Who Am I? (besides long-winded)

[dmcnall@ibm.net (Dave McNally)]

Who Am I? (besides long-winded)                                  
                                                                 
This 'who am i' thread sure has been a catalyst for getting the  
lurkers to 'fess up. (like your's truly) ...wolfpack mentality   
really *does* have its uses after all. :)                        
                                                                 
To those who can present a long list of musical credentials and  
great gigs and CDs, i humbly say "Bravo!". Anyone who's merely   
envious doesn't appreciate the squalid realities of getting      
there. (I've always been kind to starving musicians.) :)         
                                                                 
I'm 50 yrs old, and came to Rhode Island in 1965 from Maine in   
search of food, :) and to work for IBM. I just retired after     
servicing minicomputers (hardware and operating system software) 
and their predecessors for the last 30 yrs. (Ancient punch card  
rockcrusher stuff smelled just like a Hammond inside. ..neat.) :)
                                                                 
My own musical thing was mostly informal. Picked out my first    
tune on a piano at age 5. My parents both played a gig or 2 every
weekend. She played the piano and has (still) a large collection 
of original popular (now standard) sheet music, purchased song by
song from the late 20s to the early 60s.                         
                                                                 
Although she had the better musical education, he was the more   
practical, and taught me how to find any chord i needed on the   
piano. He played a 120-bass accordian which i secretly felt was  
an abomination, but his approach to music was much to my benefit.
                                                                 
By age 8, i could without hesitation, grab most any chord you    
can name with my left hand. All her sheet music had guitar chord 
notation and i was in business! Didn't begin to actually read the
left hand until i was in high school.                            
                                                                 
Been drawn to organs for as long as i have memories. Don't know  
why - there weren't any!  I was a poor post-ww2 country kid with 
no access to organs at all except recordings, or rare visits to  
music stores in a distant city. I made do with pianos and old    
harmoniums. How do you learn to do a decent schmear glissando on 
a harmonium and still have any fingers left?  You grease the     
keytops of course, ...dummy! :)