Zeswitz was and I believe still is a musical instruments store in Reading, PA where I grew up. I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I convinced my parents to let me take accordion lessons there. My mother agreed to it I think because she thought I might need this talent along with a monkey for a future career.
There were a lot of other kids taking lessons with me. The man who was our instructor I’d later realize had been a real life facsimile of Harold Hill, the charming huckster in Broadway’s The Music Man. Like the Davy Crockett coonskin hat and the hula hoop, learning accordion was a craze for a while in my town.
We all started with beginner accordions that Zeswitz rented for the first half dozen lessons. After that the store played hardball. To continue playing a signed contract to purchase a new full blown accordion was required. My parents, I’m sure against their better judgement, aquiesced and I plodded along and quickly validated any doubts about their investment when I started to regret having to practice.
At one point we had a giant recital at the local college field house and I think all those of us under the spell of the squeezebox nearly filled the basketball court. If The Guinness Book of Records had known about the event, we might have qualified as an entry.
The most proficient among us played that accordion standard “Lady of Spain.” I was in the group that played the much easier “All Through the Night.” My memory has fooled me into believing that I had already packed up my instrument and was headed out the door while others were still performing.
A short time later I met my Waterloo (not Abba’s version) when we had to deal with both sharps and flats in grappling with “Oh, Them Golden Slippers.” I also gave up any hopes of my ever appearing in Philadelphia’s New Year’s Day Mummers Parade and in my frustration destroyed my grandfather’s beautiful metronome as well.
My parents had been paying for my accordion on the installment plan. I don’t know how they unloaded it but I do remember that for years afterward every pawn shop in Reading had accordions in the window.
Many more years later I heard a story about a guy who left his accordion in his car and went inside a restaurant to eat. When he came out one of his car window’s had been smashed and there were two accordions on the back seat.
pawnedaccordion 
Your story about accordions brought back fond memories of my favorite aunt, who also took up accordion in the late 1950’s. I wonder what sparked her interest….trying to recall if there was a popular singer who accompanied himself on accordion and made appearances on Ed Sullivan. The again, what sparked the hula hoop craze
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s the guy who is most likely you remember seeing on Ed Sullivan…
https://accordionamericana.com/2016/05/31/the-extraordinary-dick-contino-accordionist/
As for me the dog acts where the pooches jumped through hoops set on fire and the people who twirled stacks of plates on poles stand out and I was startled when I discovered that the music almost always used to heighten the frenzy was actually from a ballet suite composed by Aram Khachaturian. It must have been used only after the McCarthy Era.
LikeLike
That reminds me of the contest I heard about years ago, where the first prize was a week in Philadelphia. Second prize was two weeks in Philadelphia. Apparently the Russians have the same joke about Moscow.
LikeLiked by 1 person