When I arrived at a typical suburban rancher tract home, I was surprised to find two closed caskets in the same living room where I was to tune the piano. Surprised, but, not alarmed in particular, because, when I was growing up, funeral viewings in the home were typical. In fact, my own father was laid out in our front parlor. Thus, I assumed the piano I was tuning was to provide music for a double funeral viewing. Perhaps a car accident that had claimed two victims. Eventually the gentleman who owned the piano explained to me that he and his wife were vampires and slept in the coffins during the day. That's was the reason he hired me, because, my phone book ad stated that I offered both day and evening appointments. Vampires, he went on to explain, cannot see daylight or they disintegrate. He could not have opened the door for me to enter his home in the daylight. I never got to meet the misses, and I did not believe he was actually a vampire, but, I'm quite certain he believed he was. Therefore, as I worked, I watched my back, and more importantly, my neck. I finished my work and left the house without event. The next time he called me to tune his piano I told him I was all booked up. For fun,I referred him to one of my competitors. I was a big fan of the Gothic soap opera DARK SHADOWS that ran on the ABC television network from 1966 to 1971. Johnathan Frid played the vampire Barnabas Collins. The "vampire" guy I met was not as well dressed, nor, as well spoken.
