Autobiography with fans ;)

[organist89]

Hello, folks. You know me: lil' ol Pierce Phillips, AGO. AGO, by the way, denotes my professional certification by the American Guild of Organists

I'm writing this to share with you all of my experiences with fans. It tends to dip into being an auto-biography at times, but that's okay

Please post any comments you have, and I'll be happy to answer any and all questions you may have.

Warning: this gives you a deep look into a very emotional part of my psyche. Please don't use it against me.

And if you're one of the people that I hound over spelling or grammar: watch and learn

This will take several posts, so please be patient and WAIT until I say I'm done to post anything!

[organist89]

Due to my mother's cancer and my father's bi-polar spending habits, my family had to move around a lot. During my life, I lived in many places including Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. I've been to eight schools. I don't mind, I'm actually rather fond of change.

There were several very good aspects to moving around, and one of them was having the opportunity to be exposed to lots of different fans. I always had a fan in my bedroom, so every new house meant at least one new ceiling fan.

My first place of residence was Saddle River, NJ. We rented that house: two bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths. Lived there 'till I was two years old. I have several memories of that house--the kitchen, falling down the stairs, the *shoddy* wiring, and sneaking into my parents' bedroom to see their Sanyo oscillating fan being among them. There were no ceiling fans in that house when I lived there. That Sanyo fan was what got me started in fans--that, and the Galaxy oscillating fan in my nursery.

As an addendum to that, I went back there in 1997, because my mother needed to purchase some marijuana for the pain caused by her cancer. The new residents had installed two white NuTone huggers out on the porch.

Anyhow, my next move brought me two towns over, to the progressive little spot of Mahwah, NJ. I lived in a condominium complex called "Paddington Square". My address there was 1126 Hyde Park Court. Anyhow, my kind old father bought my a ceiling fan for my bedroom. He was always so very supportive of my fan collecting

I don't know where be bought this fan. It was a Beverly Hills "California Surfer"--a 52", 5-blade basic builder fan, with 1990's builder fan vents and el cheapo spinner motor and all. The one big thing about this fan, though, was that it was multi-color. Like the Hampton Bay "Carousel", but more vivid and neon. I'm not sure, but I think that this was the first of the rainbow-colored fans. Everything was a different neon color--except for the downrod and blade irons, which were black.

This was (of course) a reversible 3-speed fan. But my father had a rheostadt (RE-oh-stat) (rotary dimmer) put in, so this fan hummed like all hell! Anyhow, I was *obsessed* with the pull chain. I *loved* pull-chains!

One night, while my parents were eating dinner, I swung Tarzan-style from that pullchain. It, of course, broke out of the switch. ;D Needless to say, I was *devastated*! I cried for a whole godda*n week! But my good 'ol dad...every time he went on a business trip, he would stop at a hardware store and bring me back a pull chain switch to play with.

My dad was *deathly* afraid of electrical wiring. He wouldn't change a switchplate on a light switch! He hated electricity with such a passion that he wouldn't change a lighe bulb without turning off the circuit breaker.

Which is why when he did what he did, it was so shocking that I had to put it in the eulogy I did at his funeral. What he did, was, he put on his rubber-soled loafers, got out a screwdriver, and took the switch housing cap off to look at the switch! WOW! That was so stunning, I think I might have even had it put on his gravestone.

When we had to move to our next residence (Warwick, NY), he begged me to take the fan with me and have it in my new room. But my little 7-year-old heart was SET on a Hunter Original, so I was stupid enough to leave that fan behind.

[organist89]

Before I move on to Warwick, I'm gonna yap for a while about my dad and my grandmothers and our house in Florida.

In 1984, there was a new housing development built in Delray Beach, FL. It was called "Country Lake", named for the manmade body of water around which the houses were encircled. My father bought one of these houses, pre-construction. He used it as a vacation house until he married my mother (his 2nd wife) in 1987, and they lived there steady for a while.

Anyhow, my dad had six fans put into that house when it was being made. I have no clue where he got them from, but he wasn't into fans at that point in his life. He bought two different models of fan, three of each. One was the bright brass 52" Panasonic that we all know I'll kill for, and the other was a 42" white Murray Feiss spinner--looks just like a Toastmaser spinner. The Feiss was in the kitchen, the studio (my father was a painter by night), and my bedroom. The Panasonic was in the living room, the master bedroom, and the guest bedroom.

I loved those fans, they were *wicked* cool. You can read more about the Panasonic in another thread of mine, in the Buy-Sell-Trade folder.

That house suffered two floods, one of which caused the near-demise of the Feiss in the kitchen. But it dried out, and we used it till the day the house was sold (by me, when my father died). Shows you how well-made fans were back then.

In 1999, I (being totally evil at the time), severed the capacitor wires in the Feiss in my room, and had it replaced with a white 52" Casablanca "Four Seasons III".

By the way, I have pics of the Feiss in my bedroom and the Panasonic upstairs in the guest bedroom.

Anyhow, my grandmother who lived down there in FL...she had an apartment two towns over. She had a 4-blade 8-speed white Wing-Tat in the kitchen, a 52" white Moss in the bedroom, and a 42" white Hunter with GE vents in the den. Those fans were all pretty cool. Her new home has four fans: my Lasko TOC, two Hampton Bay "Callaway"s, and that Hampton Bay that looks like a Casablanca Stealth.

And my other grandmother, she has no fans. I tried to convince her to put up a Hunter Original in 1996, but to no avail. She does, however, host my collection of antique desk fans from 1900 to 1970.

I owned two fan catalogs in my youth...a 1996 Casablanca and a 1996 Hunter. I miss them both.

Anyhow, on to the *good* stuff: Warwick

[organist89]

This is my third of four posts. I guess that no one probably cares about this, but I need to get this off my chest to some other people that can appreciate fans. Sorry if it bores you.
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I'll get to Warwick in just a minute. Before I do, though, I should say one more thing about our house in Florida--In 1998, my father had the dining room chandalier replaced with a 42" Hunter "Low Profile".

About a month ago, I went back to that house to check out my old fans (I had left them there when my father died--I was to frazzled at the time to think straight). The young woman and her husband informed me that the fans had all been taked down, "compacted", and thrown out. I saw past them into the living room, where hung a white/brass Hampton Bay "St. Claire". Well, I felt like my parts had been chopped off. Those fans were a big part of my stange childhood. They were a part of my heart. And someone had taken them away, and mutilated them in the process.

I had to excersize every last ounce of self-control to keep from jamming my church keys under their fingernails. I'm still *WICKED* pissed about that, even now. I'm angry, and I have no consolation but to find that model fan and buy it. Hence my saying that I'd sell my soul to own one of those Feisses or Panasonics.


Anyhow, on to Warwick

My father was a very artistic person. He was an ex-painter, and a wine afficionado. He wanted to move to the New York countryside (a) to be close to the best hospital in the northeastern US, and (b) to have his own winery.

So, in 1997, we packed up and moved to the little 'ol town of Warwick, NY. It's a cow-town in the Catskill mountains, in the beautiful southeastern New York countryside.

And when I say cow-town, I mean cow-town! That town had about 10,000 residents and about 25 dairy and corn farms. Cows all around. Cornfields everywhere. And I loved it, every minute of it. I miss it like hell, and I'm moving back there when I turn 18. God willing.

A lot of things happened to me in Warwick--I became a lying theif (I no longer am), I got in touch with my emotional side, and I started collecting fans.

Warwick was one of those places where the fans are updated every fifty years or so. It was a goldmine of good fans!

I moved away from there when my father died in 2000. I'll be going back to visit this year, and I'll take pictures of all the fans there that still remain.

When we moved to our little house @ 61 Ackerman Road, on five acres of hilly land, we were in *paradise*! We lived next to a nature preserve, and birds and deer and turkeys were all over our yard. It was so beautful! And we had this biga$$ 300-year-old oak tree in the front yard, towering over our house. And a hill full of cows just off on the horizon. And a grape vineyard in the backyard. And *beautiful* sunrises and sunsets...I could go on for days. And my heart shall always remain there.

Anyhow, when we moved in, there were 2 fans. When I left, there had been 7.

The two that came with the house were 52" 4-blade antique brass fans from the 1980's. Looked dead-on like Laskos. But the name "Patton" resonates in my mind. Dunno why, so I'm gonna have to say that I'm unsure of the manufacturer of these fans. They were 3-speed, and reversible, and were pretty godda*n basic. I never used them much, due to their location.

In 1999, we had a white 42" Hunter Low Profile installed in the kitchen.

In 1998, I had a 52" white Dan's Fan City "Dixie Belle II" installed in my bedroom. I broke it (on purpose), and in 200, had it replaced with a 52" iron-color Hunter Original.

I also purchased two 42" Hunter Originals, in white, but never had them installed.

But the great thing about Warwick was the fans downtown...

[organist89]

This is my final post. Feel free to reply now.


In downtown Warwick, we had a furniture store with 16 Emerson 1895-series--the 52" white model. Across the street were 2 FASCO Charlestons in Antique Brass, 52". In the deli and in the human society's cat room, there were three *identical* 52" 4-blade variable-speed ornate fans--Ritzes, I think.

What was really great was when my father and I would drive around to different wineries on the weekends, and I'd look at their fans. New York wineries seem to like Hunter Originals.

And that's New York and me and fans in a nutshell


And I forgot to mention these:

In a bakery in Mahwah, NJ: a 42" white 4-blade Emerson blender fan, 2-speed, with switch housing

In a pizza parlor in Mahwah, NJ: 16 assorted Casablancas from the 1970's

In another pizza parlor in Mahwah, NJ: 5 brown Laskos, uber cool.

In Florida, I went to several people's houses to play with their fans. I would walk around and look in windows, trying to spot Hunter Originals. I had a next-door neighbor, my age, named Ricky. We played with his NuTone, his 1895 Series, his Original, and his Crest.


So, folks, that is me and fans. Don't ask why I posted this: I just had a deep emotional need to tell this story to others.

Feel free to post.

Thank you for reading.

And good night.

[organist89]

Absolutely no one here has any comments on what I took all that time to write?

[james pinette]

hey peirce , great story
james

[Farah]

Pierce, very nice story!

[Andrew G.]

SimpsonFan2004 said:

Pierce, very nice story!

Definitely nice, no doubt about that

[Deleted]

Pierce, your story sucks.

[Andrew G.]

Dan said:

Pierce, your story sucks.

Ok , tell me why his story sucks, I'd like to know.

[ulkesh54]

Andrew said:

Ok , tell me why his story sucks, I'd like to know.

I think Dan was being facetious.

[Deleted]

Andrew said:

Ok , tell me why his story sucks, I'd like to know.

I've got it! It's because of his age! Down with all 14 year olds.

Actually, yes, I was being silly.

[Andrew G.]

That figures. Sometimes I might take things a little too seriously.