The bells of Davis Your back page article on the MU carillon [fall '99] brought back many memories from the late '60s when I set in motion the playing of the carillon on a regular schedule every day of the week: three times daily on weekdays, twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. It was practically NEVER played back in those days. I was the only player for a while until I got up a list of volunteers to take some of the time slots for me. And oh the memories . . . the time I let a co-ed play who could not play (talk about the bells from hell), the time I played the bells in the middle of the night for a very somber occasion, the day a professor requested I not play the National Anthem anymore, my Friday tradition of playing "Sons of California" (since I was a member of the marching band), the time a fellow bandsman asked me to play something Jewish once in a while since all the Sunday afternoon music was usually Christian hymns, the time I serenaded my girlfriend on the bells by playing "The Sweetheart Tree" and the day I played a recording over the carillon system of the piece "Malaguena" played on a 538-bell carillon--boy! did that get people's attention. It was really quite thrilling. And by the way, the carillon is an electro-mechanical carillon. It has little bars of bronze that are actually struck by little "hammers," and the resulting sound is amplified electronically and sent out the roof speakers. It's sad that parts aren't available anymore--though it would be nice to have a "real" carillon like Berkeley. But then you need to talk to a lottery winner for that one. Steve Shuman '69 via e-mail