a bit of magic happened last week. i looped through neighboring towns to visit a few resale shops in search of vintage bed linens for a project i am working on. and when i opened the door of the final thrift store of the day, there it was.
a piano.
"oh, HELLO." i said, as my pulse quickened.
it was old. it was white, oh my! it appeared to be well-loved, or in the very least dusty and well-used. i instagrammed. i casually asked how long it had been there (a month). hmmm. i looked over my shoulder to see if anyone else realized what was happening. nope. then i tiptoed over to have a closer look. was this thing for real? i looked around for that guy from candid camera, because this is pretty much the last place i would expect to find a piano.
let alone this piano.
and so i played it. every key from bottom to top and back down again. i played a few songs, and pinched myself in between each one. not only was it basically in tune (!), but when you opened the lid, the inside was in really good condition. i texted PLC the photo and was greeted with an enthusiastic response of "benny and the jets." could this be happening? we have keyboards which we use for our band, mild mannered, but had only just started saving for a real family piano. and saving for something like that takes time. especially after all the work we did on our home this year. a family piano was a distant dream.
i wrote down the measurements and, trying not to seem too eager, mentioned to the manager that i might be interested, but needed to check measurements at home, etc. it was too good to be true. and that was before i even knew anything about this particular piano.
i bought it the next day.
and that saturday it was delivered by professional piano movers (who cost as much as the piano and were worth their weight in gold). since then, our house is filled with the sounds of fingers dancing across the keys with a little "doe a deer", a little brahms, and more than a few original compositions by each and every one of us.
OUR piano.
i still feel like i am in a dream.
a little research (thank you, interwebs) led us to discover that our piano is an antique upright mason & hamlin, made in boston in 1908. (i know! just think of all the history in there, oh my goodness!) there is serendipity in the fact that the original mahogony finish was sloppily painted over because the white suits our decor like a charm. i will get a professional piano tuner in here soon to give her some love, to be sure; but in the meantime she's playable and a dream come true for all of us. xoxo
