Picking up after adversity same old song for Pickett

Tom Pickett owns and operates Tom Pickett’s Music Center, located at 2422 National Road in Columbus since May 1982. Pickett launched his business in March 1959 from a downtown Columbus storefront. (Tom Jekel | For The Republic)

During 61 years in business, Tom Pickett has faced his share of challenges.

From a humble start in 1959, when his music studio by day doubled as an apartment by night, through two recessions, a store-leveling explosion and fire, historic flood – and now a pandemic, the Hoosier native has faced his share of hurdles.

Through each, the Indiana native has not just persevered. Rather, the 89-year-old is having the time of his life.

On Tuesday, Pickett will reopen the doors of Tom Pickett’s Music Center. His store at 2422 National Road has been closed more than two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. But that’s just a wink of the eye in the context of his long musical journey.

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Pickett’s infatuation with music began early. As a fifth-grader in Cicero prior to WWII, Pickett discovered Hawaiian music on the radio. Taken by the style, Pickett’s parents paid $36 to buy their son a lap-style Hawaiian guitar, case and amplifier. It was a big investment at the time, but one that would reap dividends.

By high school, Pickett was good enough to teach lessons. His senior year at Sheridan High School north of Indianapolis, Pickett drove to nearby towns to give lessons on the Hawaiian guitar – income that would pay his Butler University tuition. This was the late 1940s and regular guitar music had yet to catch fire, but the melodic tone of the Hawaiian guitar was in vogue.

Having entered Reserve Officers Training Corp., Pickett began active duty in the Air Force after completing college to train as a fighter pilot. But with the end of the Korean War, Pickett instead became an air traffic controller from 1956 to 1959 in Columbus, where he chose to start his post- military life.

In March 1959, he borrowed $500 to launch his music business at 745 Washington St. The studio, which had one acoustic guitar hanging from the wall – his own, also served as his home after business hours with a fold-up bed.

Pickett decided that his best chance to build his business would be going door-to-door. After three years, his hard work paid off as Tom Pickett’s Music Center relocated in a bigger space at 1126 25th St., two doors west of Columbus High School, now Columbus North.

Folk music in the early 1960s was gaining popularity, as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez sang and strummed on acoustic guitars, and Pickett began to increase his inventory.

By the 1964 British Invasion, crew-cut high school boys came in looking to buy Beatles records they heard on AM radio. When they returned to buy more 45s, they began using gel to comb their hair over their forehead like the lads from Liverpool, whose electrical guitar music struck a chord.

Demand for guitars during Beatlemania was so high that it took 2-3 years to fill orders. But as Pickett would experience later, good fortune didn’t always last. His 25th Street store and two neighboring businesses were destroyed during a Jan. 27, 1982 fire. A high-pressure gas line cracked, causing an explosion.

Pickett lost everything – 50 to 75 instruments and thousands of Top 10 oldie records, among the biggest collections in the nation. An insurance check for $25,000 fell far short of covering his loss.

Undaunted, Pickett established a temporary location at 25th Street and Central Avenue. By May, he settled in at National Road and 25 th Street, his current business home of 38 years.

Even without the fire, 1982 was a tough time. Mired in a recession, customers faced 27% interest rates on loans for instrument purchases. That year, Pickett didn’t sell a single major instrument – with income coming entirely from lessons and record sales.

“How we ever made it, I don’t know,” Pickett said. “But I don’t remember ever thinking I couldn’t do it.”

Columbus faced adversity again 26 years later after historic flooding in June 2008. A block east of the swollen Haw Creek, water seeped below the front door of Pickett’s store. But with only a few inches of standing water, Pickett avoided catastrophe.

While the nation simultaneously was battling another recession, Pickett managed to survive that downturn too.

A few years after Pickett’s business passed the 50-year mark, the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic honored him with a 2013 concert featuring former music students. Among them were Columbus native and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Pickett – who is adept on guitar, dobro and ukulele – jammed with younger musicians in a show that lasted more than three hours. With 800-plus tickets sold, it was the biggest crowd to ever gather in The Commons.

Pickett gave up teaching 30 years ago to focus on running the retail operation. Six part-time employees give lessons on guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, piano, violin and drums.

Since his store manager left three years ago, Pickett was working full time six days a week until the pandemic interrupted the business schedule in March. The break, however, gave Pickett time to reflect on his professional journey.

“I’m noticing things about music and people that I felt before but am only recognizing now,” Pickett said.

Early this year, a woman brought in her 2-year-old granddaughter – and Pickett picked up a kazoo to entertain her. At first, the toddler moved just her eyes to the beat, then her head, and finally her bottom. The grandmother’s video of it went viral.

Soon after, a 92-year-old resident at Four Seasons Retirement Center asked for lessons on the guitar, and took five or six before the store’s abrupt closure.

“From 2 to 92, that covers the whole gamut,” said Pickett, who says he is the happiest he’s ever been and has no plans to retire.

When the store reopens Tuesday from its March 16 closing, Pickett will rely on sales of instruments and accessories for store income.

“Giving people music lesions changes people’s lives,” he said. “When the time is right, people will come back and take lessons.”

For Pickett, connecting with young people has always come easily.

Invited to his high school alma mater three years ago as graduation speaker, Pickett pulled out a ukulele at the end of his remarks and played “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” from the Roaring ‘20s to a thunderous applause.

“Some of the greatest things in life come from the simplest things,” Pickett said. “And what’s simpler than music?”

Retired editor Tom Jekel writes a weekly column that appears each Sunday on The Republic’s Opinion page. Contact him by email through [email protected]

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Age: 89

Residence: Columbus

Family: Wife of 53 years, Barbara Pickett; daughters Melanie Yeates, Bloomington, Minnesota, and Mary D‘Agostino, Rockaway, New Jersey.

Education: Butler University, Bachelor of Arts degree in education, 1955.

Military: U.S. Air Force captain, air-traffic controller at Bakalar Air Force Base, 1956-1959.

Business: Has operated Tom Pickett’s Music Center since March 1959.

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