MY ORGAN DONATION

Back in 1988 I was called on in my church to become the organist. Now I had had some experience with the instrument back in the 1970s, enough experience to know how an organ works. I understood stops and pistons, and I could well remember the principles of what is called registration, that is selecting the various stops that produce a certain sound. But I had only very minimal experience with a pedal board. Nonetheless, in 1988 I rose to the challenge, having at the age of thirty still a certain amount of youthful self-confidence. But when I first sat down at an organ console after ten years since I had had my minimal experience, the thought that came to my mind, as I looked at three keyboards, a pedal board, and all of the other mechanical items, stops and pistons, was that this is what it must feel like to go from driving a car to suddenly being at the controls of a 747 jet.