May 8, 2023 - SCENES FROM THE STORE AND MORE
Everything starts someplace!
Our list back in 2002, complete with a Table of Contents! It took the whole family to put it together. One kid would staple and fold, another had to stick address labels and someone else had to put the stamps on. It was quite a family affair, but it always involves a pizza afterwards.
Back from Mexico, and ready to try out some new guitars
A little trading of classic banjo ideas from Mark Osterman to Gavin Rice
When Italians get together, there really doesn’t need to be a caption.
Before he moves to Florida, this guy is going to finally buy a guitar from me. It’s a promise, I think.
And now it is what it is today!
Who we were and who we still are!
When I leave the house by the back door in Penn Yan, I look up to my right and see this nest and I immediately say, "good morning mother, how are your babies?" She then rustles up a little bit and then fluffs her feathers. around her babies.
SCENES FROM THE STORE AND MORE
May 8th, 2023
Hello Friends,
Julie and I have settled into a nice routine of spending Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in our beautiful home in Penn Yan. On Thursdays we head to the store and work there when it’s open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It’s a good routine and it’s something we enjoy doing. We started this business and I guess we are here for the duration. In the words of my Mom, Clara, who passed away 8 years ago last Friday, "There’s not much bad I can find to say about this place, but I hope it works out for you honey". We opened the store and we will continue to make it the friendliest and most amazing place to buy and sell fine stringed instruments. We also have some plans for redecorating…a facelift in a way.I kind of like the Victorian look and Gavin Rice has been kind enough to outfit me with a few pieces of furniture and recording devices to lend atmosphere. Perhaps I’ll don in 1890s attire, but I rather doubt that. I would like to make my area look like a little Victorian living room complete with the instruments that are complementary. Perhaps the other side of the store, where Sammy Hirsh has been playing Tetris with amplifiers, we will create a more Art Deco scenario with our great electric guitar selection. At any rate, change is always good and adapting to something new, no matter how old we are, is an important lesson for survival. I credit my wonderful wife Julie for inspiring me to always push forward and adapt and work with what you have.
In cleaning out some old boxes in one of the corners of the store, we stumbled upon one of our older paper mailing lists. We used to send out mailing lists as early as the late 1970s up until our website made it a obsolete. This particular mailing was concurrent with having a website and we had an incredible selection of instruments. I put a little section of the banjo instruments on Facebook and got all kinds of response from some folks who have all of the copies going back to the early 80s. At any rate looking through this brought such a flood of memories, I thought I’d share them, along with other pictures of the store today.
Sincerely,
John Bernunzio
Oh, the guitars that we had….Solo flight was an amazing offering!
My Victorian corner, a work in progress
A sure sign that I am starting to come back to life from surgeries and other ailments…on Sunday I made Julie pasta Bolognese with a nice side salad. It was a fun way to celebrate Sunday together…. Today, I’m off on a fishing trip….Just for the day.
Julie sees the benefit of all the work she put in last fall with the new gardens. Everything is so colorful!
We had a great concert last week with banjo champ, Mary Z Cox and amazing multi instrumentalist, Cameron Freer. It was a great success for our first open event. Stay tuned for more.