Jim, in fact, "messed around" for the next seventeen years. During that span of time, he moved to Omaha, NE, where he continued to look for uprights in church basements. Jim also learned, he recalls, by "watching other people play, in person or on TV, and listening to a lot of records and tapes." What's more, Jim learned by what he calls "the Nike method." (That's right: "Just do it.")
While still in college, Jim found out about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. He turned on his TV and caught the tail end of a report on the Saturday edition of "NBC Nightly News;" the report was about that year's (1979) contest champ, Dorothy Herrold...who'd decided to retire undefeated after winning the contest three straight times.
Fourteen years later, as a subscriber to "The Mississippi Rag," Jim found out that the contest was still alive...but had moved from Monticello, IL to Decatur, IL (and had, at the same time, switched from being held outdoors in Monticello to taking place at Decatur's Holiday Inn). Jim felt confident enough to actually enter the 1993 contest. It'd be his first one.
Jim Boston got a rude awakening. He finished last. (What's more, with the contest now split into a Junior Division of pianists 19 and younger AND a Regular Division of, well, older performers, even the juniors outplayed him!)
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