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Kids, always bragging. Wait ‘til you turn 71 like me……🙄

I actually have all the compact refaces except the DX, and they all have their uses. That being said I enjoy the YC most since it was like having a 4 lb. Hammond (well before the advent of B3X). The fast rotary is a bit over the top, but I found a cure……..

I can still cook a bratwurst better than them, so I guess I’m OK 🙂

I still love it.

I'm probably the worst responder to this since I retired 6 years ago as a Public School Music Teacher. I am reliving my childhood dreams working part time in a hobby shop selling radio controlled models. Nothing like being the oldest kid on the block....🤪

Here’s the best advice about how to stop doodley-doodley, from the great Frank Foster himself:

I’ve been foolin’ em for over 50 years with this act: (It has gotten me tons of work, though….)

I do that every time the chick singer forgets what key she sings the song in.🤪

He got the “Commode” part right………

Lifelong Jersey guy. The first 60 years in Clifton, ever since in Rockaway Township, about 2 miles west of Vintage Vibe.

1 - Your calendar has more doctor appointments than gigs. 2 - You need a nap after unfolding your Rock 'N Roller handtruck. 3 - You can't hold the "Start" switch long enough to engage "Run". 4 - You use Fast Leslie for a fan instead of sound. 5 - You need a big screen TV to see charts in iReal Book. 6 - You keep looking for the "Play" switch on a human drummer. 7 - Your Reface YC is the only organ you can carry. 8 - You've forgotten how to unfold your X-Stand. 9 - You need to ask directions back to the bandstand from the bathroom. 10 - You play the wrong "B" section in every "ABA" tune. Feel free to add your own. After 6 decades of gigging these are the ones I can remember...... Jake

I've always used this approach with girls.......🤪

Unbelievable. I feel like I lost a family member. R.I.P. Jake

The 3 manual Moeller pipe organ was the first pipe organ I ever played, and that occasion was my audition for entering Montclair! The time delay got to me, but I was told to play the notes and not listen, and Russell Hayton, who was my instructor at the college was impressed. He looked like Elmer Fudd (the cartoon character, not our musical brother here), told the worst pantyhose jokes, but had the teaching ability to get even a Hammond hack like me to sound like I knew what I was doing at that console.

"MORE great memories! We called him "Smilin' Bill" and he hooked up at least a couple of bands I played in with PA gear. Also Montclair State! I studied trumpet there with Mario Oneglia fo a few years in the late 70's....." Good God, Mario was still inflicting you guys then? I got out in '73 and had him for Brass Class at 8am MWF. He dressed like T.H.E. Cat (Robert Loggia starred in that show), smoked de Nobili cigars, and drank Pathmark Beer, all the while breathing in your face about "the breath is the life of the tone". His breath could stop a camel. I thought for sure he retired after we left.... Jake

Wow. That had to be Gimbel's downstairs from the escalator in the (then open-air) Garden State Plaza on 4 and 17. My first organ, a Wurli 4300 spinet came from there, and it wasn't quite ready for prime time. It was Wurlitzer's first foray into integrated circuits, and I should have been a beta tester for them. After a month the rhythm section (which I recall one of the tabs being labeled "Ssh-Boom") crapped out and after three tries the local tech gave up. They flew an engineer from the home office and he had every PC strip on my living room floor for 4 days with replacement parts flown in while he took the originals back for study. It did sort of work after that, but a very benevelent salesman at the Hammond Studio made my father a deal, and the Wurli got traded in on my B-3.

Muscara's was on Washington Ave.in the middle of Belleville. The picture in the link above was their final store, which was across the street from the original store. Eugene Muscara was a total gentleman who wasn't satisfied with a sale until he knew that the buyer was. I remember seeing him manhandle Voice Of The Theater bins with his handtruck into vans and station wagons in a suit and tie and never broke a sweat. The one quirk I remember him having was he loved his Citroen D21 and would show anybody how it didn't need a jack because it had independent pneumatic suspension and could lift each wheel like a dog lifting it's leg. BTW his son Eddie was a monster drummer who sat in with the Montclair State Big Band and could play "West Side Story" better than Buddy Rich. I taught keyboards for him in the old store for a while. When he moved across the street the old store became mostly storage. I tried to teach in the new building but after 30 minutes would suffer severe headaches. It turns out he had an ultrasonic alarm installed that no one was supposed to hear....... lucky me(I left there soon after and wound up teaching at the Hammond Studio in Totawa for a decade.). I recall two salespeople there. One was Jan, who sold me my Arp Omni (version 1), and Bill, the guitar specialist who had chops that he never demonstrated but was a total monster, and also one of the nicest gentlemen I ever met. He sold me my Harmony D22 bass guitar which I still have. Great memories and great thread. Jake

Brings a new meaning to “tuned exhaust” https://youtu.be/mP0Vqpz6F9k Jake

I know the barn's been closed for years. However, Wayne and Hackettstown are going strong, but it looks like either a holding company or other enterprize owns the name. https://www.newarkmusical.com/robbies_hackettstown.php I cried the day they closed the Long and McQuade in Parsippany. John Darko was the manager and even gave me his Sequential Circuits ballcap when I bought my Pro One. Korg Polysix and CX-3, Roland D-50 and PMA-1 plus my RVS II amp all made gigging tons of fun.

"They are finally rebuilding the 3/46 merge after talking about it for 30 years." Now you can get to the American (wet)Dream Mall without any delay....... 🙄

I want what he's drinking......

"So what is your desire that makes no sense at this stage in your life?" I found out that my high school girlfriend recently got divorced. That being said I don't think "She followed me home. Can I keep her?" would fly with my wife 🤪 I have always had a passion for radio controlled models, but rarely had the budget to persue the ones I really wanted. Happily two events have transpired to make my desires a reality: Grandkids, and a part time job in a hobby shop. Tamiya has reissued many of their earlier models which now grace my shelves. Monster trucks and crawlers are here also. I had no idea that 1/20 scale excavators, bucket loaders, and dump trucks could actually build a foundation (in maybe a year or so). Best of all my 3 RC tanks can battle using infra-red signals, or I can load 'em up with Airsoft pellets and take out pesky squirrels at 60'. Musically I just underwent successful carpal tunnel surgery in both hands, so playing is now relatively painless. My B and Leslies keep me happy at home, and I cover organ trios with B3X. I don't get calls for synth oriented gigs, so I'm good with what I have. Frankly, I'm enjoying watching the little guys STEM skills improve when we hit the trails with the crawlers and watch them figure out the best way around obstacles without picking the vehicles up. Gigs are great, but at this stage of life family is where it's at for me.

Walk into any hobby shop and ask for these: Traxxas 2542 https://traxxas.com/products/parts/2542

Saved my first oil can…….

Memories, memories. Every Monday night to catch the Thad Jones-Mel Louis big band. Watched Jon Faddis mature there, even had a zoned-out Lew Soloff think my leg was a urinal. Great times.