Re: 000501 MMDigest

Dear MMDers:

The pianos in tight spaces thread reminds me of an embarrassing incident
from my high school days. Through some friends I discovered the
grandfather of a high school acquaintance who had an original Stark
upright player in his home and was willing to give it away to anyone
who would be willing to move it. As I was just 16, armed with a shiny
new Illinois license and a willingness to move any mountain to get a
free player, I quickly rounded up a crew of hulking teens and set out
for the address.

With U-haul behind the family Cutlass we arrived at the address. It was
in a rather run-down neighborhood in Chicago where the buildings were
all pre-1900 brick apartment blocks. The piano was located on the
second floor in the parlor of one of these buildings and was in fine
original shape. The owner, a soft spoken older man happily showed me
the original sales receipt for the piano. Now the trick was that the
piano was in a parlor off a narrow hallway with a nasty turn at the
landing of the stairs.

We must have upended that piano a dozen times to try to get it out the
door, down that narrow hall and through the landing. Each time we
failed. And with each failure a little more plaster came down and
another ugly scrape or two in the piano case. By the 8th try the owner
was losing his composure. With sheer brute force we heaved the piano
around the landing and lopped off the bannister finial and gashed the
wall.

That did it. The owner flipped out, the friends ditched me and the
piano sat lodged on the stairwell until the following day when
professional movers undid our self-made disaster.  Restoration went
fine, but I never did enjoy playing that piano.

Lesson learned.

Best wishes to all piano movers -- and their backs.
Marc Sachnoff