I just want to SHOUT somewhere.....I am in SERIOUS PRAISE mode!
It still amazes me to seemingly endless "coincidences" that have accompanied my giving myself to the Lord and I wanted to mention the latest occurance of His working in "strange ways".
I love my guitars, but I really like working on Hammond Organs A LOT! I love helping local churches try to keep these units in place rather than going to plastic keyboards (which have a place....but NOT at the cost of losing a wonderful Hammond Organ).
Last Friday morning I read my local Craig's List. One ad said:
"Fantastic older full sized Hammond Organ - $100"I responded by email to the ad.....never thinking I would be the one contacted or that the organ might be anything terribly nice.
The seller called me Friday afternoon by phone and informed me that he had received a lot of email about the organ....but he contacted me first because I was smart enough to include my telephone number. Can I get an AMEN?!?
I calmly asked a few questions about the pedals (they detach he said and had lots of "metal butter knife lookin' things" on the ends where it "plugs into the organ").
I asked if he could sit on the bench and look at the back wall behind the organ from underneath between his outstretched feet. He said yes....its empty underneath. It's up on four legs like a poster bed, he said....and there's a pedal like a gas pedal on a car underneath for volume.
Hummmm......this was getting interesting! Even for a guitarist!
He informed me he was going to contact everyone that wrote about it and set up a time for EVERYONE to come see it at the same time. I declined attendance at a cattle call due to personal safety and the probable bloodletting that might accompany such a collection 10 to 15 Hammond hungry hunters at the same time....each with $100 bill in their pocket and a bad attitude.....BUT I did manage to ask about the history of the unit before hanging up.
From that organ "history" conversation, things turned to personal history.....it turned out the organ belongs to his mother....and it turned out he and I grew up about 1/2 mile from each other (a good distance from where we both now live) and our sisters were best friends in school.
Well, that seemingly got me an exclusive pass to come view & offer to purchase the organ that Saturday at 1:30pm.
I showed up with a truck, cash, my ROK Hammond dollies.....and LOTS of flowers for his mother (SERIOUSLY!).
In the end I got home with a
home-kept 1958 Hammond B3, bench, pedals, a 1958 Hammond DR40 Tone Cabinet, a cool music stand light and about five old Hammond oil cans.......for $160 cash (it was all I had) and the promised BIG 'ol flower arrangement for his mother, of course.
It turns out his mom simply wanted her prized possession to get a good home and my connection to the old neighborhood and her daughter made her very happy. Value was completely secondary to the heart on this one for her.
It doesn't seem just coincidence to me that I had recently donated MY beautiful 1963 RT-3 Hammond to my church along with a Leslie cabinet...so I was Hammond-less. But it seems that wasn't in the plan for long! WOW! 
Can somebody say GLORY?!?
-- Sonar
