Jones Alley
reunion
I got the most amazing keyboard the other day. It's a cheesy sounding, ugly little transistor combo organ by a Japanese company called Ace Tone, the company that many years ago kind of turned into the modern musical instrument company now called Roland. The organ was made in 1967, it's garish red and white with screw-on stainless steel legs, it only makes five sounds and generally speaking is the kind of instrument that I can't stand, with that crappy, wanky organ sound like you hear on "96 Tears." I paid way more than it's worth, but I would have paid even more to have it.
It's where I began turning into me. It's the very first instrument I ever played on stage in a rock band, back in the winter of 1969. Not one like it, but the exact same one. It was owned by the guy who played bass and ran the band, and I borrowed it on and off for four or five years in the 70's until I finally started getting some real keyboards of my own.
Even with the collection I have amassed in the meantime, I have wondered about this humble little instrument all these decades, and a few months ago I decided to see if I could track it down. I succeeded, and it's home with me now for good. Amazingly, it seems to have been in a time capsule and it looks like nobody has even played it since the last time I did, it just sat in closets all these years. The little black scuff mark that I accidentally made on the cover looks like it just happened yesterday.
And now it's mine. Forever. I almost cried when I opened the box and saw it for the first time in thirty years. I still can't look at it without getting a lump in my throat, and I've had it here for a week now.
I feel like I just married my high school sweetheart. And she is exactly the same as she was the last time I saw her.
Life can be so good.
It's where I began turning into me. It's the very first instrument I ever played on stage in a rock band, back in the winter of 1969. Not one like it, but the exact same one. It was owned by the guy who played bass and ran the band, and I borrowed it on and off for four or five years in the 70's until I finally started getting some real keyboards of my own.
Even with the collection I have amassed in the meantime, I have wondered about this humble little instrument all these decades, and a few months ago I decided to see if I could track it down. I succeeded, and it's home with me now for good. Amazingly, it seems to have been in a time capsule and it looks like nobody has even played it since the last time I did, it just sat in closets all these years. The little black scuff mark that I accidentally made on the cover looks like it just happened yesterday.
And now it's mine. Forever. I almost cried when I opened the box and saw it for the first time in thirty years. I still can't look at it without getting a lump in my throat, and I've had it here for a week now.
I feel like I just married my high school sweetheart. And she is exactly the same as she was the last time I saw her.
Life can be so good.
posted by Milo Johnson at 12:59 AM
2 Comments:
How fine!
I got a lump, reading it.
The first King Arthur book I ever read travelled with me from England to Canada, and got burned up in a house fire after I lent it to a friend. It took me until a couple of years ago to get another copy of that particular book, and that's after buying every book of such stories that came my way. I couldn't remember the title or the author, just one of the illustrations. I finally found it on eBay and bought it for $12.
I cried, even though it wasn't the same copy--it had the same text and the same illustrations, and it was like being reunited with an old friend.
Awww...just got out of bed for the first time since my return from UK on Sunday (sinus infection) and read your touching post. Warms the cockles...
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