It has been nearly three years since I acquired the 700 or so stencils
and rolls from a collectors estate.  It seems more that it is "what
one does not have" that is important.  This is what makes collecting
interesting.

Sometimes we tend not to see the rare things that we surround ourselves
with.  If we see the rarest of the rare every day in our lives has it
not become common to us?

The music that occupies 25 cubic feet of wall space not too far from
where I am typing this represents 35 instruments.  I have access now to
several lifetimes of music.  A single instrument represented can be and
is the pride and joy of the collector.  Most of these instruments have
about 20 or 30 rolls as a representative sample.

There is more to roll production that just making a copy.  In effect,
that is the least of ones worries.  These rolls had a good chance of
going to the dump.  Had I not stepped in that is probably what would
have happened.  In my case I had to ship the 700 rolls cross country at
my own expense.  There is a reason paper is sold by the pound.  I doubt
that I could ever make these costs back.  Yet as an enjoyable part of
this hobby they have been worth everything to get them.

I would not be opposed to receiving my costs.  Until there is a way to
do so, these rolls will most likely remain in my private archive.  That
does not mean I am unwilling to share them -- would that I could do so.
But altruism and magnanimity are not something that seems to be
popular in this era.

Once the rolls arrived I then needed to inventory the rolls.  I was
lucky the collector who had previously cared for them had written on
the leader what was on the roll and where the roll came from.  Other
clues came from handwritten lists as well as audio recordings.  This
is what collecting is about.

The index shows that over the years, and during the storage and cross
country shipping, some of the rolls and audio recordings are now
missing.  Letters attached to masters show that they were loaned and
returned.  Perhaps some of the missing titles were never in the lot
as purchased at auction.

I would suggest that someone who wants to collect the "complete series
of something" stick to stamps, coins or bottle caps.  What we collect
is memories and the emotions of those who went before us.  Still we
wonder what happened to those lost sheep.  Are they not the ones that
we want the most?  Yet when we find them they become just another sheep
in the pen as we worry about the other one that got away.

In that 25 cubic feet are stored the life interests of the likes of Dan
Slack, Tom Billy, Jim Wells, Harvey Roehl, Mike Kitner and Frank Rider.
This was their investment -- not necessarily a monetary investment.
Several mentioned did not even get to enjoy it in their "Golden Years,"
but others did.  What they invested in is the future.  It seems that
from what they wrote this was how they wanted to be remembered, as
someone who shared the music with others.

Some names are enigmatic: who is Leslie Tuttle?  Was this person old
or young, male or female?  Is this person still active?  It is only by
asking do we learn who the others are; there are no givens, no super
collectors who are so well known that every one is expected to know
their names by osmosis.  In the end we are who we are.  Just because
it is common or popular now does not always mean it will be.

Of all the music I have enjoyed working with, the most so far is a
collection of old favorites.  These are labeled 80-key B.A.B./Gavioli.
Letters and markings on the leader indicate that they came from the
collection of someone named Ruggieri.  I have no idea if this person
is still active or not.  I am not even sure that this is the organ the
rolls went to.  As Mike Kitner made the audio recording, he frequently
commented on how the paper was moldy and breaking apart.  This must
have been when it went through the tracker frame for the last time,
leaving faint markings on the carbon paper between two hard steel
rollers.

As my scanning program recovers the faded marks once again am I able
to hear the strains of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", "Singing in the
Bathtub" or "Keep Your Sunny Side Up".  Letters included in the rolls
indicate that these masters had been loaned and returned.  That means
that other copies are out there somewhere.  Or did someone look at the
faded carbon marks and determine that it was too much work to continue?

In an ideal world I would love to punch these masters back into music
books.  Only then can be a chance that these arrangements will survive.
In the meantime I am able to enjoy them as have others before me.
With luck and a lot of hard work others in the future can enjoy the
music too.  MIDI may only be an interim storage, but without a market
for perforated rolls, that is where the future seems to be at present.

Julie Porter