Okay, Get out the hankies.  More on the Lauter Humana --

As a child of ten in Jersey City, in the 'fifties I had always wanted
to play the piano.  Unfortunate my family couldn't afford one at the
time -- in fact, they couldn't afford one at any time.

A neighbor across the street was getting rid of a piano.  It was on
the second floor of a two-family home and the only way to extract the
piano was to hoist it down.  They were willing to give it away for the
hoisting.  I had saved some holiday money and pleaded with my folks to
let me get the piano.  So, for the princely sum of $12.50 I bought the
piano.  I watched as the piano was precariously swung out of the window
and slowly lowered to the ground.

It was moved across the street but would not fit into the house.
I was devastated!  It stayed under a tarp in our yard until we
contacted a local piano shop in Bayonne to come and look at the piano.
It was indeed a Lauter Humana.

In order to fit the piano in the house, the piano man said he could
"modernize" it.  That would run $250.00, a fortune.  He heard me
picking out songs on the piano in the yard and said he would be willing
to accept a slow payout for the work.  Well, off it went to be stripped
of the player, toe blocks cut off and replaced with fancy legs, cut
down and a nice mirror installed.  The action was overhauled and the
piano was refinished.  It looked absolutely beautiful!

I had no inklings of player pianos at all.  I just wanted a piano.
After it was finally ensconced in our living room I started taking
lessons.  I think what makes me marvel at pianos and players, in
addition to the music is the mechanics of the whole thing.  I would
take the front off and marvel at the action.  One day, for no reason
at all I decided to take the action out.  That was easy enough.
Putting it back was another story.  At 12 or 14 I didn't have the
strength to properly reinstall the action and I broke a dozen
abstracts.

The kind piano man, took the action and _me_ back to his shop to
repair it.  I was mesmerized with all the pianos.  A few years later
I became associated with that store and it was there I started my
career as a tech.  Went on also to a career as a pianist, salesman,
business owner, etc., all involved with pianos and all of which
I still do today.

Aside from the New Jersey connection I share with John, my Lauter
Humana sitting proudly in my living room has a real special place in
my heart.  It is a 1917 model, the same year as the original piano
I first had <Sniff!>, and it plays marvelously!

In a world where technological wonders abound, why do we love these
old relics of the past?  For me it's a never diminishing fascination
with the mechanical.  Not the silent whirs of computers and modern
stuff, but the Rube Goldberg aspect of these wonderful instruments.
I love being able to fix them!  I guess passion is a good thing.

Arthur Marino