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I.
It wasn’t that everyone in the family disliked music or that no one played music. My Uncle Bob played the piano and was very musical. He was a great whistler, he could do pretty amazing trill whistling actually.
However he was unlike most of the people in the family. We were of German/Swiss extraction.
There was some Nazi-like obsessive compulsive behavior going on.
Anyway, Uncle Milt and and Aunt Marian decided that their kids should play the piano and lessons were paid for . They had three boys: Peter, Carl and Bobby. I think that Peter took lessons and quit and then Carl had lessons. He also hated taking the lessons.
At some point the decision was made to get rid of the piano. It was a nice piano and I thought a very beautiful piece of woodwork. So when Milt asked my Dad and I to help get rid of the piano, I was somewhat surprised. I think that Milt tried to sell the piano to no avail and then offered to give the piano away to no avail.
Now the plan was to put the piano on a dolly and push it over the cliff next to their house. Granted the year is 1954 and we were not concerned with environmental sensitivity. Also other objects had been thrown over this cliff.
My problem was grasping the idea that you would have so little respect for music, the instrument itself and art itself. I really couldn’t fathom that we were doing this.
Nonetheless it was done and it was done with enjoyment and I could see that my cousins were really happy that the piano was being disposed of in such a disrespectful manner.
To this day I wonder if that piano is still down at the bottom of that ravine, strings rusting and animals living in the innards.