Dear Stuart,

A few evenings ago, a scotchman went across the TV screen with his bagpipes and I thought of you and the times that you used to do the same in the old Grace church when the organ was being taken down.

I must sincerely apologize for not answering your letter sooner, I was very glad to hear from you again. I have often wondered how you were making out with the organ and now that it is being readied for service again I would like very much to hear it once more.

The day the organ was loaded in the vans was pretty wet. I had noticed how they had loaded the chests and suggested that they be turned on their sides but he said, they are up on the front deck and well padded and should be Okay. So they must have gotten into some rough roads to split one of them, they were so heavy that it would not be too hard to split them. I always find that it pays large dividends to mark everything you can when taking an organ apart and saves a lot of guessing where they go back again.

Harry Gore had told me that he saw you in Saskatoon - I did not go there for the rebuilding of the 3rd Ave job, as I found that a lot of the parts are much too heavy for me now. The last rebuild job here was at First Lutheran and we had to cart a lot of the parts down to the basement and back up to the balcony where we had our workshop. We stored all the pipe work in the balcony which saved a lot of time. Being a summer job they could release the balcony to us.

We had to electrify the primaries in the Lutheran job so put in a new bottom board with magnets which simplified matters besides making a neater job out of it. Yes, you could have dispensed with the old casework. The old console could have been used but there was not much case work to it. I often think of how much of a hurry they were in to get the old church building down and now it is a parking lot.

I sold my theatre organ about 2 years ago to a chap out in St. James. He has it installed in his basement and is learning to play it. I learned a lot getting it in working order while I had it so now he is finding out how these things work for himself. I had to extend the cables to the console, he has it in another part of the basement quite a way from the rest of the organ.

A little over 2 years ago, an organ builder in Winnipeg died leaving a lot of organ pipes and other parts. Mr. Gore got a lot of the pipes, another chap and I got the rest of the pipes and some other equipment so I have started to build another organ for myself. The pipes I have are from a church organ and should be more in line for what I want than the theatre organ was. The one I have in mind will be about 4 ranks - unit type using a diapason, salicional, traverse flute and a harmonic flute, I may add an oboe to this too. I have a good supply of pipes, some of them are a bit beat up but mostly they are in pretty good shape.

I have a Casavant 2 manual console and pedal board. The console had been pneumatic so will have to electrify it. It was for a 3-3 organ 3 stops on the great and three on the swell with the usual couplers. I am making up 4 unit chests and will use Reisner No 601 magnets which will make it direct action doing away with the primaries and secondaries etc - about the same idea that Wicks Company use. I have a lot of the Roosevelt type pneumatics, the same that Karn Warren used to use if I decide on doing any more later on. I also have a lot of magnets, the same type that I had on the theatre organ. They are smaller than the Reisner type. I think he took them out of an organ that he installed in a church here and replaced them with Reisner type which are more reliable and easier to service.

There is not much going on in the organ line around Winnipeg just now, mostly maintenance. There are two churches that are planning on some changes, one has an old theatre organ which was overhauled by Eatons some years ago. I usually help Harry with tuning and repair jobs and am on call for anything that turns up while he is away from the city.

My family are all down in the east, one in Montreal and the other in Oakville Ontario but we go down to see them about twice a year - Clare is an assistant Superintendent with the Northern Electric Co and Phyllis is married to a chap who is Supervisor technical training service for all Canada - they have been moved around a few times, so we have to stay in the more central part of the country, especially as we have relatives in Vancouver.

As it will be near Valentines day, we send your little 2 year old our best wishes for a happy birthday and our best regards to you all,

Yours sincerely,

F.A. Anderson