A few years ago my wife and I visited old haunts in Southern
California.  We stopped in the village of Randsburg, in the high
desert, which I remember from her glory days, but which is now
almost a ghost town with 50 or so residents.  In one of the quaint
shops stood an upright player piano with a price tag of $1,000,000
(yes, one million dollars).  The ivories were off most of the keys
and the wood underneath was painted white.

I asked permission to pump it.  The movement barely turned.  What
little I could see needed a _lot_ of work.  There were about 40 or
50 piano rolls on top, which looked interesting, but couldn't be
played.  The shop owner said she was looking for someone to restore it.
I mentioned it to Kim Bunker when I stopped by Orange Coast Pianos,
but he just laughed.  Actually, I think we laughed together.

Here on the East Coast we can't give these things away.  I talked to
a piano teacher recently to see if any of his students needed pianos
to bang (ahem, learn) on.  He told me that he gets pianos offered to
him almost daily and can't even give them away.  In fact, we were
talking to each other after church and there were two _free_ pianos,
one a baby grand, in the building where we were standing that the
church couldn't even give away!

I used to tell people to donate their old pianos to a local church
and take a tax credit.  Now that doesn't even seem to be a reality.
It seems that more and more churches are opting for some new-fangled
device called a 'keyboard'.  Oh, for a real pipe organ and grand
piano again!  I guess I will have to open a museum.

Vincent Morgan, New York City