A blast from the past :-)

Not a uke, but I recently was reconnected with my 4th stringed instrument, made in June 1978 (35 years ago ). It's a "courting" dulcimer - basically two mountain dulcimers in one. The idea is that two love birds sit facing one another, rubbing knees :drool:, and make beautiful music together.

I made it as a wedding present for two good friends. Unfortunately, (fortunately?) the marriage didn't last very long. There was a messy divorce, and as far as I knew, the dulcimer was just lost in the confusion, somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Fast forward to last week: the best friend of the two, Rick, was back in Ohio dealing with his Mom's stuff after she died. I went out to help patch drywall & whatnot in her condo to get it ready to sell, and Rick told me he had found a surprise for me. He had lost track of it too, but somehow or another the dulcimer had ended up in his Mom's care! Apparently it's been in a nice climate controlled house, in it's case, all this time:



He said he was just going to sell it at auction with all her other stuff if I didn't want it. I told him I'd give it back to him if he ever got married again .

It's still in tune (one side, anyway).

What a great story. Too bad about the marriage, but glad your dulcimer has come back to you. Hopefully two more successful lovebirds will get to use it.

Looks like its got some playing time on it, so somebody got to enjoy it for awhile.

So an update on this! The dulcimer has been languishing untouched in the basement since the above post. Yesterday, at a family get-together, a cousin said she wanted me to make her a dulcimer. Told her I already had one that she and her boyfriend can use together. And he is an elementary school music teacher .

I've cleaned it up and put new strings on it today - it's off to Florida soon

Nice story, glad it has a happy ending. Going beyond the songs they sing, it makes you wonder about all the stories these instruments could tell if given the chance. And the cycle of life continues...