Contest Round-Up: Neil Young, Water Damage and Piano Lessons

Editor’s Note: We received a lot of great submissions to R&R’s “I’ve Never Seen That Before…” contest, and while we’ve already chosen the winner and two honorable mentions -  which are featured in the Nov/Dec issue of R&R -  some of the other entries were too good to not share. See "Loose Change," "Dirty Laundry," "Model Trains," "A Cat Catastrophe" and "Oh, Rats."

The following submission comes to us from Scott Warrington of Bridgepoint Systems (Salt Lake City, UT):

Several years ago when I was operating a restoration business, we received a water loss call to a home in a nearby mountain top community.

Arriving at the home, I noticed a hand-written sign on the door "PIANO LESSONS $2 Per Hour." We knocked and a voice from inside told us to come on in and get to work. We found several rooms of the 1400 sq. ft. home about 2-inches deep in water. The owner, a frail-looking elderly lady, her feet in the water, was giving a piano lesson to a young girl. She told us she would talk to us as soon as the lesson was over. She was not going to short-change the student of the 20 minutes left in her lesson.

My impression was the lady was forced to support herself by almost giving away the piano lessons. As I emptied items from the floor of a wet closet, I came across a gold record album. When I told the home-owner I had moved it to get it dry, she asked, "Which one was it?" Now I am surprised that a musician who has earned multiple gold records is teaching piano for $2 an hour. So, I asked the story behind it. She explained that she had filled in on electric bass for a sick friend and had recorded that album with Neil Young. She was a rocking bass player!

My mental image of this customer really underwent a transformation.