Some guns, some songs do not fade away

Ordinarily, I might apologize for the quality of the photograph, but since I did not take this one, I will fore go those words. This, however, is my pistol as it was shown in a photo accompanying an advertisement. I bought it and it arrived on Wednesday. I had meant to take a photo of it and a companion piece for this post, but forgot to do so before bringing it to a professional gunsmith on Friday for some repair work. So, you have here an advertisement photo. The pistol is a Browning/Fabrique Nationale Model 1900. In this case, the model number denotes the year it officially came into being. American gun maker genius John Browning patented it in 1895. He made arrangements to have it manufactured by Fabrique Nationale in Liège, Belgium, and the first ones emerged from the factory in 1899. After some modification, it was designated the Model 1900 and 724,550 were completed before production stopped with the beginning of World War I. Mine was among the last to be made. It was a soldier's gun from the beginning, and one can only imagine how many still are buried in the mud of Belgium and France, remnants of the bloody trench warfare from "the war to end all wars." The ninety-nine years mine has been around are evident from its worn and somewhat scared appearance. A few days ago, a friend asked for my advice about a rifle he was considering buying. Without going into detail, I told him I was a poor one to ask for advice regarding firearms because I almost always go for what I call "nostalgia guns" -- ones that are old, are made of steel and wood, have seen history and, perhaps, even have made a bit of history. The ones which have beauty and grace, and feel good to hold in my hand. Once again: Old coins, old books, old watches, old guns. I wish I could absorb their journeys and their "experiences" into my own sense of consciousness. And, the music for today: A few weeks ago, I posted an entire concert by Rainbow from 1977 in Munich, Germany. Here is another complete concert, this one from 1995 in Dusseldorf, Germany. Ritchie Blackmore is the only member of the band who appears in both concerts. The vocalist here, Doogie White, performed just a few miles down the road from where I live now with another band about two months ago. Some guns, some songs, some guys do not fade away; they simply are there until they are gone. Until they vanish. Uffff .... Woof .... Poof .... Pooooffff ....