Friends and former customers of Ray Siou's roll business may want
some news on him, so I thought I'd post an update.

Ray has been living in the upper level of his warehouse in Oakland,
California, for the past several years but his failing health has
necessitated a change of lifestyle.  He continues to suffer from the
effects of his diabetes, severe gout, and other infirmities that come
with old age.  Failure to regulate his insulin and diet has resulted
in several 911 emergency calls and stays in the hospital in the past
several months.  He had been talking about going into an assisted-
living arrangement for some time now, but decided against each one
that he visits, finding them too depressing.

In a conversation that I had with him two weeks ago, he said that he
was moving to an apartment above a restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown.
I spoke with him two days ago and he seems to have settled into a much
better situation than what he had at his warehouse.  With several
restaurants nearby, a well-equipped kitchen (Ray prefers to cook for
himself), a pharmacy on the corner, his stereo and television, Ray
seems quite content.  He now wears one of those Medic Alert things
around his neck.  Ray's brother, Benton, continues to look in on him
regularly, as does his nephew.  I try to call him about every two
weeks just to check on him as well.

As Matthew Caulfield reported early last year, Ray's collection of
pianos and other instruments are not in good shape due to rodent
damage.  Rats and mice have had their way with each one and most are
not operational.  Due to the damage to Ray's 165 "church pipe" band
organ he thought he might part it out, but I was able to convince
him otherwise (there's not a big market for used organ pipes!), so
I purchased the 165 organ and all of his remaining Style 165 music
roll inventory and moved all to my home in early February.

I have inventoried the roll collection and started cleaning the mounds
of rodent feces and urine that permeated the organ, found that much
of the tubing and other parts have been chewed through by the rodents,
so much work lies ahead on this project.  Once the weather warms I'll
start working through the problems, and make the old gal sing again.

Chuck Schoppe
Los Gatos, Calif.

 [ Photos of Noble Stidham and his crew delivering the Mechanical
 [ Systems Band Organ to Ray Siou's warehouse in 1978 are posted at
 [ http://imageevent.com/thepacratz/bandorganpix  -- Editor (Robbie)