Seven Days Before Christmas 2011

2011 Front Window

Here I sit with the sun reaching in and warming the den and casting silhouettes of the poinsettia and bubble candles onto the sofa while the suns rays reach beyond them to climb the curtains!  I really LOVE the beauty and the simplicity.  It also is really cool that it took me almost an hour to decorate the house.  I have "Gramma Gin's Christmas Trunk" open with Great Gramma Pendergast's homemade quilt lining it and all the family human and pet stockings draped over the edges with Santa hats on the corners.  That is right.  No fussing.  No buying more stuff.  No missing the Christmas tree.  Just smiling and enjoying each moment! 

Oh NO, I just looked out the den window beyond the decorations and see that I didn't get the front window washed this fall!  Horrors!!!  My mind is racing back in time to a former life where I would have sprung into immediate action faster than Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixon on Christmas Eve to repair this astonishing failing by 1) CLOSING the curtains and keeping them closed until the first warm day of spring when I can get outside and wash the window or 2) race out to the garage, yank the 8' step ladder off the east wall, return to house and grab my brand spanking new Norwex cleaning and polishing cloths and dash outside and get the window cleaned before anyone else could witness this horrific event!

But this is 2011 and I have discovered how full and rich life can be - how it is so much bigger than the den window that is dirty on the outside and clean on the inside!  That is not to say that having a clean and orderly home doesn't matter - it does, but it is no longer THE A-1 priority in my life.  There really is so much more!

So here I sit, blogging about my 1951 bungalow simply and beautifully decorated for Christmas.  I also celebrate that it took me less than a minute to recover from the voice in my head that tried to get me to feel guilty about the blasted dirty window.  Nipped in the bud!  And in the time it took me to create this blog post, the sun has moved west - I can no longer see any dirt on the window anyway!    Taddddaaaaahhhh!

1913 George B. Norris Piano

In the late 1950's and early 1960's my great grandmother, Isobel, was bedridden at home.  Her son and daughter-in-law, my grandparents took care of her.  During the summers and long school vacations, my sister went to stay with them to help.  In gratitude for her help, grampa and gramma paid for her to have organ and piano lessons every summer.  She was an excellent student.

Mom and dad then decided to buy a used piano at the Kirkland's auction.  Their farm was just southwest of gramma and grampa's farm.  When my sister graduated from high school and married, mom and dad moved the piano to a unheated building near their house.  It stayed there for several years unattended and all but forgotten.

By 1972 I was married and the mother of three children ages six, four and two.  We moved into a split entry pre-built home that was built in a warehouse in Wisconsin, delivered on two semi trucks from Wisconsin and assembled in two days.

Shortly after that mom and dad decided that that the "old piano" had to go.  It was decided that my family could have it and would put it in our unfinished basement where my children and the day care children who came daily spent a great deal of time.

One day I began hearing my children playing very simple tunes on that "old piano" and then singing those songs together.  I was so excited that I called a piano tuner to give me an estimate on tuning the piano so the kids could take lessons.  It was then I learned that I was the owner of a 1913 George B. Norris, curved top upright piano that was built before 1920 when the pitch of pianos went up "one half step."  He said he could tune it, in spite of a crack in the sound board, but it would be difficult for the kids to practice on a piano that sounded different than the one they would play on a piano lessons or at recitals.  It was then decided that we would buy a new piano to put upstairs in the living room so the kids could practice and play "in the same pitch."

All three kids took piano lessons and went on to play the baritone, bass guitar, clarinet and trumpet - and they all love music!

In 1998 I move to St. Paul and moved the piano here and put it in the garage just until I could get things in the house arranged so I could move it in.  Well, that NEVER happened.  The garage was unheated and this fall we discovered it was wet in early October!  My heart sank.  My daughter hired  two piano restoration specialists who came, looked and gave the same verdict - too far gone to restore.

Last night the 1913 George B. Norris was rolled out of the garage and chopped down to nothing to be carted away to the dump.  Well, almost all of it - I kept the curved top with the gold inscription George B. Norris on the inside.  I don't know what I will do with it if anything but I do know that I just couldn't let all of it go yet.

Amazingly, I can still hear the kids playing those simple tunes...maybe the memories are all I really need to keep.  Maybe... ... ... well, I finally put "george b norris piano company early 20th century" into Google search and found:  George B. Norris pianos were built by the Holland Piano Manufacturing Company of Menomonie, Wisconsin. George B. Norris was the president of Holland Piano Company, and many of their instruments were built under his name. A late-comer to the industry, the firm was established in 1913. George B. Norris built a full line of upright pianos, baby grand pianos, and player pianos. They were known for being of very good quality at an affordable price. Unfortunately, George B. Norris built pianos for less than 20 years, going out of business with the Great Depression. The firm was liquidated in 1931.

I bet it was hard for George B. Norris to liquidate his piano company.  He made really unique and beautiful pianos for the Holland Piano Manufacturing Company, Menomonie, Wisconsin.  I didn't even take a picture of it.  I need to keep the top and will bring it into the house tomorrow so it can be preserved...though I don't know for what!  Am just plain sentimental and ain't gettin' over it anytime soon... ... ... I just closed my eyes and can hear the kids playing and singing and laughing now.