This is a follow-up for all of you who are interested in the fate of
my Chickering Ampico upright I was forced to put in my garage.  Thanks,
all, for the advice.

Well over a month ago I went to look at a player piano, a reproducing
piano, in a woman's basement in Livonia, Michigan.  The piano was a
Chickering Ampico upright, complete, un-restored.  The case wasn't
great, the piano needed everything restored.  I made an offer and she
never phoned; I assumed somebody else purchased it.

On Monday, a week ago, she called asking if I was still interested in
the piano.  She said she'd sell it to me for $50, but I had to move
it out of the basement that week or else she'd chop it up with an ax
and it would go to the dump!  Similar Ampico pianos I've priced in the
past have been at least a 3-hour drive away and $750-$1200.

Well, I got a friend and U-Haul and went to get the beast.  It took
four men to get the piano up on the truck and I roped it in.

After a 30-minute drive to my mom's house in Flint, I was unloading it
from the truck -- two college guys, 140 pounds each, trying to control
an 800-pound piano on a dolly going down a ramp with a slope of about
30 degrees (that's steep!) was a bad, bad idea.  My friend was behind
it, I was in front of it, but off to the side, so I could run if it
went out of control.  Anyway, it went out of control.  It started
pulling him, he grabbed the back and it fell off the ramp onto its
back on the garage floor.  What a chord that was: 88 notes played in
"Piano Forte!"

I first thought I'd never get the thing upright again, next I hoped it
wasn't destroyed, and then I noticed his foot was trapped underneath!
I was panicked and figured his foot was destroyed, leg broken, didn't
know.  I managed to lift the piano off the ground, by myself, to set
him free.

Later that night it would take six neighbors, in attire ranging from
pajamas to suits, to get the piano upright again and to the other side
of the garage.  I guess I do have super-human strength after all, it
just has to be the right circumstances.

So the next day my friend and I went to the doctor.  (Twenty minutes
after the accident he could walk on his foot and wasn't in terrible
pain, just sore.)  The doctor said no sprain, no break, just bruised.
I guess he was super-human, too!

I'm not sure about how much damage was caused to the piano, maybe none
at all, but the player mechanism alone is worth about $600 on eBay, and
after the U-Haul fees, gas and dinner for him and me, the grand total
was $242.72.  Not bad!  It's now in the garage under a red tarpaulin.

Damon Atchison
http://www.msu.edu/~atchiso5/