Dave took piano lessons as a child, as far as I know the only one in his family who played piano. It's possible his mother may have played because there was a piano in the basement of the Wrentham Street house in Kingston. Or maybe they bought the piano when young Dave showed promise as a player. He was certainly not an accomplished player, but he enjoyed it well enough for him to have bought a second-hand piano during our early marriage years. And he'd sing and play from time to time, when we had house parties or when he was alone with just family, as I recall a largely unappreciative audience.
When the family ties to Kingston were ended, the house on Wremtham Street was sold. Dave's father, an accomplished builder as well as mehanic, had added on to the house they had purchased some years before, constructing a large master bedroom and bath on the ground floor at the back of the house. As it happened this addition prohibited entry on any large scale to the basement home of the piano. The piano was not removable with the new construction.
The new owners did not want the piano and wanted it removed from the basement. There was no way for the piano to exit intact. It fell upon Dave to deconstuct the piano, which he did with an ax. I asked him how he felt chopping it up. He said he felt a kind of revenge for all the times he had to practice on it while the other kids were outside playing.
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