Baldwin Pianos For Belmont And Pontotoc
Rayanne talks to her mother daily, and during one of her calls in October she asked to speak to me. "The family wants to have everything out of the house by the first of December. Are you still interested in the piano?" "Yeah, I suppose so," I responded. "I don't need it, but if you want it, I'll buy it for you." It was then that Rayanne shared her original idea was to get a piano back into our house for those occasions that lend themselves to family songfests. I suppose she's getting old enough to enjoy reminiscing the days when our family, along with "Barbara's people," enjoyed singing as she played. But, when she married and moved away from home, Barbara and I allowed her to take the family piano, also a Baldwin, with her. After all, we bought it for her to learn to play, and since her brother Jason never showed any interest in learning to play the piano, it rightfully seemed to belong with her. "I didn't want you to buy it for me," she protested, mildly. "I just thought you needed a piano at your house." "I'll tell you what, Rayanne, you move your old piano to my house and keep the new one." I should have stipulated that I would buy her the piano on the condition I didn't have to be involved in moving either of them, but I failed to think of that in time. "Of course, I won't have any money for Christmas gifts now that I'm buying a piano," I shared. I'm sure she was not alarmed for Rayanne knows her mother buys whatever gifts she receives at Christmas, not her dad. What she may not know is that Dad usually has some money set aside for her mom to purchase the gifts. For at least a month, I've had my son worried with comments such as, "Jason, I guess you know, we're getting Rayanne a piano, and that means there won't be much in your stocking this Christmas." Needless to say, he's not handled this well. "Y'all never have spent that much on me," is a comment he's made more than once. Actually, we spend more than that on him every year, but not necessarily at Christmas. He fails to consider the annual utilities of the guesthouse in which he lives are more than the price of the piano, not to mention meals and transportation and automobile insurance are also provided. When I mention the Gibson acoustic guitar he keeps at his house and regularly plays, he sounds like the brother of the prodigal son who was jealous of the prodigal’s homecoming party, "But that's not mine. You go back and look it up in the Ridge Rider if you want to; in every mention of that guitar, you make it clear that it's yours." I understand his point of view, and technically speaking the guitar is still mine, but for all practical purposes the guitar is already his. If he has no intention of selling it, and he says he won't ever, then I'm content to allow him to inherit it upon my death. In light of the fact that Barbara recently sold her 1994 Buick LeSabre, I trust the reader will not fret over Jason's Christmas situation. The week of Thanksgiving was a rainy one, and one not suited for moving pianos, but Thanksgiving Day remained dry and cold, so Rayanne lined up a number of strong backs for the piano moving project. By two o'clock on Thanksgiving Day, Jason and I, along with my nephew and his wife (Brett and Kathy Brown) and of course, Rayanne and her family were on our way to Belmont via Tupelo, where Rayanne's husband, Anson, had arranged to borrow a company van to transport one of the pianos to Pontotoc. Because it was Thanksgiving, Anson's two brothers, Chuck and Kevin Adams, were visiting their parents in Belmont and were available to help with the piano project. Originally, our plan was to use the van to move the new piano to its new home, then load the old piano and transport it to Pontotoc. However, since the two houses in Belmont were less than a block apart, we decided to simply roll the piano the short distance rather than load it into and out of the van. Since we were using a piano dolly, the cross-country route made about as much sense as lifting the piano a couple of extra times. With plenty of strong backs, the move was simple enough. Loading and securing the old piano inside the van for transport to Pontotoc was more challenging. Years ago, one of legs was snapped during a move, and the other leg is now damaged. After locating a couple of pieces of scrap lumber, the piano was braced and secured. However, Jason changed his mind about riding in the passenger seat with the piano behind him, and rode back to Pontotoc inside Rayanne's crowded van. Back in Pontotoc, there were only four of us to unload the piano, but we managed to do so without further damage to its fragile legs. It's now parked along an inside wall of the living room and is resting on the hardwood-floored portion of the room. To my untrained ear the piano sounded fine when Rayanne played it, but like the one in Belmont, I imagine a tuning will be required. At some point, I expect we'll check on getting the legs replaced, too. Until then, we'll simply enjoy hearing it played whenever Rayanne or another accomplished pianist visits.
Lost Newsletters Volume Number Affected In June of 2001, this newsletter adopted sequential numbering to establish the volume number of each issue. Previously, the volume number was used for dating purposes. For example Vol. 05.26 identified the issue as published on May 26th for a particular year. In order to establish a volume number for the issue dated June 02, 2001, a counting of the copies in ring binders revealed 257 newsletters had been printed. Thus, Vol. 258 became the first issue using the new numbering system. For the next two years, this writer labored under the assumption that all issues prior to June 2001, had been counted. However, while attempting to post all issues of Ridge Rider News on this newsletter’s website, it became apparent one issue had been overlooked. At that time, an adjustment was made to the volume number of the current issue to reflect one more issue than previously assumed, and Vol. 365 became Vol. 366. Now, roughly eighteen months later, two more issues prior to June 2001 have been recovered. Actually, they were on the website, but, because I did not have a copy of either issue in a binder, I had not included them in the earlier count. I discovered the error during the Thanksgiving holiday, while tackling the monumental task of renumbering all issues of Ridge Rider News on my website. In order to reconcile copies of issues in binders with those on the Internet, I printed off monthly listings of the Internet issues to compare with the hardcopies in binders. It was at this point I discovered that issues for May 9, 1998, and January 05, 1997, were on the website but were not in binders and therefore were never counted. My mistake is not greatly unlike that of ancient scholars who incorrectly calculated the birth of Jesus as approximately four to six years later than is now believed. And, in some respects I’m able to do with this newsletter what Pope Gregory VIII did with the Gregorian calendar when the Roman or Julian calendar became obsolete, i.e., change the dates. The Pope decreed that the day after October 4, 1582, would be October 15, 1582, and not October 5. I’m not a Pope, but as editor of this newsletter I hereby decree that the volume number after issue 441 shall be 444 instead of 442. I cannot assure the readership of this newsletter that there are no more missing issues that have not been accounted for as being in a binder or on the Internet, but I do believe the current count is accurate. In the future, should I discover another counting error, I’ll either exercise my editorial authority to make corrections or else ignore the whole thing, leaving the error as something for an interested descendant to investigate.
New Dessert Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes Of the more interesting programs aired recently on the Food Network was a Thanksgiving Special involving several hosts of popular shows. Each host was in charge of one or more entrées or side dishes for the Thanksgiving meal. One grilled a turkey, one made cornbread dressing, one or two prepared side dishes, and one was responsible for the dessert. Paula Deen demonstrated how to prepare a dessert she called Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. Paula is a middle-aged southern belle who enjoys food and cooking for others. Her TV show is appropriately named, "Paula’s Home Cooking." While, my family has never cared for pumpkin desserts, we do like sweet potatoes any way they are prepared. Therefore, as I watched Paula make the dessert, my mouth began to water for something made using sweet potatoes. I come by my love for sweet potatoes quite honestly for it was my grandmother, Beckie Carter, who insisted, "When I die and you want to make sure I’m dead, all you’ll have to do is wave a baked sweet potato under my nose. If I don’t smack my lips, I’m dead." I printed a copy of the recipe and showed it to Barbara, who already planned to make a sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving. Paula’s recipe called for a 15-ounce can of pumpkin, but when Barbara made the dessert, she substituted a like amount of cooked sweet potatoes. We fed twelve people Thanksgiving dinner and everyone who tried the gooey butter cakes was impressed by the light texture and rich taste. Below is a copy of the original recipe with suggested variations and a link to the recipe on the Food Network.
Recipe
Summary
Cake:
Filling:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin
until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next,
add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture
over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake
as the center should be a little gooey. Variations: For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above. For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above. For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above. Online readers please click the following link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_20677,00.html
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A couple
of months ago, possibly more, my daughter Rayanne asked if I'd be interested
in buying a Baldwin piano. I must have sounded encouraging, but I really
don't remember what I told her. She explained the piano was in excellent
condition and had belonged to a neighbor of her in-laws. Following the neighbor's
decision to move into an assisted living facility, family members began looking
for a good home for the piano. While the price was somewhat modest, it was
more than I could afford at the time, but I told Rayanne I would have some
extra money by mid November.
