** Fred and Mien Blom's Place **PO
Box 4072 Alice Springs |
Fred's Street Organs
Shortly before Fred left for a family visit to Holland in March 1995 a neighbour asked him how a street-organ worked. Fred had always liked the happy music of those elaborately decorated, hand-turned bellow-organs that were played in the streets and at the markets but he knew little of their mechanism. While in Holland he went to the Organ Museum in Utrecht where he bought a book by engineer Jan de Vries explaining the workings of a small 36-key organ. During the following months Fred spent every spare minute to study the book, trying to work out the measurements of the drawings and photographs. Fortunately, a few months later his sister in Amsterdam sent him an instruction booklet with the necessary plans the engineer had since produced, which made work a lot easier.
Fred completed the mechanical part of his first organ in January 1996. And it worked! It had been such a thrill to hear it play ‘Grandfather’s Clock’, which his sister had sent him for his birthday, for the first time. It would be the only tune for a very long time.
The specially made of cardboard music costs ten euro ($16-00) per metre; a two-minute tune is approximately seven meters. My brother in Holland had bought six of those zig-zag cardboard folding books in Belgium, using the five hundred dollars our children had given Fred for his birthday, but they got lost in the mail…
Not entirely happy with the sound, Fred made a new set of pipes and replaced the leather of the bellow with a one of more supple leather. The spare set of pipes later proved ideal to show the schoolchildren and other visitors how to adjust the different tones. The little organ, which remained nameless, was completed in May 1996.
Fred had cut the wheels for his first organ out of 50mm thick custom wood but for his next organ, he made authentic old-fashioned ones, with iron rims.That summer we both had much pleasure taking his creation to the schools, the Scouts and the ‘Old Timers’, our local nursing home. We also had groups of school children and lots of other visitors coming to our house for a show-and-tell session, always amazed at the intelligent questions even pre-schoolers asked about the way the organ worked.
Fred started his second organ, called the ‘Desert Rose’ in January 1998 and completed it in October the following year. This organ also has 36 pipes but it has a bigger bellow with double the volume. He had cut the spokes of the wheels for the cart of his first organout of 50mm thick 'customwood' but he made authentic old-fashioned wheels with iron rims for this one.
By the time Fred was working on the finishing touches to his second organ, plans were already made for a third, much larger organ. This one would have 42 keys and 126 pipes with a valve between the bourdon and violin pipes, and a drum and a tambourin on either side.Was I amazed at the intricate mechanism of the first organs and this one was truly mind-boggling! It is a marvellous hobby with so many completely different tasks to be tackled. Fred does everything himself from making the wooden pipes to carving the ornaments and painting the front. Only some of the mechanical parts are made or bought locally or interstate.
Fred worked on this masterpiece from early October 2000 until the last bit of decoration completed the ‘Twin Tulips’ in September 2002, just in time for our involvement with Australian Open Garden Scheme, for the second year.
In November 2003 Fred's brother in Holland sent him three wooden figurines. Fred transformed them into 'bell-ringers' which provided the finishing touched of the 'Desert Rose' and the 'Twin Tulips'.
Because this organ is far to heavy to be moved, we now invite visitors to our home to enjoy the sounds and learn about the workings of those cheerful instruments. Street-organs are , apart from the yearly shows, seldom seen on the streets in the Netherlands nowadays. We now affectionately call Fred’s passion for building and demonstrating how those wonderful old-fashioned street-organs work “a hobby gone out of hand”. There had been no need for me to worry about Fred being bored when he retired!
During those last seven years, we have had numerous visitors and became friends with several well-known organ enthusiasts from all over Australia. Especially one of them, Reyer Pot-Boekelaar from Fawkner in Victoria became a close friend. Now nearing 80, he is even more eager to pass on his knowledge and does whatever he can to preserve the history of those wonderful instruments with their guy sounds for future generations.
The visit of groups of exchange students from America and teachers from Holland and Belgium made us make up our mind that the organs are no longer for sale; we both have too much fun entertaining visitors! In January 2003 Fred started on his next organ, bigger and better still. We were running out of room but we have since found a place for our camper-minibus, so that we have space for two more organs. This way we still have a lot to offer in the future when we are too old or unable to travel. We both enjoy visitors and learn from them in return.
Fred's hobby also offers me often an opportunity to talk to visitors about the many benifits of keeping a regular journal, for their own pleasure and growth as well as for others to learn from their experiences long after they have left this earth. I am also happy to share my experiences of self-publishing and promoting my autobiography - the subject of my next book - with anyone who is interested.
Ask to see my first two books at your local library. "Father Forgive Us..." Coming to terms with my tears (ISBN 0646-41301-5) is about life in Holland from the late eighteen hundreds. Red Hot Soup, Alice Springs in the Seventies (ISBN 0-9581612-0-8) is about our emigration and our first ten years in Alice Springs.Our ‘show-and-tell’ excursions at our home in Alice Springs
are free of charge. Just give us a call on 89550064 to arrange a time.
Please feel free to