I echo Dave Bowers' remarks.  I grew up in California and my
introduction to mechanical music was at Knott's Berry Farm.  Later
I took the young lady who had not been my wife for 42 years on
dates there.  We put quite a few coins in those wonderful machines.
I went to college just down the road from Hathaway and Bowers, but
sadly, didn't know they were there.  Too many years later, after
moving to New York, we met Keith Bigger, who had a magical piano
in his basement, something he called an Ampico.  Next to it was
a reproducing pipe organ that he built.  They could even accompany
one another.

We collected "music boxes", mostly the 70%-90% off variety at San
Francisco Music Box Co. stores, which I repaired.  Then we were
introduced to Marvin and Dianne Polan.  Through them we joined MBSI
and attended our first meeting, which was in Massachusetts.  Someone
gave my wife a piano roll.  We tried to give it to Keith, who gave
us an Ampico piano so we could play the roll ourselves at home.

Since then people have called our house a museum.  We purposely
invite children over.  They are enthralled and often want me to play
roll after roll after roll.  One young girl, who just celebrated her
4th birthday, loves to crank our Castlewood and cob organs.  She does
a great job.  We have made up certificates for children who will crank
the Castlewood organ when we are on the street or in a park and give it
to them.  You should see their faces light up!

Our collection is rather small and inexpensive, but through MBSI and
AMICA we have come to appreciate and enjoy those items that we either
cannot afford or simply don't have room to put them.

Once my wife and I visited the Cliff House in San Francisco.  We
were amazed when the children and teenagers passed up the modern game
machines once they discovered the mechanical pianos, orchestrions,
violins, etc.  If anyone has children, please bring them to our house
and we will show them the magic piano that plays all by itself, and
let them crank out a tune on the Castlewood and cob organs, and even
touch the little pins on the cylinder music boxes and show them how
they pluck the teeth on the comb to make music.  When people leave
their children home, we scold them and tell them to return home and
get them.

I am a pastor, and my wife and I often hold hymn sings in our home.
It is interesting that following the hymn sing people want to stay
another hour or two just to listen to the Ampico piano.  They show
some interest in the other items, but the piano is the one thing that
holds them spellbound.

People often visit us from around the world.  One of the first thing
that people ask when they enter the living room is, "What are all those
boxes?"  Then they want to listen to what is inside every one of them.
Since our living room doubles as the music room, we tell them they can
continue playing all night if they want, but we need to go to bed.
One such couple was my older brother and sister-in-law from California.
When they returned home they gave away their plain piano and bought a
Duo Art -- because no Ampicos were available in their area at that time.

Concerning societies, my wife and I have met some of the nicest people
in the world through MBSI and AMICA.  We have rarely been turned down
when we have asked to visit a collector when we travel.  The "No"
answer is almost always accompanied with, "We are sorry, but we will
be away at that time.  Could you possibly schedule a visit at another
time?"  If possible, we have done just that.

Reading the sections on meetings in the journals keeps us up on our
mechanical musical friends, brings back sweet memories and spurns us to
write an e-mail or pick up the phone to simply say, "Hi, how are you?"
We also enjoy the articles as well as we can always learn something new.

Societies are made up of collectors.  Collectors just happen to be
people, who end up with a multitude of personalities, interests, etc.
We don't all like the same things.  We don't all agree on much of
anything.  However, as in normal life, there are those we will
gravitate to and those we won't.

Don't blame the society if you don't like something or someone.  Get
involved.  Every organization seems to lack leaders.  People often ask
me why a certain person remains in office so many years.  It is an
easy question to answer.  Very few people want to be responsible for
an organization; most, it seems, would rather complain.  My wife and
I simply ignore those people and do what we can to help.  Never will
we please everyone.

Vincent Morgan
New York City
Vice President, Lady Liberty Chapter, AMICA