and only for moments in time. However, for one item you mentioned, I can share a memory... Many moons ago, George Defebaugh and I co-chaired the Southern California PTG convention, held that year at the Hollywood Universal Sheridan hotel. Being the senior and better known person, we (or was it he) agreed that George would do the political stuff (smiling and handshaking), and I would do the grunt work. Part of that grunting job was commuting to the hotel early each morning (I lived nearby at that time), to set up rooms, signs and props. The first morning of classes, I arrived at 6:00am. The lobby was totally deserted, except for the desk clerk, myself, and one other person... Sheldon. He appeared already dressed for the day (Bay area style or Sheldon style -- don't know which), and was slowly pacing back and forth in the lobby, with a facial expression that reflected deep thoughts. I felt guilty by greeting him and obviously upsetting those thoughts, but it would have been equally inappropriate to ignore him. I apologized for the interruption. He smiled and waved it off, then explained that he was mentally preparing for his upcoming class. I suppose the pacing was just part of the process, since I do the exact same thing. Well, except for the 6:00am thing! Thanks again for the heart-felt post. Jim Harvey, RPT At 12:19 PM 10/8/99 -0700, you wrote: [cut] >... Sheldon loved his work, loved it so >much that he would come into the shop between 5 and 6 am, work on his >rebuilding (usually 3 or 4 grands in process at any given time), then go out >at about 9 and tune 6 pianos a day, then return to the shop and do some more >rebuilding work! And he told me "I love this so much that I would pay people >to let me tune their pianos." [cut]
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