Actually, it was Saturday, but it was a BIG thing for me.
My cousin (still a working musician) called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I still had that old mandola that my dad used to own, because she wanted to buy it. I told her I was not considering selling off my father's instruments. She told me that they want that kind of sound on their new record, besides, her dad (my uncle) is getting too old to play his (tiny) regular mandolin he has owned for about sixty years.
After much deliberation, I decided to sell it to her with a few restrictions.
First, the "evaluation and historical documentation" that my father had done in the '80s stays with the instrument.
Second, if she ever decides to sell it, I HAVE FIRST option to buy it back and if I was dead, then the instrument had to be sold within our family, not to some stranger.
Third, if she takes it on tour with them, make sure it is well insured against damage AND theft.
She agreed and kind of assumed all that.
So I drove to Kentucky, meeting her about half way from where she lives in Tennessee with my dad's very cool and extremely RARE Gibson mandola (only about three hundred of these were ever made, no telling how many still have the original case, etc), which she has never seen before. She had heard her father talk about how huge it was.
When I opened the case, her jaw literally dropped and her eyes bugged out. It took her a moment to speak legibly. She said she could not buy that. She could NOT afford that kind of instrument. She said from her dad's description, I probably had some old ugly pillbug shaped thing made in Mexico.
She told me she had only heard of these things but had never seen one, and that it had to be worth ten or fifteen thousand dollars. I told her that my mom had it appraised about a year after my dad died in '98 and it was only worth eight thousand dollars then, but not to worry, I was going to make her a good deal on it.
It is a Gibson (well known for high quality guitars AND mandolins) made in 1926 with a carved scroll on the upper body and the head with beautiful mother of pearl inlays for fret markers and the "Gibson" name. The case is bent birch with felt padding and velvet lining in a kind of hot pink with a calfskin outer covering and brass hardware.
Anyway, after she promised to keep "my terms" and actually get some use out of it, which my dad would have loved, I sold it to her for five hundred dollars.
I also made her promise to send me a pic of her dad playing it.
It was a really long trip back home. It had been a tough decision to make, but I feel that I did the "right" thing with it and I think she will honor and respect the treasure that an instrument like that truly is.
I still have a tear that wants some air, though.
