Pianola, Roadside Finds, Angry Husbands and other Earthy delights

Photo: Perth Kerbside Facebook Christine Gotch

I saw this photo a good friend of mine tagged me in on Facebook, and I thought that could just as well be me in the photo.

If you are anything like me and you tend to think with your heart rather than your head, you might find yourself in trouble with your husband as often as I do.

My friends and family know all too well that I’m always busy restoring, recycling or up cycling anything I can lay my hands on. So, when we moved to the Hills area in Western Australia, I was practically in Crafters Heaven.

I’m familiar with the fact that you can’t take your beloved possessions with you when your time comes to leave earth, but I discovered "verge collection", and it opened a whole new world to my forever up cycling passion. When I first found out about verging, (not sure if there is actually a word like that) I had no idea what the big fuss was all about.

Growing up in South-Africa, we did not have access to anything even remotely similar to Verge Collection. You had your normal rubbish removal once a week, but that was it. So this was a really new concept to me.

We lived in WA for about a month, when I finally figured out what verging was all about, and let’s just say, it hit me with a bang. For the people out there who don’t know what verging is all about, this is how it goes. Around two times a year the council sends you a note in the mail, to tell you what date you can place your unwanted items on the sidewalk in front of your property. You have a few weeks to do so, before the big council truck comes around to collect everything that’s left, crushing everything into little small pieces of nothing.

I went crazy. The period of time that things are displayed on the sidewalks is when people take whatever they want before the doomsday truck eventually come around. I think you are supposed to ask permission before you take something, but I soon enough figured out that people don’t want to be bothered and most of the time they’re more than happy if someone else could make use of their unwanted treasures.

It’s unbelievable what people actually left out there. I saw (and most of the time took home) things like antique wooden tables, chairs, vintage sewing machines etc. If you look for something in particular, you will surely find it somewhere on a sidewalk. Sometimes things don’t even need a clean-up, it’s simply that people just don’t have a use for it anymore. It’s really hard for me to walk away from something if it’s really old with potential. It’s like leaving a child or a pet dog next to the road. You just don’t do that. Most things don’t deserve to be thrown away or munched up by a furniture eating truck. It really upset me. You wouldn’t leave your Grandma on the sidewalk when she gets too old, would you?

I could not help myself. I could not drive pass something. I could already see how it would look once sanded and painted. Then my sister from Cape-Town, South-Africa came to visit. Needless to say, it was not even two days until she was just as hooked. Some days we would go back home with only her head sticking out between chairs. But we have to be really quick about doing all of this. You see, my husband did not share in our new found joy. So we had to make sure that everything was neatly stored before he came home in the afternoon. We could not take it inside, so we store it outside on the side of the house, all covered up under a green tarp. Then soon enough it took over the shed and the backyard. I had so much fun, sanding and painting and decorating.

You can’t always paint Grandma’s old antique dresser without having a family feud on hand, but you surely can sand, paint, wax, mosaic etc. to your hearts content when you call it a "Roadside Find".

So around the time where I was about half way through my favourite finds, we decided to move to South-Australia, over 3000km away. Needless to say, I could not fit a quarter of my things in a forty feet container. And at the time, there wasn’t a verge collection coming up for me to re-circulate my precious finds. That was when my husband got really angry with me. He had to pay around $400.00 in fees for the dump yard, and also had to rent a small truck to make a few trips there. So I wasn’t his favourite person for a while, oooops!

To my disappointment, and his delight, they don’t do verging in the area we moved to. Once in a while someone will place something on the side of the road with a “For Free” sign stuck to it. Boring! Then I discovered the next best thing. Local Auctions! If you are looking for a bargain, this is the place to go.

From plants to goats and chickens to Antique furniture. Make sure to take a lot of money with you, because you might regret it if you don’t. But you don’t need a lot of money if you can stop at one or two things…..

So just over a week ago, my husband told me about an upcoming auction, and he heard that they might have vintage Blacksmithing Tools for sale. His hobby is making really beautiful knives, and I think he is really creative. That’s why I can’t understand that he don’t share my love for special finds.

I walked into that Auction hall and I changed into someone I don’t even know. My mouth went dry and my heart beat so fast I couldn’t even think straight. I tend to romanticise everything. I looked through my rose coloured glasses and I knew I was going to be in trouble when I got home. But while in action, I didn’t worry about it too much.

I saw this French looking table and chairs, and I could already see it in a sunny room with a crystal chandelier hanging above it from the ceiling. I could see myself drinking a cup of tea in a fancy teacup and reading my favourite magazine. This is just how my mind works, and straight away I knew I couldn’t go home without it.

Then my heart beat even faster. I found a few boxes of old music scrolls.

I had no idea what you were actually supposed to use them for, I just knew that they were really old and that they had my name all over them. So, by the time the auctioneer hit the hammer on the table, I did not only buy around fifty music scrolls, I also bought a Pianola which was part of the deal. Bargain! $30.00.

Then an old Gentleman came to me, and asked me if I knew what I just bought. I think he was German. He was one of the tallest, biggest and strongest people I’ve ever met in my life. His hair and long beard was as white as milk, and he had the friendliest blue eyes. He looked like he just walked out of an old painting. I also haven’t met someone that kind in a long time. He took me to where the Pianola was standing in the corner of the room, on a massive big trailer. Then it actually hit me. How on earth am I going to get that massive thing on the back of my ute! Is it heavy?, I asked like a fool. Of course it’s heavy. It’s a piano, what was I thinking.

He then kindly offered to help me reload the Pianola and my very French looking table and chairs to the back of my small truck. But first he took place in front of the Pianola for one last time, almost like saying a last farewell to an old friend. He showed me how to insert the paper music rolls and how to play this self-playing Piano.

He played through the whole scroll, it was a Waltz called Underneath the Mellow Moon. I knew then that this Pianola is very special to him, and I will find a special place for it. We took the trailer to the back of my ute, and luckily it was about the same height. I can tell you one thing, I do not know what his parents fed him when he was little, but he was as strong as an ox. He lifted the one end of the Pianola and I pushed from the back. I do not know how we did it, but before I knew, I had a Red and Purple painted Pianola, a massive big table and six chairs tied to the back of my ute. How did all of this just happened?

So, when I finally took the road home, I was actually freaking out. I knew my husband would not be happy at all with my latest finding. What to do? I was really nervous at this stage. Then I thought, maybe I could drive onto the dirt road near my house and let it fall off the back, and he would never know about it. There I am, making all these plans. I thought I could un-tie the rope, and hit the brakes really hard. It would then fly off the back and he would never know. But I didn’t want to do that to my old Pianola. So I knew that was not going to happen. I picked up the girls from school, and told them to quickly help me start unloading the table and chairs before dad came home.

We had just enough time to take off the table and chairs, when he pulled up. Oh dear! The look on his face. He went really pale, then red and then he exploded. All I can say is, he wasn’t a very happy man again at this stage. The neighbour quickly jumped over the fence and asked if he could help. At this stage I thought I might have to phone the ambulance. It looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He said to the Neighbour: “I sent her for tools, and she came back with a piano! Do you know how much a piano weighs? We will have to rent a crane. Then he looked at me for the first time. Have you gone mad? Did you finally lose it? How the **** did you get that thing on the back of the ute? The neighbour said: I’m having a bonfire tonight, if that might help, and then he disappeared the same way he came over the fence in the first place.

At this stage the Irish blood in my South-African body got the better of me. I said: “Just give me an axe, a hammer, your chainsaw or something, and I will make it disappear in front of your eyes.” All my visions of repainting my old pianola disappeared as I envisioned a pile of chopped up wood, burning away. I think at this stage he realised how much he over reacted. We got it off the back on the end, and I still have to figure out how to get it inside the house.

So, the next day at work, he told the guys about his crazy wife, buying a piano without even asking him and what he thought about it, blah blah blah …. And then the one guy said: “You mean your wife bought a pianola? Are you crazy to be cross with your wife? Do you know how much that thing is worth? I will buy it from you right now. And then a second guy pitched in, I will double whatever he offers you. I think he then realised who the actual fool was. He came home and went on Google, to figure out that my old painted pianola was made in the 1920’s and they could actually sell for thousands. I don’t think mine is worth that much, and I don’t care. I just bought it because I fell in love with it. And I will always remember how lovingly the old German gentleman stroked over it for one last time before handing it over to me.

The End