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Monday, June 17, 2002
When he ordered the organ, Bob "Dutch" van Luyn said the Dutch craftsmen were a bit taken aback, especially by the idea of a bell-ringing turkey.
By TOM ANGLEBERGER
Ring that bell, Hokie Bird! Techmen, we're Techmen, with spirit true and faithful, Backing up our teams with hopes undying ... You've never seen anything like this. You've never heard anything like this. There's never been anything like this. Hand-made by five old-world craftsmen. Intricately carved. Delicately tuned. A beautiful, extravagantly decorated street organ that might have been found in a Holland market 100 years ago. That would make it neat, but not unique. This dresser-sized wonder does what no calliope, hurdy-gurdy or street organ has ever done before. By golly, when Bob "Dutch" van Luyn gets it cranking, it toots out "Tech Triumph!" and a wooden Hokie bird rings a bell. That's right, a Hokie bird, hand-carved by a Dutch artisan, ringing a tiny bell in time to the music. For a listen and a look-see, click here now. Techmen, Oh, Techmen, we're out to win today, Showing pep and life with which we're trying ... Even non-Hokies can't deny the joy of the music and of the vision of van Luyn himself, smiling and cranking out the familiar tune. "The first time I tried it I thought my arm was going to fall off," said van Luyn, a Virginia Tech grad, General Electric retiree and first-generation immigrant from Holland. The organ rocks back and forth to the beat and the wooden pipes let loose with that beloved melody that will trill and tweet its way across parking lots full of Hokie football fans next fall. We know our ends and backs are stronger, With winning hopes, we fear defeat no longer ... Tailgating will never be the same again - assuming van Luyn can figure out a way to transport the bulky -but-delicate instrument to Lane stadium and back. When he commissioned the street organ last summer he raised the bar, not just for Hokie fans but for sports fans everywhere. "I'll be honest, I blew the budget for a little while," he said. "It was one of those thoughts in the back of your mind ... you know they're crazy." On visits to his homeland he heard the street organs and was reminded of his happy childhood in Rotterdam - happy, he said, despite the fear and hunger he and his family lived with during the years Nazis occupied the city. "My childhood was a normal childhood, except there was a war going on," said van Luyn, whose family survived by eating sugar beets and tulip bulbs. "I think I learned to appreciate freedom and everything else that we have since World War II even more. It's one of those lessons you never wish on anyone." While very proud of his American citizenship, earned while he was still at Tech in 1962, he's kept his Dutch heritage as well as his accent. His home in a rural stretch of Blacksburg was designed to look like a Dutch farmhouse, complete with gaily painted shutters and an attached stable that serves as a garage. Two pairs of wooden shoes hang by the front door, which leads to rooms decorated with old-world touches and Heineken memorabilia. What, short of building a windmill, could be better than adding a home-sized version of a street organ? "I thought it was a little nutty," van Luyn admitted. "I said it, 'It is, but go ahead,'" said his wife, Trudy. Traditionally, a Dutch street organ is decorated with sailboats or windmills and features wooden figures of a conductor, musicians, comely young lady or such. "I thought, 'No, no, no, no. We're going to make it a Hokie organ. We're going to have fun with it,'" van Luyn said. "I know what the doll's going to be, it's going to be the Hokie bird." To see our team plow through the line, boys. Determined now to win or die ... The Dutch craftsmen were a bit taken aback, van Luyn said, especially by the idea of a bell-ringing turkey. "He's looking at the thing saying, 'What the hell is that?'" But they agreed. The organmaker built a magnificent 42-piped draiiorgal, or turning organ, as it is known in Holland. The painter decorated it with two turkeys, Torgersen Hall Arch and the War Memorial. A musician arranged "Tech Triumph" and "Moonlight and V.P.I." for the organ. The notes were punched into the long cardboard strips that are cranked through the organ, telling it which notes to play. And, to top it all off, a woodworker carved a wooden Hokie Bird that holds a little bell. Cleverly crafted, the Hokie Bird is hooked into the organ and, at appropriate places in the music, his right hand turns, striking a bell with a little mallet. The whole thing was packed into a crate, shipped to New York and then trucked to Norfolk. Van Luyn drove down with a U-Haul to get it in March. The crate was too big for the trailer, but he fit the organ in once he unpacked it, and got it back to Blacksburg in time for a party celebrating his 45 years in America. He hid it under a sheet to build suspense among his guests. "When I took the sheet off and I started up "Tech Triumph!" they run up and start clapping." And who wouldn't? Give a Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi Rae, Ri, old V.P.I!
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