Dueling Pianos

"Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle." - Robert Anthony


After lunch today, we rented a U-Haul and drove over to the elementary school. Why? We were going to pick up our new piano. 
No, not a replacement piano-- an additional piano, because we're huge snobs and one simply wasn't enough anymore. (The real reason: it only cost us about $25, and that was for the truck, so why the heck not?)


So you're probably thinking "Huh? One woman, one teenager, and one eleven year-old are going to move a super-heavy piano all by themselves? That's insane."


See, I bet you didn't know that all three of us can bench 100 pounds--a hundred British pound notes, that is. ;)


(We ended up getting the principal to help out with the loading, and our neighbor with the unloading.)


And now we have two pianos in our front room: the baby grand we've had my entire life, and an ex-player piano-turned-mirror-piano that was made in 1919 and is so horrendously out of tune that I've pretty much banned anyone from playing it until the piano tuner guy can come fix it. It's a bit crowded, but my mom and other sister are going to have fun playing things together when they both have access to a full keyboard instead of sharing.


So now for a bit of history, as well as what a mirror piano is:


During World War 2, the piano industry wasn't doing so well (I wonder why). There weren't many new ones being made, so what the companies did was find antiques (most of them gutted player pianos, like the one we now have), take off the top and attach a mirror. This made it look smaller and more modern.


Then they'd sell them to all of the people who wanted the Smallest, Sleekest, Lightest, Shiniest Newest Thing (these, of course, are the grandparents of the Apple fanboys) for a profit, not caring that they'd lowered the value of the antique pianos by thousands of dollars when adjusting for inflation.