My instrument moving horror story is slightly different from those
seen in previous MMD editions.  We weren't moving our Ruth-Artizan band
organ across country, just a temporary trip of 25 miles or so from its
home base in Saint Paul into a pickup truck and off again for its first
public appearance following our recent completion of a 3-1/2-year
restoration project (done in our spare time, mind you).

It was July 4, 1984, and four of us managed to get the organ into
the truck, but we lost one helper when it came time to unload the organ
at its "concert" destination in my hometown of Forest Lake, Minnesota.
A lot of people were milling around town as the local 4th of July
parade had just ended and there was a lot of curiosity about the large,
colorful item in the truck.

We recruited a passerby that I happened to know and he said he was
willing to assist in the off-loading of the instrument.  (The 46-key
organ is about the size of a Wurlitzer 125.)  Of course, the drum wings
and motor board were not attached, but the body of the organ was still
a substantial weight, probably in the neighborhood of 500 pounds
(although we've never actually weighed the instrument).

The co-owner and chief restorer of the organ, Mike Merrick, and I
cautioned the gentleman repeatedly that the organ was _very_ heavy.
Mike and I started pulling the organ closer to the lip of the truck's
tailgate.  The remaining helper from the loading procedure was at one
back corner while our volunteer was at the other.  As we neared the
point of no return we reminded him of the organ's heft, and he said
he was ready, having grabbed the handle as the back casters neared the
truck bed's edge.

When we pulled the organ off, the volunteer's side of the organ took
a heart-stopping dip toward the pavement as the entire organ lurched
to his corner!  Fortunately, we recovered and, as we gingerly set the
organ down on the street, he said "I didn't think it would be _that_
heavy!"  The 1883-vintage instrument would have surely ended up as
a pile of flat kindling if we had not recovered from the near-tragedy!
We thanked our volunteer for his assistance and he stuck around long
enough to hear the instrument play its first public performance in over
25 years.

I'm happy to report that the organ continues to play merrily at public
events and special occasions, most recently the COAA rally in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, last July, thanks mainly to the hastily established "new and
improved" policy of using a ramp to load and unload the organ!

Tracy Tolzmann