Pince-nez glasses

After a couple of years, many trips to Darby Music Store, and a lot of pleading, I was finally allowed to take home one of the violins off the music store wall.

I was eight years old. 

I would have been delighted with any old instrument but its size and fit mattered. The crusty gray-haired store clerk with pince-nez glasses, a wrinkled white shirt rolled up at the sleeves, and billowy pants held up by bulging suspenders, measured my hands and my arms. 

His eyes scanned the violin wall until he pointed to the right one for me. 

Have you ever had the thrill of being "fitted" for a musical instrument? What instrument? How old were you? Share below.