Piano Man

After 10 glorious days away in nature (Vancouver Island) and the city (LA), where do I start! My head is full. My heart is soaring. My photo albums are bursting at the seams.


So where do I start but with a soulful collection that brings back so many memories from my childhood when these player pianos were more common. Here's Dave (Dennis' dad) whom I have now just met. The piano man. This particular piano is a Duo-Art brand that Dave is threading with a paper music roll which he had picked out from a huge collection. And you think WE'RE bad!

What's absolutely delightful about these player pianos, of course, is watching the keys move by themselves! I never tire of watching them play magically as the music fills the room. Maybe Mom was sitting there doing the classical pieces; maybe her step-dad was there playing the honky-tonk by ear with an ecstatic grin on his face. I was once again mesmerized, just as in my childhood days!

Remember the ditty we used to say while doing our folded-hand motions:

Here's the church, here's the steeple.
Open the door and there's all the people.

At one point, after all my pics, Judy decided to take off all the photos standing on the baby grand. I never would have asked her to go to that trouble, but she must have wanted me to see all the "people!" And there they are: all the strings willing and ready to play any piano man on any music roll.

It really WAS like a church and steeple for me because of how soulful the entire experience was, from beginning to end. I wonder if everyone has had a chance to go to this kind of church?!