I am aging beyond what is practical to be collecting anymore.  But...
many of my friends in the mechanical music hobby have sizeable and very
respectable collections of crank organs, music boxes, and band organs
including carousel organs.  I started building a Wurlitzer copy band
organ months ago, and now question whether I will ever get it finished.
It will be my third organ build and probably my last.

When we moved to a retirement village after my stroke, we sold my
collection of antique motorcycles to a museum in Georgia, and I feel
very lucky to have been able to do that.  But motorcycle collecting has
a much broader spectrum of interest than the small niche of mechanical
music collectors.

One of my close collector friends recently passed, and his collection
of all kinds of stuff is being disassembled and disposed of.  I attended
the first of many auctions that will take place to clear out his
collection and many things that were of keen interest to him did not
bring prices close to their value, despite that the auction was well
advertised in collector magazines, etc.

Here is where I am going with this.  I used to enjoy just sitting and
enjoying my collection of cycles, even though I was past being able to
ride them.  I have visited several collectors of mechanical music and
seen many nice pieces that will never get repaired or restored during
their lifetime.

Our collector hobbies are expensive to maintain and I have decided that
it is time to keep only a couple of my most-enjoyed mechanical music
pieces.  For me it is better to enjoy what I have finished and quit
acquiring pieces that I will never have the energy or funds to restore
to their original beauty and purpose.

I have so much to learn and so little time.

Al Good
Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

 [ Read "Al Good builds organ to share musical passion" at
 [ http://www.therecordherald.com/article/20151113/NEWS/151119940 
 [ -- Robbie