This is a sad trend – here, too, in BC, it seems to be hard to give acoustic instruments away – not even the furniture thrift stores will take these lovely old pianos. I think people with skills to tune the acoustic pianos (and accordions) are also hard to find.
I love the sound of (unamplified) acoustic instruments much more than the digital ones.
I still have my accordion from 60 years ago. Yes I’m an antique. My Polish mother wanted me to learn to play polka music but I only learned an Indian song which I can still play. I wish I would have learned a lot more. Music in a family is absolutely wonderful memories.
I also have a couple of accordions, that I enjoy playing, in particular the old German and Austrian Light music (which reminds me of my deceased parents and grandparents). But they are not antique, like yours, although still accoustic. Mom wanted me to play the polkas and Strauss waltzes! (Never met my Polish Grandmother, who died before I was born, but my guess is that she, too, would have encouraged me to play polkas, just like your Polish Mom). For a while, I took lessons online from an excellent accordion teacher in France, who offers live lessons via Skype. She invigorated my interest in the fascinating world of accordions.
I hope you may feel inspired to pull your antique accordion out of the closet and make it sing again! (Although, good luck finding someone to tune it if it needs tuning!)
… If we don’t even teach basic “musical skills and appreciation” in schools can’t see where many folks might get the idea of continuing on to taking up learning how to play an actual musical instrument. Time and effort to learn to play an instrument … severely cuts into many life-wasting activities (e.g. watching sports). Come Now!
The time and effort is time well spent. It takes you to a different place in your mind. It’s a challenge and accomplishment, great therapy.
… that comment was sarcasm.
Too bad we can’t meet and have a jam session. We could learn how to play the polka. 
We could probably find a song we both would rather learn.
Indeed, Scarmoge – the “adult” world has really short-changed the youth – by giving the mobile contraptions instead of books and musical instruments. The modern school system is only partly to blame – but so are the parents, for passively giving over the raising of their children to these Orwellian institutions. (When I was a kid, luckily the school system still had music classes for accoustic instruments, and through the string classes, I learned to play the violin.)
Mom, when she was a kid, growing up in wartorn Austria, had an unusual school teacher, who took it upon herself to organize field trips from the village school to the nearest city where there was an opera house. The kids took the train to this city, and then enjoyed an afternoon at the opera house watching the dress rehearsals.
It was that teacher, whom I never met, who, unbeknownst to her, gave me the gift of the love of opera, by creating such a beautiful experience for the kids who were all traumatised from the war. Those were Mom’s most beautiful memories of her time in school, and so, when I was a kid she took me to the opera, and I developed a lifelong love of beautiful music.
… in my younger life I played clarinet (which would work on Polka tunes) but gave that up first for piano lessons (didn’t take) then for the much more “sexy” gee-tar (not sure about the transcription of Polka tunes) but it would be fun to give it a go. 
We must come up with a sarcasm font! For some of us, sarcasm is a way of life…
Here’s a ‘sarcasm’ emoji available on some keyboards 
.
… my brighter, younger better half says that if I use “S” that I should start the post with “aka Sarcmoge”. Brilliant yes?
Ah, I too celebrate the associated wonders of being happily ensconced in harmonious domesticity!
It could be argued, however, that drawing attention to ones sarcasm might rob it of some
of its magic, yes? Perhaps, like many a jest…they can’t all be universally received, and are
for those that have a style tuned to appreciate it.
Still, it does give me an itch when their perception and my intention don’t share the same
metaphorical ring…I shall consult the wife for a similar moniker, but for you? Yes, at least one
of you would do well as “Sarcmoge”. Pity I’m currently the only one of me…
Edit: I should add that i’ve met more than one person who was totally immune to sarcasm.
Beware!
“Edit: I should add that i’ve met more than one person who was totally immune to sarcasm.
Beware!” - Mohg
… I kind of like her idea because I’ve had to, even on this board on occasion, to either include up front, or back amend with a disclaimer as to the nature of a post.
In the words of Andy Dufresne I sometimes say to myself … Heeee!
Ha! That Shawshank “obtuse” reference wasn’t lost on me back-in-the-day either, and i’m
quite familiar with people that “didn’t get it” in the chats as well…
Dennis Miller of SNL fame was asked during an interview many moons ago, about how he
felt when a large sum of his audience (young adult/early college level) weren’t able to “get”
most of his rapid-fire jokes and ribs. His answer in essence was that he wasn’t hoping to
please everyone and that it was an impossible task. Personally, I try to find a line somewhere
behind what one might be considered (albeit accidentally) a personal jab. One does what one
can…
Incidentally, and in the spirit of Shawshank… “Do you trust your wife, Sarcmoge”?
All these popular culture references live in my mind “tax-free” …
… Yep, many neurons devoted to such things. I get to use a few of them every once in a while. They do come in handy.
Can you imagine a band consisting of Giza musicians from this Forum?!
You don’t seem to be much a fan of polkas, like your Mom was (or my Mom for that matter)?
I actually love polkas, when they are presented in a special context: a public dance. I’ve sometimes been places, living rooms, where someone pulls out an accordion and plays the Beer Barrel Polka, and it sounds blah blah. And then, I’ve been in dance halls, where a band plays the same tune, and Wow, what an energy, with everyone dancing about having fun! And it makes me wonder if that is what our Moms and Grandmothers experienced with the polkas, during tumultous times, softening their lives somewhat, and if some of those memories are what were invoked when they asked us to play polkas on our accordions. The Viennese became famous for waltzing about during politically tumutous times, as a way to escape the horror of what people do to one another.
My guess is that part of the magic of the polka may be the energy that flows between the musicians and the people who are dancing – it’s like a circular energy, each flowing into and uplifting the other.
If you just have a polka on the radio, and no one dancing, the musicians not having contact with the dancers, it is another thing altogether – almost loses its life. And, indeed, we have some musical friends, who insist that it is the live audience that gives them a needed energy to perform. Being in a recording studio is just not the same.
Yesterday, some friends came to the house, and one of them insisted I pull my old accordion out of the closet. I have two accordions, and pulled them both out, and we played some old songs, and I could feel the energy of everyone in the room. And I thought of you, Sandygirl, and your old accordion, and I hope that someone visits you and asks you to pull it out.
Mom inspired in me a love of the music of Johann Strauss – but I did not appreciate the energy of the music when listening to the radio. The magic really comes alive on the dance floor (as Andre Rieu has been able to emulate quite successfully). The Waltz King, an old Disney film, very loosely based on Strauss’s life, has some lovely renditions of Strauss polkas (I don’t care for some other aspects of the film though).
I heated my home in the Adirondacks for over 10 years when I wasn’t there and now have decent environmental control for the smallest floor model of a Steinway Piano that my dad bought for my mother before he could afford a couch in the living room. My grandmother graduated from the Oberlin College School of Music, 1903, in piano and she taught my mother who had tuberculosis and spent 2 years at home, mainly in bed. Needless to say, while not well now, I play.
(Saxophone, middle through high school; acoustical guitar; alto and soprano recorder with 10 years piano and 6 years voice lessons.)
I appreciate the polka music. It is fun and lively and full of energy. Two songs we used to dance; “She’s too fat for me” and “The Chicken Dance.”
Isn’t it amazing how music creates many emotions and how deep you feel it in your soul.