I have to take issue with Robbie Rhodes on one detail of his
recollections of those thrilling days of yesteryear. He says, in
reference to the Tangley calliope:
"...on a quiet afternoon in the suburbs it could easily be heard
over a quarter-mile away!"
I am sure that that particular calliope could be heard at least two
miles away, maybe more. (There are some things from childhood that one
never forgets.) That's part of what must have made it so grand when the
circus came to town! The old guy who owned that machine lived in a
run-down residential part of Long Beach, California. He kept it, along
with a lot of other junk, in a shed behind the house. I don't think he
could play it all that well himself, and his neighbors were quite
unsympathetic to the racket it made. When it got moved to our home, and
_Rob_ was at the keyboard, we became very popular (or at least
well-known) with our neighbors.
Cheers
Doug Rhodes
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