[Wikipedia] May 21: Elderly Instruments

  Elderly Instruments is a musical instrument retailer in Lansing,
  Michigan, with a national reputation as a seller, repair shop, and
  locus for folk music.  It specializes in fretted instruments, including
  acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitars, banjos, mandolins, and
  ukuleles, and maintains a selection of odd or rare instruments of many
  types.  Elderly is best known as a premier repair shop for fretted
  instruments, as one of the larger vintage instrument dealers in the
  United States, and as a large dealer of Martin guitars in particular.
  Industry publications, particularly music retail trade and bluegrass
  music journals, frequently feature articles about the Elderly repair
  staff.  The company also provides consignment services for rare and
  vintage instruments.  Elderly has undergone two major expansions: into
  mail order in 1975 and then into Internet sales in the 1990s.  Today it
  is recognized internationally for its services and products; its mail
  order and Internet business account for 65–70 percent of its total
  revenue.  Elderly grossed $12 million in 1999.  In addition to retail
  and repair services, Elderly Instruments is frequently noted as a
  center of local music culture, particularly for bluegrass and "twang"
  music.  Elderly Instruments operates a wholesale record distribution
  business, Sidestreet Distributing, in the lower level of its complex,
  servicing more than 300 small retail businesses.

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elderly_Instruments

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1758:
  French and Indian War: Ten-year-old Mary Campbell was taken captive