TRUE Stanton’s Stories Monday, July 03, 2017
respectfully compiled by Dan C.
Here are some fun stories that stray from the “day-to-day” routine here at Stanton’s. And they all really happened!
Stanton’s has a good customer in Japan who likes to practice their English when communicating with us. We got an email from them in October, during the wild presidential campaign cacophony here in the U.S. It read, “Tokyo has become the Fall. American presidential election is also fuss Japanese television.” Fuss, indeed!
In the You can tell they’re not from Ohio department…we got a call from the music secretary at a college in Indiana. “Our band director needs music for marching band. It’s called Hang on Sloppy arranged by John Tat…Tat…Tat-something.” Of course, we Columbus Ohio folk all knew she was talking about Hang on Sloopy by John Tatgenhorst. But, really – Sloppy?
We have had other non-musical secretaries call to order other things that made us smile – Percy Grainger’s Immovable Doo (I can’t get my wig off!) and Leroy Anderson’s Buggler’s Holiday (be careful when you take a breath!). Of course, an auto parts store probably has some good stories about what non-mechanics ask for when they call too!
It’s great when musicians want to get together and play – that’s largely what music is all about – playing or singing in groups! However, sometimes it’s just tough to find literature for certain instrumental combinations. We got an email from a hopeful customer that stumped us a bit. It went, “Hi I play obie (sic) I have a friend who plays hammered dulcimer. Any suggestions for a duet at a medium difficult level?” We figured any treble clef duet might work, but not surprisingly we found nothing for that specific coupling.
Modern technology strikes again! We had a band director who called to order music and then told us, “I took a picture of my Purchase Order with my phone so I could give you the PO number, but I didn’t realize that I didn’t get the corner of the PO where the number is in the picture. I’ll have to call you back with the PO number!”
For a mental picture, do you remember Pat, the androgynous character on “Saturday Night Live” with the nasally voice? We had a phone customer with that same voice call and say, “I need the thing…that you blow into…that makes a note…” After a few clarifying questions and a smile, the sales person finally determined that they needed a pitch pipe!
A young voice told us over the phone that she had just heard the most beautiful piece on YouTube. It was an orchestra with a boy’s choir singing the words to the Lord’s Prayer. She said we should Google it to give it a listen. The Stanton’s salesperson said she would do some research and get back to the customer. The salesperson determined it must be a custom choral arrangement of the well-known Malotte’s The Lord’s Prayer that was not available for sale. She called the customer back with the bad news, who replied, “Oh, I don’t need orchestra or choir parts. I just love the melody and would like to sing it myself. But gosh, how did you know it was written by somebody named Malotte?” You gotta love youthful inexperience and exuberance! We got her what she needed!
