Dear Folks,

After reading several of the stories about moving pianos, I feel
compelled to tell my one and only piano moving story. I was cleaning
out my deceased aunt's house in New Jersey and had hired a mover from
my home town of Endicott, NY, to move all the furniture to my house.
Among the numerous pieces of conventional furniture was a Chickering
5 foot 6 inch grand piano.  (It had once been a player, not an Ampico,
but was mostly gutted of the player.) The movers were the owner of the
moving company and his trusty sidekick who looked like he weighed about
90 pounds. They used a ramp up to the tailgate of the moving van which
was about 3 feet off the ground. The piano was on it's side with the
legs and lyre off and the owner was at the truck end and the trusty
sidekick was behind the piano rolling it up the ramp. Just as the front
wheels of the dolly crested the ramp onto the tailgate, the clips
holding the ramp to the tailgate let go and the ramp went straight to
the ground. The sidekick had hold of the back end of the piano and went
down with it. He never let go but his eyes came about a foot out of
his head. I don't know if he got a hernia from this but neither one of
them said a word. They just finished lifting the piano and dolly onto
the truck. I have used this mover a number of times and they never let
me down. They were always careful with what they moved and I never had
a problem. Unfortunately this was a number of years ago and the owner
has since passed away. The trusty sidekick, now nearly bald and a bit
heavier works elsewhere. If I have other moves, I hope I can find
another mover as conscientious as these folks were.

Bob Conant