Serendipity

I'm a garage sale/flea market/thrift store junkie. I love the hunt almost as much as the purchase. I go garage saling every Saturday that I can and I can always find something. I've found some pretty amazing things. But today I hit the mother lode.

I was at a garage sale and in the garage was a wonderful old antique Wing & Sons New York upright concert grand piano. It looked to be in fairly good shape and what caught my eye was the gorgeous detail and carvings. So I was asking about the piano because, well, I've always wanted a piano so that I could take lessons and learn to play. The nice people were telling me all about the history of the piano and how their daughter learned to play on it and how it was made in 1916, and they were showing me the dates written on the inside each time it had been tuned: 1923, 1932, 1958, etc.

Then the nice people's 18 year old daughter sat down at the piano and played a song on the real ivory keys. It sounded beautiful.

I hadn't gotten around to asking how much it was when I saw the sign on it that said:
FREE TO GOOD HOME.

I about wet my pants with glee. 1916? Wow! This piano is almost 100 years old! I love wondering about the original owner and where they lived and how many people have had this piano and it's rich history. In the old days, people used to gather in the parlour or sitting room and actually sit around the piano and just be together. No television. No computers. No video games. Music was the big excitement at home and at parties.

I couldn't believe it. I told the nice people that I wanted it. And they said great, all you have to do is move it.

Oh. Right. That.

Then I remembered this was a big heavy piano that I might have a hard time sneaking into the house and putting somewhere and then when Jim asks me where I got it I'd say something like, "Oh that? It's been there for a long time. Don't you remember?"

I couldn't do that this time. I was going to need his help and the use of his trailer because the piano weighs about 600 pounds and although I'm pretty strong, I'm not that strong. I called him up all excited about my fabulous find and surprisingly he did not hang up on me. He was actually happy to hook his big enclosed trailer up to his truck for me and go pick it up.

So now, you are looking at the proud owner of a piano. I can cross piano ownership off my bucket list.

Jimmy wants to take lessons and so do I and maybe someday the Doodle will want to play. How wonderful that would be if we found something like music that he enjoyed doing besides changing the channel on the t.v. Maybe he will be the next Mozart.

Now we just need to figure out a way to get it into the house.