I have finally met a famous world class whistlemaker in person!
Not only him but his beautiful and gracious wife Ellen. Not only that, but they drove over a hundred miles to be with us demonstrating what great folks they are and what a fine player and how generous! They brought the steaks and the Blue Moon. All we had to offer was some Guinness and boiled potatoes.
And the grill for the steaks.
We were not played out when they had to leave.
He had me choose between a Parky D or C from his own arsenal. I said “please don’t make me choose!”
I got the C. Neither were for sale. The C will never be sold now. Not at ANY price. Do not bother me with an offer!
Likewise, my beautifully engraved C/D set will never be for sale (unless the minimum price of $5,000 is reached, that is). Is there really a Parky; a man who walks out among us briefly giving away incredibly beautiful whistles, then disappearing yet again from the whistle world…
Thank you Mack! It was a pleasure to meet the infamous Hoover-man. We’ve exchanged emails occasionally as well as the usual secret-club handshakes on C&F message boards. Mack is a wonderful guy who is almost a fanatic over whistlemaking, especially if it involves wierd materials…he even told me of a whistle he made out of copper flex-tubing left over from a gas line installation. Mack was near me because he travelled halfway across the US to help support his sister in a time of need…that’s the kind of guy he is. I got a chance to try a whitecap or two…now I understand all the hooplah over these: sweet, easily played and responsive. And a cool material they’re made out of also…indestructible and smooth on the teeth. I recently sent Mack some black walnut to fiddle with and he sent me back a goooorgeous low G made out of it. It’s a good player with a perfect sounding upper octave…I mean super-sweet and pure. I think sometime soon you’re gonna see some new candy when Mack gets back to the shop. It was a treat to meet Mack and his family and hopefully it will happen again before he leaves for the hills of Colorado again. And yeah, he got one of MY whistles… the “C” I wasn’t gonna sell because I liked it too much. Oh well, he’ll probably get a lot of use out of it…back to the garage for me to try to make another!
Cheers,
Dave
There are a couple snippets on Clips n’ Snips, and also one on my website: www.geocities.com/parkhurstwhistles . I’d update my website but I forgot the passwords, and now realize how cyberstupid I am after trying to set up an alternative website.
