Having known "The Great Garrison" since the early 1960's, I can think
back on many memorable visits with him.  Perhaps some MMD readers are
not aware of Harry's skills as a magician, as well as his abilities as
a first-class piano restorer.

This particular story goes back to the racially troubled times of the
mid-sixties when Harry's hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, was the scene
of much violence.  I had been interested for some time in two marvelous
Melville-Clark pianos Harry had for sale.  These were no normal 88-note
players, but were capable of playing five different configurations of
rolls on one tracker bar.  In addition, they had clockwork motors with
fly-ball governors and superb workmanship in general.

About 11 PM one night I received an urgent call from Harry saying that
the riots were very close to his shop and, if I wanted the pianos, to
get down to Cincinnati right then and he would "make me an offer I
could not refuse".

As we neared his shop we began passing looters and buildings on fire,
but I kept driving -- fast!  Sure enough, upon arriving at Harry's
shop, there were the two Melville-Clark pianos on his porch, ready to
load.  A deal was quickly consummated and the pianos were loaded on
their backs on the tilt-bed of my Ford C-600 stock car hauling truck.

By now groups were on Harry's block, so without even tying the pianos
down we departed the scene in great haste.  Being a long time observer
of momentum, I knew that as long as I entered gently into any inertial
reactions to rotary frames of motion, the pianos would stay with us.
They did, and once we were out of Cincinnati we stopped and tied them
down well for the rest of the trip.

Harry and his shop survived the ordeal and most important, so did the
Melville-Clark pianos.

The End --
Jim Welty