It always amazes me how buried treasures can be found in unusual places. Our church had a grand piano in the choir rehearsal room. It wasn't the best sounding and it looked like a refugee from the scrap heap. Some naughty person managed to spill soda into the interior. And it really gummed up the works. So we sent it out to the piano repairer. First he called back and said this is a Mason and Hamlin piano, which are very good pianos. So we thought maybe we should get it rebuilt. The exterior of the instrument was black (and I don't mean ebony) and all "alligatored". The re builder said I'll strip off a little of the finish and see what it looks like, it might be mahogany. A little later in the day he calls and says it isn't mahogany, it's walnut. A half hour later he calls again, it's not just walnut, it's burled walnut. So we had it rebuilt and refinished. When I saw it last Sunday....WOW!!! It's eat your heart out beautiful (and it sounds great).
The moral of this story is don't jump to conclusions, it was definitely the "ugly duckling". It is now the beautiful swan. I'll be a lot slower to write off old stuff in the future.
Ed Friedl
keeping one's eyes open
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