Over many decades, I have been fortunate enough to meet some exceptional, wonderful and talented people that share the same interests that I do which makes Life a pleasure and Frank and Gloria Schoepf surely fit this criteria.

I received a call a week or so ago from Frank Schoepf of Hampstead, MD of whom I have never met asking if it would be ok to stop by for a visit on their return trip to Maryland from South Carolina since they would be going through Charlotte, NC which is a little over 50 miles away.  Of course the answer was Yes!  I have talked with Frank and his lovely bride Gloria by telephone and corresponded via email and a friendship quickly developed.

Frank Schoepf is well know in the acoustical musical instrument community, especially pre-war Gibson banjos and is a highly respected pre-war Gibson banjo scholar, historian and authority who has collected data on those instruments that date back to the late 1920s and shares that information as well.

Back in the late 1960s through 1978, I operated a stringed musical instrument repair and mail order business for musical parts and accessories which I have documented on the biography page and have a pix of Frank holding a Gibson pre-war casting pattern for their renown flat head tone ring. 

Yesterday morning, Frank gave me a call letting me know that he and Gloria was in route to Charlotte, NC and I told him not to have any lunch that I would have some North Carolina style pulled pork/bbq ready for our lunch. 

Sometime around 11ish, the doorbell rang and what a wonderful treat it was to meet Frank and Gloria Schoepf and I introduced them to my bride.  We got a good grin going when Gloria wanted to know if my bride has a name since I always refer to her as my bride and it is strange when I do say her name Joyce! 

Below pix of Gloria and Frank Schoepf at our work station island in the kitchen:

It was time to remove the two Boston butts from the UDS (ugly drum smoker) and Frank and Gloria got a chance to sample the pulled pork while I shredded it with a fork.  After getting the Boston butts shredded, I added some of my bbq sauce to one pan of the pulled pork and that one was the favorite.  I normally take pixs of some of the food prepared as evidenced on my recipe page but that wasn't the case today.  It is hard to operate the camera with a fork in one hand.....grin if you must!

Frank emailed me a few pixs he took with his camera.  Yours truly shredding one of the Boston butts below:

Check out the pix below of the bright pink smoke ring and bark on that beautimous looking Boston butt!

We had a wonderful time at the dining room table catching up on things while enjoying a meal of pulled pork and/or bbq, home made baked beans, red and white coleslaw and fried cornbread.  We finished off with a dessert of home made peach cobbler and Vanilla ice cream.

Pix of Gloria and my bride aka Joyce with both of them with a good grin going:

While Gloria and my bride aka "Joyce" entertained themselves, Frank and myself headed down stairs to "The Man Cave" and Frank brought along one of his favorite Gibson flat head banjos FON 9782-3 he named "Kellie" since it was an original style 10 Kel Kroydon manufactured by Gibson in the 1930s.  Frank is one lucky man since he purchased an original pre-war Gibson gold plated flat head tone ring of which the pre-war banjo was in a fire and that tone ring was the only salvageable part from the banjo.  Frank with that kind of luck could easily bankrupt a Las Vegas casino in one afternoon!  Frank had earlier sent me sound clips of that banjo and it is one awesome instrument.  That banjo has it all; highs, lows, tone, clarity, right amount of sustain, power, killer 4th string, pre-war growl and "rattle" gutsy sound that no new banjo possesses. 

Below pix of Frank and "Kellie"

After Frank did some pickin, we went next room into my basement workshop that was originally used as a garage and got caught up on the Bluegrass music scene from decades ago.  We both knew a lot of the craftsmen from the late 1950s and 1960s that started the resurgence and demand for the post-war conversion of the four string pre-war (made before WWII) Gibson tenor and plectrum banjos into 5-string bluegrass style banjos. 

My bride really enjoyed her time with Gloria and she found out that Gloria was an avid Gardner too for both vegetables and flowers.  Time really got away too fast and Frank and Gloria gave us an open invitation to come and visit with them of which we plan to do in the future, the Lord willing of course.

It was a total pleasure to finally meet Frank and Gloria and as I have said so many times on this website:  "Two Of The Greatest Ships That Ever Sailed, Friendship and Fellowship."   

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 10-17-15.