Hi all,

So often we hear horror stories involving a player piano that we might
lose sight of the fact that there just as many, if not more, wonderful
stories about player pianos that hardly ever get told.  Why is that?  I
equate it to human nature, along the same line as the reason why there
aren't any really popular "good news" channels on television.  Good-
news stories don't make your heart rate increase and they are seldom
intriguing.  They don't involve death, damage, or drama, and no one
gets kidnapped, beaten, or maimed.  Simply put, good-news stories are
generally considered BORING.

I'd like to try to change the perception of the good-news story by
creating a new series of web pages at Player-Care.

The main intention of the new web pages will be to give folks an
archive where they can store and share the wonderful memories of how
the player piano impacted their life and the lives of the people around
them, who shared the joy and happiness that only a player piano can
bring to people.  It is my hope and desire that the pages will
influence those with non-working player pianos to get them fixed, so
they can partake in some joy and happiness that may be missing from
their daily lives.  In other words, the stories will help to inspire
and/or motivate people.

For the present time, I am going to limit the input to "first person"
experiences.  I'd like the stories to come from the people who actually
had the experiences.  I know that many of us who are in the trade have
been privy to numerous happy tales about why people spend their hard-
earned money on "an old pumper"; but those stories are seen through our
eyes, and we can only interpret the emotions of our customers.  While
third-person stories can indeed be very interesting and entertaining,
they tend to lack the raw feelings and the accuracy that can only come
from the person who had the experience.  However, depending on how
things go, I may end up opening the endeavor to any 'good news' story.
(By the way, if you have a first-person story, please send it!)

In case anyone is interested in what prompted me to start soliciting 
good news stories, the answer is fairly simple.  Yesterday, while I was
talking to a customer about her recent roll order, we got off the
subject, and she started sharing some of her personal experiences with
me.  Some of them were hilarious.  Some were very cute.  Some were
quite interesting.  But they all shared one common thread: the player
piano. So, I asked her if she would write some of the stories for me to
post at the Player-Care web site.  Evidently her husband was close by,
and he picked up another phone to say that he was the writer in the
family, and that it would be a pleasure to share their experiences with
other people. At that moment I got the idea, and now I'm starting to
tell everyone about my plan.

Once the new feature is up and running, I'll be posting the web address
here in the MMD.  Also, so the question won't have to be asked later, I
hereby give my permission to all interested parties to link directly to
the feature's main page and/or to any individual story.  I'd like the
"good news" about player pianos to spread as far and as wide as it can.
You can send your stories to the MMD (so all the members can enjoy
them) or you can send them to me (john@player-care.com.geentroep), with
subject: "Good News Stories" (delete geentroep when emailing).

During these dog days of summer, some inspiring stories would be nice.

Musically,
John A. Tuttle
Player-Care.com
Brick, NJ