I started in music boxes back in 1972.  At that time, to my limited
knowledge, there were only a few people in the country restoring
musical boxes (not band organs and orchestrions -- we're just talking
disc and cylinder boxes here).  I met Dr. Joseph Roesch, an English
professor and music box restorer the same year.  The interest in our
wonderful instruments had just started budding again and we talked
many times about how there were too few people around to fix them all.

In the 1980s we did see some new people coming into the restoration
field and they stayed for 20-plus years.  Then either retirement or
death took its toll.

Time passed and I moved to larger quarters.  While walking down the
driveway to my four-bay garage, Joe and I stopped at the same time
and turned to each other and said "School!"  We'd talked so often
about trying to teach restoration work but never had a place to do it,
but here it was!

So we finished off two bays of the garage and ran the first Cylinder
Music Box Restoration School.  For ten summers we ran classes for both
beginner and advanced students.  We had a total of 236 students attend
over that time period.

What we learned was that most who came were (1) hobbyists who wanted to
learn how to safely service their own instruments; (2) clock repairers
who thought they wanted to branch out to music boxes (but found out they
had to actually make parts and there were no "parts-off-the-shelf" to
fix boxes); (3) people who wanted to understand how music boxes worked;
and (4) a small number of people who were already proficient and wanted
to further their skills.

Of all those 236 students only _three_ went on to practice what they
learned and to take in boxes for repair.  _None_ of these three did it
for a full-time living.  They all had other jobs or were of an age that
didn't require supporting kids, cars and a mortgage.

Apprenticeship is something people today are not interested in.  Most
of the younger generation is not interested in anything non-electronic.
They want an instant high-paying job that requires the least amount of
effort and thinking on their part.  They're not interested in _how_
things work, just that they do.  If it's broken, they toss it and get
another one.  Yes, there are exceptions, but not enough!

Apprenticeship, from the teacher's point of view, is a very time
consuming enterprise.  It's hard enough to make a living at restoring
mechanical instruments, so to slow down your output in order to try to
teach the craft is not a viable thing to do.  If you were of a mind to
teach, just _finding_ the student who wanted to devote the time and
effort is a problem!

From the apprentice's point of view, he or she is spending time not
making money and knows it will take many years to become proficient at
the craft.  Once the craft is "learned" enough to take in work, there's
not enough money to be made to support a family, house, kids and cars.
It would have to be a second job type of situation.  So the only
motivation someone might have to learn is for their own satisfaction.

When I started there were very few repairers and the interest in
mechanical music was just starting to be re-energized.  Almost 50 years
later, I see the other side of the cycle -- where the repairers are
dwindling and so is the interest.  But, there _will_ be another turn of
the wheel!  It may not be within our lifetime, but it will happen.  In
the meantime all we can do is save as many instruments as we possibly
can and enjoy them.

Educate when you can; you never know if the person you're sharing your
information with is the one who will spark the next energy surge!

Nancy Fratti - Nancy Fratti Music Boxes
Canastota, New York, USA