Goods in Leu of payment

[Robin Stevens]

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 One of my memorable payments for a tuning was for tuning a Player piano.=
 =0D
=0D
When I finished the old man said to me..."I can't pay you"...But, I can g=
ive
you a First World War .303 rifle and a violin!!=0D
=0D
It suited me fine, as I was into target shooting in my younger days. The
rifle had a good quality target shooting scope. It even had "Mother"
engraved on the butt.=0D
As for the violin...I have never used it.=0D
=0D
Robin Stevens=0D
 =0D
-------Original Message-------=0D
 =0D
From: Pianotech=0D
Date: 07/05/05 16:52:22=0D
To: tune4u@earthlink.net; Pianotech=0D
Subject: Re: Sweet!=0D
 =0D
At 10:49 PM 7/4/2005 -0500, you wrote:=0D
>What's the best or most unusual "extra" you've been offered.=0D
 =0D
The dentist's wife gave me a big plastic bowl full of sticky candy! Maybe=
=0D
she was trying to drum up business?=0D
 =0D
Down in Stockton, CA I got a big grocery bag of walnuts in the shell, new=
=0D
crop. Delicious, easy to break open. And somebody gave me some elk heart=0D
and liver once, frozen, luckily. Flowers, big bundles of them. Cookies=0D
(usually I don't get home with them.) A dozen eggs from her own chickens.=
=0D
Plants! Shasta daisies, autumn crocus, iris, etc. One family nearby, on=0D
land which the lady's grandparents had settled, with 100-year-old giant=0D
sequoias her grandfather had planted, gave me starts of the local bleedin=
g=0D
heart (cutleaf, a bucket full of little starts, I had to run home and pla=
nt=0D
them pronto), the native currant with some of the duff from under the=0D
sequoia to make it feel at home, and a walnut tree bred by a 90-year-old=0D
local retired prof. They had gotten it at a class they took, and planted =
it=0D
a bad place. All this stuff thrived, and the bleeding heart hitched a rid=
e=0D
with the hostas when I moved them to my new house.=0D
 =0D
Several customers have given me old tools and supplies from tuner=0D
relatives, long dead ones. Usually they smelled fusty from damp storage,=0D
but some are really neat old 19th century stuff. I also found a nice old=0D
letoff tool under an inch of dust on the floor of an old upright, which I=
=0D
was told I was welcome to keep. Rosewood handle, brass ferule, nicely=0D
shaped so it doesn't bend the eyelet as easily as the new ones.=0D
 =0D
This isn't a tip from anyone, but after tuning at a big apartment complex=
,=0D
I found a beautiful big Japanese beechwood rocking chair just dumped in t=
he=0D
dumpster. It took me twenty minutes to rearrange my Tercel hatchback enou=
gh=0D
to fit it in. I had to get it foam for cushions, and upholstery fabric, b=
ut=0D
I've used it ever since. Here's Donnie Byrd sitting in it, when she visit=
ed=0D
and we worked on a grand action together.=0D
 =0D
Grapes. Meyer lemons, by the bag. (delicious, so mild!) I really miss the=
=0D
Meyer lemons. If I make a greenhouse, I'll plant one. Apples, also by the=
=0D
bag. Plums. A couple of really good nursery catalogs. A video of the life=
=0D
of Christ. I gave it to a Sunday School.=0D
 =0D
Newly arrived in Oregon, way out east in Sweet Home, somebody raided his=0D
woodpile (He had a cast iron stove), and gave me beautiful big hunks of=0D
cherry, walnut, maple, and (the real treat!) several big rounds of clear=0D
Pacific Yew, garnered from slash piles. They were stripping the bark back=
=0D
then to make taxol for cancer patients. What a waste! Glad when they=0D
synthesized the stuff. I called him a couple of years later to see if the=
re=0D
was any more yew, but it was all gone.=0D
 =0D
Back when I was just starting in the business, a customer out in the=0D
country, sort of run-down place, heard me talk about getting tools, and h=
e=0D
reached down and picked up an old, rusty, bent chisel from the gravel=0D
driveway (nylon handle, though) and handed it to me. "There! Now you've g=
ot=0D
a chisel." <grin> I took it home, unbent it, ground a new bevel, blasted=0D
the rust off it, more or less, sharpened it, and have used it more than a=
ny=0D
of the good ones ever since. It was such a wreck I never had to worry abo=
ut=0D
what I did with it.=0D
 =0D
Okay, now, what's the most unusual thing you have _given_ to customers? I=
=0D
gave one of mine two Washington hawthorn seedlings, which she says have=0D
grown well. Another's daughter found a home for two huge miniature rose=0D
bushes which I was eager to get rid of.=0D
 =0D
Susan=0D
=20
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