The Longest Day

We eat continental, get out some cash, walk to Penske, get the truck after about an hour of waiting for who knows what, climb in and NO CIGARETTE LIGHTER. AAAAAAAAGHHHHH! Ok not that big of deal, but I could see gray skies across the country gathering. We drive back to the motel and load the bags and take off, following the first of our may Google Directions Maps. We drive right to Carey Organ in Troy, they are waiting, sort of, in a very old part of town.

They tell me to drive around the corner to a fenced parking lot behind a HUGE old building, round with a spherical top. I now know that is was a coal gas storage building to hold gas to light the street lights. Now it is a dirt floored storage facility, with boats, boat trailers and lots of organ parts.

They tell me to back the truck into an opening about 5 inches total larger than the truck mirrors. Yikes!!!! So I do as I am told and almost make it. OK I made it, then I maneuver the trucks back door to the doors on the Carey Organ Co. trailer. We get out the ramps and transfer an old Allen organ console, electric, along with two speakers into my truck. Hit my head on the smaller roofed trailer. Ouch! Then I drive out and over to Carey’s back door. Then we sit around for awhile while the experts inside finish soldering up the other two speakers.

Meanwhile we get a tour of the place, Paul Carey takes upstairs to hear his Vocalion, which is a reed organ that works on pressure, not vacuum. Really neat sounding, only 100 known to exist, and 19^th Century beautiful. See the pics. He and his friend are the world experts and president and vice president of the Vocalion fan club. The upstairs of the Organ company look like a Victorian mansion, with the table set with fine antique china and all. What fun,

So then we load up some of the already completed stop action for the replacement pipe organ to go into “Our Lady of Hope” in September, along with the two speakers and 7 pipe boxes for my organ’s pipes. By now it is 11:30 AM or so, and Ralph and his friends in Whitehall (we find out) have been waiting at the church since 9:00 AM (no cell phone coverage and we didn’t have a contact number of a land line there).

So we start off our journey of Hope. Lynn Swank is our expert mercenary, who leads us out of Troy and into the freeway system of up-state New York. Finally we exit at Glens Falls, and Lynn stops us for lunch at a local eatery, with sweet potato fries. We order some, but get regular (and passable) fries instead. We leave and finally pull in front of Our Lady about 1:15PM. Ooooops. We are greeted by Paul and everyone, and Lynn drive the truck to the back of parking lots ramp. We go up to the balcony and play and drool over the organ. Very nice and a nice setting. I have NO stained glass donated by the Whitehall Firefighters. Rats.

The lift still has to go back by 5:00PM, so we get to work, unloading for 90 minutes, the Allen temporary organ, and lifting it using the lift, onto the balcony.

Finally about 2:30 we tear into the Casavant. The time has come. Removal and packing all the pipes take 3 hours and 4 boxes. We lower them safely out of the way. Then remove the center cabinet. Then realize that the action and chest must come out for the twin towers to fall. So Lynn starts un-attaching all the stuff under and on the sides of the chest. A little black canister inside the base leaks oil all over Lynn. A Mystery! Finally the main chest comes out, heavy but not too. As it lifts, the twin towers fall outward. I catch the right one, 2 others the left. Whew.

With the base left standing, we take out the blower, and inspect. Meidinger, pretty good shape, well oiled, as the wooden base is soaked with old blower bearing oil, and there is a HUGE oil can. Must be necessary.

Francis, the church man in charge, who already got his check, comes out with a drawing, from Casavant, of the organ, and the Casavant nameplate, warped and un-glueable, fallen off years ago, but saved.

Now all the big pipes are lowered, the chest and towers and base and blower and keyboard, and panels, and pipe boxes, and a huge rainstorm has arisen, soaking the driver’s side truck seat where Lynn had left the window open hours before. Mmmmm, refreshing. The helpers have loaded the truck using only a small fraction al all the blankets I had rented, there is only room left enough for the rest of the blankets. Ha. Its 9:30PM, Lynn has been in periodic contact with his wife, he has to buy discount air tickets today, before the rates go up tomorrow. He does.

As we depart, Lynn heads back down toward Troy, while we follow Paul to the free motel, in the dark, on back roads to Glenville, with the lift in the back of his pickup truck, which needs to be back to the rental place by 7:30 the next morning (it is rented by someone else for tomorrow!). I hand out little gifts (CDs) to all, though not enough for all the sweat and effort throughout the day.

We follow Paul to Glenville. The Pine Grove Motel. A few things are rattling in back, which I can wait ‘til morning to re-pad. Finally we turn in and say goodnight and turn in. A shower helps but it is hard to dry off in NY in June. No dinner, but chewy granola bars will do.

Whew.