Oh rain, I know we need your moisture, but can you go away for a bit so I can get some things done? The grass is growing ever longer, the garden beds need a lot of work, I have to plant seeds soon, not to mention more pruning and cutting back.
I can’t do any of these things in the rain. I suppose I could, but it would be frustrating. And wet.
What did I do yesterday? I recycled. In the rain. I wrote out bills and mailed them. I went to the grocery store. I cleaned the bathroom. I cleaned the wood floors. And I oiled and polished the piano, something I haven’t done in a long time.
I should do it more often. It’s old and that wood needs moisture. Maybe I can train myself to do it once a month? Anyway, I felt that my grandma was smiling down on me. But at the same time, she was yelling, “Get it tuned!” You’re right, Grandma. I promise.
I’m not necessarily a fan of mahogany, perhaps because all the furniture in my grandmother’s house, as well as some of the furniture in our house, was that dark color. It was the style at the time. But I love this piano. It’s a family treasure with a lot of history and, as I get older, I appreciate its beauty more and more.
Gosh. I have to get it tuned. When money has been tight – and let’s face it, it’s been tight a lot for us – tuning it was way down on the list of things to be done. Neither of us plays it that much. Don uses it to tune his guitars sometimes. I’m the one who studied piano for eight years, yet I don’t sit down and play very often even though Don always urges me to. And now that it’s really out of tune, I can’t bear to play it. So, I have to get my act together and have someone come out and tune it. I also know it needs to have some maintenance work. But before that happens, I will get it tuned.
There!
Just a few days ago, but it seems longer. It was sunny. I swear, it was sunny.
Happy Saturday.
Still raining? Ugh. It makes me grumpy when there is too much rain, I need sunshine. The piano is such a great piece of your family history and when you get it tuned you should play it! It’s sunny here so I’m hoping to get outdoors for a little bit.
The day was sunny, so I got some work done, but the rain is coming soon!
I really do hope the sun returns for Don’s visit tomorrow! ;)
It’s going to rain on Monday, which is his day off. Darn it!
Claudia, Your grandmother is happy you still have the piano,. I would want family to continue to love a piece of furniture or a piano if I had loved it. I love how the porch is looking., so cheery. Oh honey, I know…our sun is slipping today and to be a freeze before dawn tomorrow. Blast ! I was ready to plant things. But oh come Tuesday it is to be 80 degrees…can you even believe it? I did not want to jump right into hot weather. LOL ,I just want what I want when I want it. LOL , I sound so whiny. Blessings to you, wishing you sunshine, xoxo, Susie
Yes, it’s going to be hot here on Tuesday, as well! It’s only going to be hot for two days and then the temps will drop back down to normal, Susie.
Shove those rain clouds my way! No rain in sight for a while so I’m out there every day hand watering. My irrigation system takes care of the planting beds but I have so many pots and the raised beds for the vegetables are not on the system. My piano needs tuning too. But it’s not a priority. I finally resumed my HUGE project…sorting and organizing over 20 years of photos. Enjoy Don’s stay.
I will, Wendy. He won’t be home until late tomorrow night. Thank you!
i love rain, but agree to the frustration felt if it gets in the way of plans and motivation. good luck on the tasks you want/need to get done!
the piano is beautiful and even better is that you and don can play and use it! we have some pieces that i trust will never leave our family … special in their own right, but also family pieces that are in use, part of traditions/stories and loved.
happy saturday.
kathy in iowa
I hope it’s passed on to a niece or nephew who wants it…
Well, at least your grandma’s piano is inside the house!
Mine’s in an uninsulated car garage after being in an ancient outdoor shed and, before that, in a dank (partially unfinished) basement for 40 years. This mahogany piano (I can’t remember at the moment but it dates from like 1908 -1912 [I looked it up once]) was not only painted over (with white and neon-orange floral, in the mid-1960s) but it needs to be completely/obviously restored with the felts, soundboard, etc. (a piano is a fine, sensitive instrument which needs to be in a protected environment at certain temperatures, as you know) and I’ve never had the money, like you ($5,000, at minimum; and that’s an old quote, so it’s probably more now, and it’s up to me to pay the transport to the not-local restorer which would be another $500 [min.] round trip as it can’t be any-old moving van or trailer, at least on its way back home after it’s in pristine shape; it’s like fine art, you have to crate it properly).
I fear I rescued it from the ax, from where it had been from all those years ago (had been donated by my grandma’s kids, ala my mom; why-why-why), only to have it wind up with the same fate once I’m gone because, unfortunately, I’ve learned that nobody seems to want console or upright pianos anymore whereas, when I was growing up, a piano was a common, appreciated piece (of furniture, if nothing else), in a living room or parlor. A treasured thing. Just look at old movies; there’s always a piano.
I’ve seen pianos similar to my grandma’s, sitting on a street curb for days on end, or on somebody’s driveway for a yard sale, always ‘free’ (as in, please do us a favor and move this heavy thing out of here). I gave my mom’s piano to a relative when she died, since I have this other one of Grandma’s but, even at my relative’s, the piano sits with no one knowing how to play it, out of tune since we moved it. (Like a car needs to be driven, a piano needs to be played.) A young preteen in the house expressed interest in learning to play but my cousin (her mother) says the piano teacher wanted too much money they couldn’t afford. (Gosh, don’t older teens or college students tutor anymore?!! A lot of them do play because they have those portable keyboards/digital pianos, right? There should be a way to get affordable piano lessons for a kid.)
It’s this kind of thing which makes me feel dumbed down in today’s world – – when having a beautiful piano in the house almost spoke of a certain refinement but mostly, back in another era, it was family time and entertainment; making memories. My grandparents didn’t have a turntable/’phonograph’ (and TVs hadn’t been invented) although they eventually had a radio they’d listen to in the evenings, so having a piano was a way to have music in your life. When my mom was a girl, she’d play while her bestie school chum was on violin, having fun for themselves and keeping occupied but also feeling like they were really pretty darn good at something which, to a kid, was very empowering. I guess people will always find a way to make music, though.
My grandma worked SO HARD in the 1930s to be able to afford lessons for my young mom on this very piano I have – – it was The Great Depression and my grandparents had NO money, so she took in laundry and would do ‘rich’ people’s washing/ironing (as well as the piano teacher’s, the ‘ol trade & barter system) to pay for Mom’s piano instruction; Mom said Grandma’s hands would be chapped and red and achy-sore. There was no such thing as a clothes dryer (gas or electric) so, in cold/bad weather (or because she was also working on all this at night, as she had another paying job during the day), she’d hang clotheslines all over the interior of their small house and, after a point, all that dampness from wet clothing made the wallpaper peel right off the walls.
Like you (I’m so glad you posted this today), I’m reminded I have to restart/refresh this whole subject and resolve to find some way to save Grandma’s piano. I had thought at one point, which I know sounds completely crazy, to fix it up and then put an ad in the paper about its history, what it means to me – – and then say, “I’ll give it to you, if you’re out there; I’ll even pay to trailer it to wherever you are, if you can prove to me you’d love and appreciate this beloved piano, if you like vintage things, if you’ll play it and make it part of your life and family, but you’ve gotta convince me that you will.” So that before I kick, I know it has the right, good home.
We’ve spoken of our grandmas’ pianos before, Claudia; I’m probably victim of the long, somewhat angst-ridden repeat here but it’s clearly a topic dear to our hearts. I love that you have yours and that you’re thinking about it; she looks gorgeous all shined up!
I’ve read several articles about pianos and the fact that you can no longer give them away. It makes me so sad. A portable keyboard will never be a substitute for a real piano. I know many people who still have them, but I worry that no one in the family will want this one and that would break my heart! This one is probably from the late twenties, early thirties. It’s a Chickering, made in Boston and when I was growing up, our piano tuner routinely made an offer for it. It used to have ivory keys, but they were cracked and chipped over the years, so when I finally was able to move it to my house in San Diego, I had them recovered. I think the action needs some work and I’ve just sort of ignored it for years. I’ll start with tuning it and then go from there.
My mother, my brother, my sisters and I all learned to play on this piano. And my dad’s brother and sister – who played by ear – always sat down and did a little concert when they came over to visit. Many, many memories.
Oh, I loved hearing all this, Claudia; indeed, memories and what a history. My grandma’s piano is a Ludwig (Ludwig & Co.), “Philadelphia and Buffalo” (imprinted on the backside). They made decorative uprights from 1895-1920, or so I read. They were manufacturing pianos in the Bronx at the turn of the 20th century. Over a hundred years later, these Ludwigs are said to have held up well as long as you’ve taken good care of them which, of course, sadly, in my situation is not the case. I’m pretty sure the keys are ivory and there’s only one loose black key. A neighbor plunked away on it about 4 years ago when he spied the piano in our garage and even with all this bad handling over too long of a time, the old girl sounded great to my ears and what I love about this old piano is the ease of hand over keys, no stiffness in the keys. I wish I had the piano stool; it disappeared with the donation. I’d twirl on it when I was a little kid, before Grandma died. Swivel seat I guess and it had these decorative crystal knobs in the base. I have no idea how my great-grandfather could ever have afforded this piano for HIS little girl in those earliest 1900s; they were poor (and he had nine other kids!). He must’ve won it in a bet or something!
I remember the piano out at my family’s cottage was an upright (always slightly out of tune) and it had a stool like the one you describe.
I hope that you do get it tuned. Our dear old piano tuner called last week to tell us that he is losing his hearing and won’t be able to do the job any longer. So sad. He has tuned our piano here at home, and the pianos at school and at church for as long as I can remember. It isn’t a field that has an overflow of people doing the job.
We have sun today but it is pretty chilly. Only supposed to get up to 55*. Two weeks ago that would have seemed impossible ~ we do forget pretty quickly! For a rainy day yesterday, you accomplished a lot! I need some of your motivation. Enjoy your Saturday!
Oh how sad! I’m sorry he has to stop doing what he loves to do.
It’s warm here today, but it will drop to the fifties on Monday, then crazy 80s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then back to normal.
When I was growing up, our piano tuner was blind but I guess that’s somewhat common because their hearing is so keen almost as if to compensate for loss of sight.
xo
What a gorgeous piano. I’m sure your grandmother would love that it’s still in the family. I learned on an old used upright. For years I’ve had the beautiful console piano Mom bought herself when I was in high school. When they downsized to a retirement apartment I took it so our boys could learn to play something other than their band instruments. And, wow, does it need tuning! When our youngest, the musician, comes home the first thing he does is sit down to play a little Beethoven “Moonlight,” or a Joplin rag and it sounds pretty bad. Piano tuners are not cheap these days, but we have to bite the bullet soon because I want to be able to pass it down to him in relatively good shape.
Exactly. It’s not good to leave it untuned as long as I have. I feel guilty about it!
That piano is a beauty. You should play it. I admire any one who can play an instrument. The weather is going to be mostly sunny this coming week and hot.
Marilyn
I’ll play it when it’s in tune again. It needs to be played.
i wonder if they’ll try to replace piano tuners with robots eventually? like everything else now.
someone somewhere is probably working on it in some techno lab as we speak. it’s sad.
i love the beauty of its wood and the drama and era of the picture above it with the matching frame. perhaps the memories it brings are as important as the instrument at some point in time.
and the memories will always be with you.
i followed a blog where the lady turned an old upright into a bar. it was actually quite beautiful.
though it probably would make true lovers of antiques gasp. but it was tastefully done and they used it every evening. so who’s to say? it’s all in how you look at it i guess!
I tried so many different things over that piano, different paintings, photographs, etc. Then Don and I fell in love with the vintage lithograph of the Aquitania and bought it. When I realized that the frame was the same color, I knew it was meant to be. It’s perfect there.
it was meant to be. xo
xo
my husband is retired military and back in the years when he would go TDY, I would get the house all spiffed up, like you are doing. Wish I could do that again. We had lovely sun and heat for a couple of days and now it is rainy and cold again, so I understand how you feel. I guess summer will arrive eventually.
I always get more accomplished when Don isn’t here! I end up doing things (like polishing the piano) that I wouldn’t find the time for normally.
You could always give us (your faithful followers) a video concert on that beauty…it is sad that most of these old beauties are not valued anymore…It is 65 degrees here today with clouds and sunshine…we had a bit of rain earlier but it now has turned in to a pleasant day!
It was a sunny day and I got a lot done – now we’re in the midst of a thunder storm!
Beautiful piano. We had my grandfather’s in our house growing up. I would try to play it by ear but I wasn’t very good. No money for lessons. I guess it’s not too late if I really want to.
PS: Happy Birthday, Harper Lee. She would be 92 today.
Happy Birthday to my favorite author!
You did a great job on the piano. We have one here that’s definitely in need of tuning, too. It’s hard to find a good tuner. You are so right that keyboards seem to have replaced them , and that is sad. They just don’t sound the same at all IMHO. We have lots of handed-down and cherished furniture, and what to do with it is hard to know. Sigh. Rain here again also with lots to do outside!
I know. Who will love these things as much as I do? That’s the question!