WEST PARIS — Fifteen friends and relatives assembled in Pete Andrews’ room at Ledgeview Nursing Home on Tuesday for presentation of the Boston Cane to him as the town’s oldest resident.

Andrews will be 96 years old on Aug. 10.

Andrews grew up in Woodstock where his family had a casket manufacturing business in connection with the Andrews Funeral Home. He was the fifth generation to own the business.

Andrews told a story about a chair he has in his room. With a twinkle in his eye, he said it was his electric chair.

“When salesmen had overstayed their welcome at the business, he would press a button and the person seated would suddenly feel a tingling and decide to leave,” he said.

The tingling was caused by some screws in the seat of the chair wired to electrical cables under the chair. Andrews laughed as he recalled the events.

He said he was about 12 or 13 years old when he started helping in the business, but on the side, he was a barn musician.

“Several of us would gather in a barn or home and practice,” he said. His group, known as Old Parisian, played at dances and other functions all over the area. Andrews played at a dance with the Richard Felt Band as late as last April.

In addition to a stand-up bass, Andrews plays piano, banjo, clarinet and sings.

“It was fun to play at dances, but when you are on stage, someone else could steal your girl and that hurt,” he said.

Andrews said his grandfather played the violin and that was where his interest and talent came from, because neither his mother nor father played an instrument. It was obvious that music was a real joy for him as he smiled the whole time he spoke of his music.

“Every weekend we would travel to dances and sometimes we drove great distances to get to our dance,” Andrews said.

Grandson David Andrews said that had his grandfather not followed in the family business, he would have probably had a career in music. “Music was natural to him, and everything came to him by ear and not by lessons,” David said.

Pete Andrews said he did take some piano lessons. He led a parade down the nursing home hall to a room with a piano and sat down to play all kinds of old songs by ear. His visitors sang and clapped.

Since 1909, a Boston Post, gold-headed cane has been presented to the oldest resident in New England towns, courtesy of Boston Post publisher Edwin Glazier, who sent the canes out to 700 towns more than 100 years ago.