Antique musical instruments, and American Pickers

[Bill]

As some of you know, my wife and I travel across the country with our TM (Maine to southern AZ and back) twice a year. We take our time, and like to see interesting stuff. I haven't written much about the sights we've seen, but I'm sitting here watching American Pickers and thought I might do so.

On this trip, one stop was the De Bence Antique Musical Instrument Museum in Franklin, PA. They have a large collections (3 floors!) of the most amazing automatic musical instruments I've ever seen. Automatic musical instruments, of course, are instruments that play themselves. They are usually air-powered, with air supplied by a built-in blower or by foot-pumped bellows. A player piano is a common example - but have you ever seen a self-playing violin? Or an entire orchestra in a big wooden cabinet called an Orchestrion? Of course there are also spring-wound instruments, like music boxes. This town is a few miles north of I-80 - definitely worth a trip.

The other place I'll mention was the home of American Pickers in LeClaire, Iowa. If I had to sum up that one in one word, that word would be "disappointing". The place is very small - it apparently had been a single-bay service station, with a small office beside the bay. There was almost nothing in it except shelves of cheesy Pickers souvenirs and a bored-looking girl (not Danielle!). There was parking for about 8 cars in front, but no parking anywhere for anything bigger, such as a car with a trailer. I parked against the curb on a nearby residential street, but didn't dare stay long. The one cool thing was the old Nash Aeroflyte - the one you see on TV - parked in front. I think it's a '49, but there was nobody around who knew anything about it. And it isn't really an antique, just a rusting hulk with everything inside missing including the seats and the floor. Only a couple miles off I-80, and the town has some other cool stuff - but I don't recommend going out of your way for Antique Archeology.

We saw lots of other interesting stuff on this latest trip, but I won't bore you.

Bill