I knew Byron Brewer only by name and reputation; probably saw him only a few times. However, I know Betty much better, having tuned her piano once before she gave up trying to play it. Betty is the person who calls me to tune the Tryon Little Theater piano when they use it for a musical performance.

Betty and I both have peripheral neuropathy. Hers is more advanced than mine, and caused her to give up playing piano and organ for her church some years ago. So far, mine affects only my feet and fingertips.

However, I quit practicing piano a year or so after a table saw cut off a finger and mangled two others of my left hand back in 2005. I got tired of working around the problems that created.

I have found a good home for the piano that has been in my family since before I was born. My mother never forgave her father for trading her big Knabe square grand piano for the much smaller upright Hobart M. Cable while she was away at college c.1920 .

This is the piano on which I picked out my first tune when I was about 5 years old: “Jesus Loves Me.”  The Marines Hymn followed soon after. Uncle Ethan (once a Marine) used to make that piano rock with his version of the “Saint Louis Blues;” he also played “Under the Double Eagle” march (that I remember).

Aunt Mildred was learning to play Liszt’s “Liebestraum” and Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C# minor” by the time I was a senior in high school. I thought that would be fun, so I started lessons with Mrs. Lawrence Mazzanovich.

First, I went down to Spartanburg and bought myself an old upright piano. Then I went to the home of Mother’s friend Ethel Hipps to meet Mrs. Mazzy after school for piano lessons. She walked from her studio in Gillette Woods to her pupils’ homes around Tryon (she was about 65 years old then).

I was not a very good piano student, as I was longer on desire than talent. While Mrs. Mazzy was guiding me thru Handel’s “Largo,” I was working on Paderewski’s “Minuet in G.” After helping me with that, we started on Dvorak’s “Humoresque.”

When that did not come together very quickly, I admitted to spending most of my practice time on Liszt’s “Second Hungarian Rhapsody.” Of course, I did my scales and Hanon exercises faithfully, because I could tell that they were helping me to play those more complicated pieces!

There were many pianos and teachers as I moved through the Air Force, college and jobs in the volatile aircraft industry. I acquired my first Steinway piano and began a piano tuning apprenticeship when we got to Hampton, Virginia in the late 60s.

When I built my dream house here when we retired, I made space for my piano to grow into a concert grand. Somehow it never did, but I enjoyed playing some of the great piano music into an acoustically excellent large living/dining area.

Next came our first downsizing and acquiring Mother’s Cable piano from Aunt Mildred. She had Case Brothers rebuild it c.1970, so now it is only a half century old.

Now we have downsized into an apartment at White Oak in Tryon. Friend Jamal Hannon has moved the piano to another friend’s home, that of Laura Spinx near Mill Spring.

Laura had rescued an older upright from a friend’s basement. She painted it white and asked me to tune it, which I did. Now she has found another home for that one as she begins to enjoy playing my family heirloom piano.