Lost/broken whistle stories: The thread.

[WyoBadger]

A recent spate of dead/mortally wounded/lost whistle stories prompts me to ask:

What is the most original way you have ever lost, destroyed, or severely damaged a whistle? "Back from the Dead" stories are welcomed, too.

I lost an old Clarke D while kayaking on Boysen lake a couple years ago. Wasn't sure where I had lost it, but it came up missing at the end of the trip.

Almost two years later. Bighorn river. We had camped in the darkness on what we thought was public land. During the night, we spotted a light through the trees and heard a dog barking oh, maybe 100 yards away. Oops. Spent a rather restless night hoping the dog was tied up (he sounded big), and were loading up camp in the gray false dawn, as soon as it was light enough to see.

I flipped my boat over to pour out a bit of rain and any critters that might have fallen in. Heard a faint *ping* on the rocks underneath. Investigating, I found this:



A bit rusty, but none the worse for wear and still very playable. "...and the sea shall give up the dead that are in it..." or something along those lines.

Tom

[Rob Sharer]

We used to have a Sunday session at a pub largely furnished with old church pews, rails, etc. Our table was a long one, with two long pews for seating on either side. On the Sunday in question, a rollicking, well-attended session was in full swing. Approximately six sessioneers were seated on the starboard pew, with a whistler somewhere near the middle. I'm not sure of the exact circumstances that led the whistler to rest his Abell blackwood D on the seat, but here is what followed. Ubeknownst to the company at large, the Abell somehow made its way to the juncture of the seat and the upright back of the pew, thence continuing on into the gap created between those two parts when six well-fed Yanks share a swaybacked aul' pew. When, sometime later, three or four of those seatmates elected to stand at once....

I can't go on.

Rob

[springrobin]

Consider a Syn ironwood D, newly acquired, sitting on the dresser looking like an ordinary stick of wood to a one-eyed labrador retriever. Unnotice, she picks it up and drops it in my lap to throw for her, but not before the head is destroyed. I never made that mistake again.

[FJohnSharp]

On Halloween last year I was out walking when a vampire swooped down and knocked me to the ground. We struggled for a minute then I remembered I had a Thin Weasel in my pocket. Unfortunately the end wasn't sharp enough to stab him in the heart, so I crammed it down his throat and ran like hell.

I never got it back.





















(Okay, I made that up).

[BillChin]

I had a German made tin cheapy that I carried on my bicycle. The bike was stolen with the whistle. Luckily it was a cheap bike (in terms of resale value), too.

[WyoBadger]

On Halloween last year I was out walking when a vampire swooped down and knocked me to the ground. We struggled for a minute then I remembered I had a Thin Weasel in my pocket. Unfortunately the end wasn't sharp enough to stab him in the heart, so I crammed it down his throat and ran like hell.

I never got it back.

Yeah, I hate when that happens.
T

[MagicSailor]

Hi

On May 30th 2006 I was on my way across the Atlantic on my yacht "Naomi J.". I had left Cape Verde three days previously and was around 300 nautical Miles west of the islands with 2-3 weeks to go to Barbados. At around 2200 UTC, Naomi collided with a Singaporean bulk carrier. I was saved from my sinking boat by the ship that sank me.

The Naomi J. was a 28 foot 5.5 ton displacement wooden cutter. She had been my home for 14 years and contained everything I owned including two Generation D whistles, 2 Generation C whistles, a Waltons D and a very good Noblet clarinet. I have lots more whistles now. Still haven't found a good clarinet I can afford.

Regards,

Owen Morgan

Yacht Magic
Anchored in the lagoon, St Maarten

My new blog.
Click here for my latest reported position. (Use the satellite view.)

[Thomaston]

Nothing too tragic here, but I recently tried the poster putty tweak on my Gen Bb, only to discover it didn't seem to help. While trying to remove the putty, I notched the blade. Realizing this was the perfect opportunity to see what would happen if I sanded the blade to a new point, I ended up turning an ok Gen into a absolutely crappy Gen.
The moral of the story: destroying a fipple with a failed tweak is the perfect excuse for a whitecap or blacktop!

[Denis]

I had a wonderful Burke Narrow Bore Composite D Whistle, an exceptionally sweet, featherlike instrument that I loved to play. The whistle is black and somehow it ended up on a black chair and tragically one evening it broke when accidentally sat upon…. A barely audible click and it was over… In a cold sweat I reached for the whistle… broken, it had snapped right at the tune mark on the barrel.

I tried in vain to re-attach it, glue it and tape it together…. nothing worked. I sent an e-mail to Michael Burke asking if I could purchase a tube to replace the snapped piece. The top fipple end was fine.

For the cost of mailing it back to him Michael graciously offered to make a new tube and resuscitate my poor shattered instrument. Within a few weeks my whistle was back and it has been singing ever since. It is now permanently stored in a hard plastic case when not in use and every time I play it, I give thanks to this fine whistlemaker who is proud of his products and provides support above and beyond.

[feardearg]

I got out of my car and my generation F fell out of my pocket and rolled to the center of the street. Another car came by and ran it over .

I kept it in my case for a while. When people saw it there with my other whistles and asked me what it was, I would tell them it was my Fb.

I guess my wife thought it was garbage and eventually threw it out. Sad.

[MusicalADD]

Some of these stories are gut-wrenching! But in a good way.

Suddenly it occurs to me that it might be useful to get one of those little plastic thumb-rest clip-ons -- not that I need a thumb-rest for playing, but, I think it would guarantee that the whistle would never roll off the table.