Hi all,

We were offered my Mother-in-Law's piano a couple of years ago, which had been her sister's piano before that. When it was delivered the delivery man also unloaded a very large cardboard box. I asked hubby what it was and he said it was the pianola rolls. I had no idea until that point that it was a pianola.

It has taken me a long time to get to the point financially where I could get the pianola repaired but on Sunday it was all fixed, after they took the mechanism away a couple of months ago and have been working on it to get it back to playable condition.

Also, since the piano hadn't been played by anyone for at least 30 years the hammers and felts all needed replacing, so now I can find a piano teacher again and start taking lessons, and this time I will be able to practise on the piano and not just an electronic keyboard.

But, the pianola being repaired is the real story.

When my sister and I were around 7 - she is one year older than me - we used to go to my Dad's Mother's house and while the grownups were sitting in the kitchen or the sitting room drinking endless cups of tea and talking about boring oldies-type stuff, we were in the lounge room playing the pianola or tinkering about on the keys making our own kind of totally untrained music. It was the best! The very best memories of my life include those times, right near the top of the list.

When my step-Grandfather died my Grandma decided to move out of that big house and into a smaller house. My Uncle (by marriage) took control of the clearing out of the house and decided to sell the pianola for a song (pun intended) even though my sister and I begged and pleaded to get it. It needed repairs and even then it would have cost a fortune but we would have loved to have the piano even without being able to play the pianola,

And that was the last time - except for one occasion - that I have ever been able to play a pianola.

The other occasion was when I was on holidays in South Australia and there was a pianola in the big room which was a restaurant of a motel but also had a dance floor. I saw the pianola and went over to play it but it was totally wrecked inside and it just wheezed and sucked and I was so, so disappointed.

Anyway, now finally we have a working pianola and I have been trying out the rolls in the box. I wish I could remember some of the tunes we had at Grandma's house. The only one I definitely remember was Woody Woodpecker. I'll probably start trying to find other rolls on e-bay or something.

But I just wanted to share my joy at finding again a pleasure from over 40 years ago, and at reliving those memories of Grandma & Da's house.

Helen