Todd Robbins wrote and Robbie commented:

> I think some of the band organs that traveled for decades,
> crisscrossing the USA with carnivals, would have to be
> considered instruments with the most miles on them.
>
> [ And those are genuine miles traveled "on the job", not as
> [ a freight shipment.

That's actually a very good idea -- please divide those miles into
two categories: (1) miles travelled while "on duty", and (2) miles
travelled as "cargo".

Let's see...  We haven't been travelling that much lately; yet, for
our Dutch street organ, I can roughly calculate about 1000 to 1500
km per year since 1985.  That's something between 17000 and 25500 km
_on the road!_  Not bad, I guess.  I didn't even calculate all the
mileage by it's previous owners since it was built sometime in the
1940s.

Interestingly, we also can count our own pair as the farthest travelled
garden dwarfs!  (How you call those here?)

 [ Der Gartenzwerg = the garden dwarf or gnome.  Our's is glazed
 [ pottery, only 35 cm (14") tall, purchased in Germany, and he grins
 [ as he plays his big bass drum to scare the birds from our garden.
 [ -- Robbie

We actually had two of them sitting in front our organ.  You should've
seen the eyes of the 3- to 4-year-old kids, standing eye-to-eye with
one of those!  ;-)

Some years back, when there still were more controls at the borders
between the countries of the European union, a customs officer who was
inspecting inside our trailer was seriously accusing us that we were
smuggling those dwarfs!  That's when I had the joy to experience one
of very few moments when my mum couldn't find any words at all.

Luckily she had me around, because when a boy says, "Hey!!  That's our
decoration!" it can be very convincing :-)  ... almost, at least. :-)

Only after Mum handed them a postcard with the dwarfs pictured on it
did they finally let us go.

greetings by(e) InK - Ingmar Krause
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
ERlanger drehORGEL-Trio, Familie Krause,
Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany

P.S.: I'm always amused about the pride of people, how much things
they have are larger, faster, higher, further, etc. etc.

 [ Ingmar, your story is funnier than any experience I've had at a
 [ border inspection!  Fortunately the border officers didn't accuse
 [ your family of smuggling a national treasure -- a Dutch street
 [ organ -- out of it's homeland.  :-(  -- Robbie