Monday, March 23, 2009

My visit with the OCL

I had a treat tonight (no not another story of Ding Dongs, although I did treat myself to a couple this evening) I was able to visit with a fellow re-habber that bought an old church and parish house. Very cool place, I wasn't thinking and did not take any pictures. I was so enamored by the whole project (well ok I got to talking to much) and lost track of time. Not only did they buy the church and parish house but the church came with a working pipe organ and a baby grand looking piano. Pretty neat. I wish I knew how to play, it would have been great to play Phantom of the Opera, or a baseball song.
There is a turbine under the pipes that air up a bellow and then somehow by pressing the keys it allows the air to come out. I didn't really climb around in the pipe room but you could hear the turbine whirring below. On the wall behind the pipes written in pencil was a list of dates and names of the guys who came and tuned the organ. I think the earliest was around 1923 and the latest was 1948. Again I have say pretty cool.
The entire inside ceiling of the chapel is all tin ceiling (steel actually) and in remarkable shape. So can you imagine being in a "house" with 20 + foot ceilings and a pipe organ cranking out tunes?!

They have almost finished the parish house and should be able to move and make things livable in the next few months. Or maybe I am just being optimistic for them and being overly hopeful.
I almost forgot, what is OCL??? The original Church lady of course! If you live in a church you have to be a church lady right? There is just no getting away from that.

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