Antique Music

Buon Giorno faithful readers!  I want to share with you a "sentimental journey."  This trip started on Sunday, October 23rd.  Let me start out by saying, I have ALWAYS desired an antique phonograph of my very own.  As long as I can remember I have searched in antiques shops, classified ads, attended auctions and estate sales but always coming up empty handed.  What I found was either too expensive or, if it was the right price, involved too much work to restore it.  When I moved to my current city about 4 years ago, I discovered Craigslist and have searched on this site since.  Again, coming up empty handed for the same aformentioned  reasons..........until.......last Sunday evening when I was once more pounding the Craigslist antiques section and.....VOILA!...there it was...a beautiful floor model phonograph that was unbelievably in my price range (80.00)!!!!  I just stared at it.  When the shock wore off...I quickly emailed the poster and asked two major questions....do you still have it?...and.... is there anything wrong with it?  I nervously waited for my inbox to show a reply.  It came before I decided to turn of the computer for the night.  I mumbled a little prayer and opened up the email.  The reply: yes, I still have it.......the lid needs to be re-attached.  That's it?!?!?  OMG!  I could barely write down the phone number the woman gave me....and....I had to go to sleep.

I called her from work around 9:30 Monday morning and we decided to wait until Tuesday at 9 a.m. for an appointment to see it in her home.  Tuesday morning at promptly 9 a.m. I ring the doorbell and was greeted by a woman with a softness to her demeanor and was taken to the item in question.  I just stared at the phonograph and she had to initiate the inspection to knock me out of my shock.  There before me stood a beautiful mahogany 1916 Pooley Grand Prix Eufonola.  She explained to me that it had been her mother-in-law's, who bought it when she started working in the early 1930's.  When they acquired it she said the finish was alligatored so they had it professionally refinished.  I won't bore you with the rest of the conversation but I connected with this women because of her love for preserving old things.  She is an architect and an artist.  Her house was of course my favorite 1920's bungalow style restored to perfection with a two-story addition that one could not even begin to realize was an add-on.  She is an enamel on copper artist on top of this and some of her pieces are gorgeous.

We decided I should return the next morning to pick up the phonograph with my friend Bob.  I was there a little early so we had time to chat before my friend arrived. We talked about her work and classes I could take from her this winter for enameling.  She showed me 3 enamel bowls she had and explained they were for sale at half the cost but I declined because they were still too expensive and I decided to load the records (she gave me for free) into my car.  When I finished, I came back into the house and she presented me with my favorite bowl as a gift.  I was stunned!  I told her I could not accept and she said "Merry Christmas."
One does not run into people like her too often in life and that is one reason I had to write about it because I want to treasure this experience when I can no longer remember things.  Secondly, it is not too often I encounter such individuals.

HH~

ANGELO