Occasionally we are all confronted with moments from our childhoods — an unfortunate hairstyle here, a cringe-worthy choice of apparel there. But Winthrop resident Anne Young had the surprise of a lifetime recently when she scheduled piano tuner Joan Smith to examine the piano Anne grew up playing, which is now played by her children, Dexter and Briar.
Anne and her husband, Old Schoolhouse Brewery partner Nathan, have moved that piano twice in the 13 years they’ve owned it and never noticed anything amiss. But they started hearing a rustling sound and figured that their young children had been dropping bits of paper into it, so they called Joan not only to tune the piano, but also to clean it.
When Joan began cleaning the piano, Anne heard her gasp. “Is it a mouse?” Anne called from the other room. Joan summoned Anne to the piano. It was not a mouse. In the space between the keyboard and the pedals was a .357 revolver, in a dust-covered leather pouch.
Anne called Nathan, who was in the basement, telling him there was something he needed to see in the piano. “Is it a mouse?” Nathan asked. Still not a mouse.
Anne FaceTimed her father, who said, “I thought someone stole that years ago!” It turns out that Anne’s father was having guests over who he didn’t fully trust, so he hid the revolver, which is registered to him. After the guests left, he forgot about it for many years. By the time he realized that the gun was missing, he didn’t remember that he had hidden it in the first place. Upon learning that the revolver had been located, Anne’s father asked, “Does your piano sound better now?”
After returning the revolver to her father, you’d think Anne would have had enough excitement for one week, but you’d be wrong. Anne, who is a photographer, recently purchased some Google ads to promote her photography business: Young Reflections. Pretty soon she got a cold call from a man who needed head shots for his chiropractor business, but he couldn’t afford Anne’s rate. Anne offered to take his photos at a reduced rate, if he would write her good reviews on Google. He agreed.
Anne gave the man recommendations for hairstyle and attire and asked if she should meet him at his office, but he didn’t seem to want to do that. “Well,” Anne told him, “I do some of my other sessions at the wellness center, behind the Winthrop library.” The chiropractor agreed to meet her at the wellness center on Friday morning at 10 a.m.
On Friday at 7:45 a.m., Anne got a call from the man, who was irritated. “I’ve been waiting here for 45 minutes,” he said. It was more than two hours before their appointment.
“I have to get my kids to school,” Anne told him, “then I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Your kids are already late for school,” the man told her. “And besides, there’s no wellness center behind the Winthrop library.” Anne told the man she was sorry, but she thought they had better cancel the appointment.
In her rush to get her kids to school, Anne just assumed the man had memory issues. But later that night, as she replayed their conversations and recalled his distinctive accent, something fell into place. Anne looked up the man’s area code and got confirmation: Massachusetts. The man’s chiropractor business was in Winthrop, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.
Anne texted the chiropractor; they had a little chuckle. What remains to be seen is if he writes her a good review on Google. After all, Anne says, she paid $3 for that Google click.
