MEET THE FAMILY

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A BIRTHDAY PARTY TO BRING THE FAMILY TOGETHER. In this case it's 2003 and it's mine. The grand kids tried to put all the candles on the cake, but, they were overcome by the heat. The two photos with me and the cake are my kids and grand kids. The dog is Katie. The yellow cat is Simba. The gray and white cat is Gaitway Jordan.  The grand kids are all grown, the pets have all passed away, and I've enjoyed many great birthdays since.  We Welsh people believe that your family is your legacy. I'm a rich man.

"OUR CHRISTMAS MIRACLE"

                                           PAINTING OF MORRIS HUTCHINS RUGER
                                               by FRANCIS CALDWELL CIRCA 1936

For a number of years, I tuned the piano for Robert Morris Ruger of Haddon Heights, New Jersey.  Mr. Ruger was a true Renaissance man.  Besides being a gifted musician and popular piano teacher, Ruger was a noted mathematician who worked for Boeing on the Apollo project as well as a boxer and Boston Marathon runner. Near the piano hung a painting of his father, Morris Hutchins Ruger at his own piano smoking his trade mark pipe.  Morris Ruger, a Julliard graduate, was a renowned pianist, but, is most noted as a composer of orchestral works, string and woodwind ensembles, choral concerts and operas.  His opera  GETTYSBURG, which featured an all American cast, premiered in 1938 at the Hollywood Bowl to unprecedented critical acclaim. Due to the fact that the opera premier was broadcast Nationally, newspapers across the Country proclaimed: " Brilliant! Riveting! A Triumph!" Morris Ruger was on the faculty of San Bernardino College and died in California, in 1974 at age 72.  While involved with President Roosevelt's "New Deal" Federal Music Project, which kept people in The Arts working during the Depression, Ruger became friends with a noted California artist, Francis Atlee "Frank" Caldwell.  Caldwell, who died  at age 85 in 1996 was about 25 years old when he painted the picture of Ruger who was about 34 at the time.  Today, if you are willing to settle for one in a series of five hundred prints of a Caldwell painting, it will set you back about five hundred bucks. An original Caldwell painting is usually a museum piece except for several that are owned by Ruger family members.

My client, Robert Morris Ruger, moved from New Jersey to Washington State in his retirement years to be closer to his family.  Of course, he took the Caldwell painting with him.  When he died in 2010 in at age 83, he willed the painting to his oldest grandson,  Jason Ruger, who was serving in the U.S. Army in Texas.  In the process of settling up the estate, Robert's son shipped the painting from Seattle to Texas, but, due to grief and confusion, forgot to purchase shipping insurance. To make matters worse, the shipper delivered the painting to a wrong address that was six blocks away from where Jason lived.  Since the item was not insured no signature was required. The painting was left on the porch of an apartment house.  The shipper provided Jason with the mistaken address, but, denied any other responsibility.  No one at the wrong address admitted to seeing the package.  The Ruger family was heartsick.  Some speculated that since the package looked similar in size and shape to a big screen TV, a thief simply spotted it unattended on the porch and absconded with it.  This theory proved to be largely correct.

Jason Ruger made up fliers which featured a description and photograph of the lost painting and posted them in store windows and on utility poles for many blocks around. He wisely did not advertise that the painting was rare or valuable.  The summer and fall passed with the painting still missing.  The Ruger family had almost given up hope when, shortly before Christmas, Jason received a phone call from a women who had found the painting.  She was the landlady of an apartment house situated across the street from the address where the painting was mistakenly delivered.  A couple who rented from her fell behind in their rent and moved out in the middle of the night .  While cleaning out the apartment the landlady found the painting stashed in a closet.  Fortunately, she had saved one of Jason's fliers and contacted him.  She declined Jason's offer of a reward.  The painting had been mishandled by the thieves and had to be restored at a cost of $1500.00, but, it is now happily back in the hands of the Ruger family who refers to the entire incident as "our Christmas miracle

SPECIAL THANKS to Cynthia Steinberg, Robert Ruger's daughter, for relating the preceding story to me and aiding in my research. Cynthia and her husband David have been tuning clients for many years and their son carries on the family tradition of great piano playing.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        

CHRISTMAS TRAINS TO THE RESCUE!

Many years ago I had a piano tuning client who had two young daughters taking piano lessons. The girls were doing quite well and their dad had me out to tune and service the piano several times a year. Then, dad lost his job. Every few months I would phone and see if his employment situation had improved and to see if he was ready to have me come out to take care of the piano. Things did not improve as more than a year passed. I called him a few weeks before Christmas and insisted that he allow me to come and take care of the piano at no charge. I knew how much his daughters enjoyed playing the piano and I was also concerned that the instrument was deteriorating. We agreed on a date. When I arrived, he was hard at work decorating the family Christmas tree. We chatted as we both worked at our separate tasks and he told me how much he appreciated my kindness. He shared that his mortgage was many payments behind and that he was hiding his car in a neighbors garage to fend off the repo man. A little later he unpacked a carton containing Lionel trains and began setting them up under the Christmas tree. Being a life long train collector, I immediately noticed that he had some extremely valuable items. I asked him if the trains held any sentimental attachment for him and he informed me that they had belonged to an uncle who years ago gave them to him rather than trash them. I gave him the name and address of a reputable train dealer I knew just a few miles away and urged him to get an offer on the trains. He called me a few days later to tell me he was sending me a check for my piano work because the dealer paid him enough to catch up on all his bills plus a few thousand dollars to spare! Lionel trains had come to the rescue. He called me again just after the new year to tell me that one of the many places he had sought employment hired him and he was back to work.

A CHRISTMAS TALE

We Welsh people love the harp, the National instrument of Wales. I've even seen heavy metal rock groups using harps in place of  keyboards. I am delighted that my granddaughter Verity, an able pianist, took the harp as her main instrument. A dedicated musician, she earned a great deal of the money to purchase her harp herself. As you can see from the photos, she has played for many years and now plays harp professionally.  She, of course, still plays free for our family Christmas Eve dinner.

I seldom get through a Christmas Eve without my mind drifting back to 1979. The phone rang just as we were about to sit down to dinner. A client of mine called to explain that while she and her husband were in the basement wrapping gifts, the kids upstairs got bored and decided to fill in all the spaces between the piano keys with WHITE GLUE! She wanted to know what she should do. I told her that the piano would have to be disassembled and cleaned. I would be right over. Fortunately my brother, also a piano technician, was dining at my home. We pushed our plates aside and rushed out the door. We had to get to those keys before the glue could set. We pulled the piano apart, took out all the keys, washed and dried them, and, reassembled the instrument. The job took many hours and the bill, for two technicians on Christmas Eve, was not for the faint of wallet. The next time I tuned that piano, I noticed the client's children frowning at me and giving me dirty looks. I asked why they were mad at me. They said that on Christmas Day, their parents allowed them to open the presents, then took them away. The gifts were returned to the stores to cover the bill for the piano work. I applauded my clients for great parenting. The kids hate me to this day!