The music keeps on truckin' around the Door
June 22, 2011
Several years ago, my wife and I learned of a family who was looking to give away an old upright piano. Since we didn’t have a piano, we were glad to acquire this particular piano for free. There was only one catch (there always is!). The piano was painted with thick white house paint with a sort of greenish tinge. Seeking a challenge, I decided that I would refinish our newly acquired old piano and I had the movers put the very large instrument in our basement.
I carefully dismantled it piece by piece and began the painstaking processes of removing all the dingy paint. Under the paint I discovered that the piano was made of very attractive mahogany, and I worked hard to bring out the beauty of the wood as I sanded and prepared it to receive a transparent oil-based finish coat.
This piano served us well for several years until one day when we got a call from a friend who was looking for a home for an old piano. We took a look at their old piano and decided that it was of a higher quality than our current refinished old piano. So, we had the movers deliver the piano to our home. Luckily, we were able to find a new home for our old refinished piano with some dear friends who lived on a farm. They told us that they would pick up the piano from our home and on the given day, they arrived with a pick up truck pulling a horse trailer. At first, I wasn’t sure why the horse trailer was in tow, but soon realized that thy planned to put their newly acquired piano into the horse trailer.
I soon learned that a horse trailer is situated at a most convenient height in which to load a piano. In no time the piano was loaded and off they went with their new piano – complete with a few bales of hay packed around it to keep it secure.
I hadn’t thought about my piano 
story for many years until last week when the grand piano we use at Birch Creek was delivered. The owner (and technician) of this wonderful nine-foot grand piano is our dear friend Peter Nelhsen of Washington Island, who, incidentally, keeps our 17 pianos on campus in tune all summer. Each year Peter delivers the piano in a large conventional rental van – but this year was different. Instead, Peter and the piano arrived in a bright green vintage 1947 four-wheel drive Dodge Power Wagon pickup truck. Once yellow and another time red, Peter recently painted the truck green and yellow, the colors of the John Deere Corporation, and hand-painted the company’s 1940s logo on the side. Since the bed of the truck is only about five feet long (and the piano’s length is nine feet), about four feet of the piano was hanging out of the back of the truck. Not to worry; Peter had the piano carefully wrapped and secured.
Only in Door County can a nine foot grand piano be delivered in a vintage bright green John Deere Dodge Power Wagon pickup truck to a 100 year old converted dairy-barn concert-hall where some of the finest classical, percussion, and jazz music will be performed all summer long. We’re looking forward to seeing you. Stop by and listen to the music. We’ll be here. (And, look for me around Door County. I’m driving a 1969 Chevy light blue pickup truck.)
