Orange peels and armpits

How about that for a topic? Let me explain where that came from.

My oldest daughter plays the oboe. If you are familiar with an oboe, you’ll know that it is one heck of an expensive instrument. It’s expensive to buy and it’s expensive to maintain. So when her one-year-old oboe developed a crack we all sort of freaked out. Being made of wood, this is a familiar phenomenon with oboes.

Fortunately for us, we have one of the top oboe repair people a short drive up the road. I asked him for his advice on how to prevent this in the future. He suggested orange peels and armpits.

A standard part of oboe care is to keep the instrument in a moderately humid environment. He suggested the best way to manage the humidity is to scatter a few pieces of orange peel inside the case. Orange peels work great, he said, because it’s easy to tell when they’re dried up. When they look dry, simply put in new ones.

Now for the armpits. It is important to warm up the instrument properly before playing it. He suggested that you take the top section of the oboe and hold it underneath your armpit while you’re getting the rest of the instrument ready and soaking the reed in your mouth. This will warm up the instrument and get it ready for playing.

So what does all this have to do with ventriloquism? It made me think about my delicate figures. How long has it been since I put a fresh coat of Armor All on my Axtell figures? I’m not sure. But I can tell you what I’ll be doing this afternoon. And what about my one-of-a-kind Hartz figure? Handcarved basswood. Am I taking appropriate care of this valuable asset? I don’t think that I will be scattering orange peels in the case, but I will continue to evaluate the temperature control in the room where I keep him.