Organ Grinder
This enjoyable persona was made possible by a festival of street organ, carousel, and carnival music at Olcott Beach, New York, Sunday, July 31, 2011. There several demonstrators were willing to provide brief instructions and allow me to crank away as an organ grinder or hurdy-gurdy man, in one instance accompanied for a few tunes by the street organ's owner on the concertina. I subsequently joined the Carousel Organ Association of America ("Devoted to enjoying, preserving and sharing knowledge of all outdoor mechanical musical instruments, including band, fair and street organs, colliopes and hand-cranked organs of all sizes."). (Photos by my wife, Diana Harris.)
