There's Gold in Them There Guitars

North Miami Beach, FL July 11, 2001 Aaron H.
Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THERE GUITARS

At times in the past I thought of myself as a folk singer. The music
struck a kindred chord in me. I instinctively knew there was a relationship
between playing the guitar and singing folk songs. When I, along with the
rest of the world, saw that southern kid Elvis play the guitar and do his
thing with his gyrations, I knew I could play the guitar too.

It took a long time to save the money to buy a guitar and longer to learn
to play by myself and with a few friends who were "into" guitar playing.
But, I did and I played and sang for a long time and had much pleasure in so
doing. Along the way I acquired several more guitars, gave the first one to
a kid cousin and began to acquire different instruments and further down the
way I began to build them.

The point of this is that I had some time on my hands today after taking
Carol to the Dentist where he put three implants in her mouth. She is O.K.
and is recovering nicely. But, after performing the errands she planned for
me to do I had some time to myself. I went to Borders bookstore and browsed
for a while. It is almost like going to the library and I whiled away an
hour. Borders has more comfortable chairs than the library.

I looked through the magazines and came across several dealing in guitar
buying and selling. In going through one I found the familiar name, Martin
Guitars. Now, I have never owned one although I have always wanted one. I
have had a Goya that I gave to David and now own a Guild. I also have an
old (maybe a hundred years old) Oscar Schmidt "Ladies" guitar, a "student"
guitar that came with Carol and a "back-pack" guitar Carol bought me when we
traveled by trailer. None of these has cost much more than $100.00. We won't
talk about the fretless banjo I rehabilitated that is numbered and plays
real good. I got that for $10.00.

What interested me and astounded me about that guitar magazine was that it
offered for sale 50 limited Martin guitars at $50,000.00 each. My first
guitar cost me $23.00. The kind of acoustic ones I like and use bring over
a thousand today. The thought boggles my mind. Carol's Evaluation:9 out of
10.