Fingerprints on a Flugelhorn

Looks like we may have to get rid of everything wall to wall. The smoke damage was just worse than any of us could have imagined. Ok, the restoration guys have been saying this, but today (Wednesday), I think I finally understood it.

It was really hard counting the band instruments today...me being a flute/piccolo player and all.

I felt very protective of one specific, silver french horn we found. The guy who was helping me count had very dirty, gritty, black hands (after hours of counting in the smoke stained equipment.) I couldn't stand us tarnishing that horn! I ran and washed my hands before I carefully lifted it out to get its serial #, but then realized they were going to take it away from me no matter what I did to save it!

There is moisture in and on most stuff and a thin black film on everything, no matter how careful you are. There isn't even a clean place to sit down while you work. There is no where safe to put your purse or hat without just knowing it's collecting Powdered Doo Wop.

I opened a Soprano Sax case, which was very wet to the touch, and grimy, and when I tried to pull the pretty gold-brass sparkling instrument out, my hand turned dark black and oily feeling. I showed Geoff Springer (who was helping me with our part of the physical count) my blackened hand. I even ran and showed Howie, the salvage specialist the Insurance people have assigned us. It was really shocking.

We truly hoped that maybe down deep in the back, behind all those cases, and inside of its own tightly closed case, that this instrument was going to be ok, but it just wasn't. None of them were. I suppose that's the point, even if it looked like it was, the pads or brass or silver would be bad or might go bad over time and we wouldn't realize it or know why...

Anyway, that was eye-opening for me. It's hard for me to judge with the guitars because I'm not a guitar person. I see dust on them, but I think, "well wipe it off!" but when a solid silver, open holed Flute is getting black fingerprints across the body, well, that's a major problem.

Oh! There was a solid white clarinet we found, and within a few moments of us opening the case, it started getting black streaks all over. We had to count it quickly because both Geoff and I started actually getting kind of well...emotional.

Again and again, when I would see one that appeared to be in great shape, my instinct was to snatch it out of there and protect it, before the black soot all around us could touch it, but then my eyes would scan to the case that had been sitting in water, and I'd wonder if the cork in the end was ok? Or what about the pads under the keys? What else was I not thinking of?....And I'd let it go.

So, we wrote it all down. And moved on.

Tomorrow we'll see what happens next.

MJ