Barbara "Babs" Cannon's message about being a calliope player
dovetailed nicely with a conversation I had at an astronomy event
this weekend.
(I visited the Roper Mountain Observatory in Greenville, S.C., where
the historic 23 inch Alvin Clark refractor resides. Clark ground the
mirror in 1881 for Princeton University Observatory. It was later
housed at the U.S. Naval Observatory and the telescope, except for the
lens, dates from 1933.)
The conversation with a friend turned to carousels, band organs and
even MMD when my friend told me of an old family friend who had played
calliope on some of the riverboats. He called it "callie-ope",
explaining that, "You don't eat a cantillopy for breakfast, now, do
you?"
Is this something worth a few lines of discussion?
Tommy Forney
[ Of course it is. Maybe someone knows the nine other names which
[ are associated with the naming of the 'steam organ'. ;)
[ -- Robbie
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