"Originally a sweet silver sparkle kit, now a patina that only decades of fun and a smoky bar room could create, an almost magical gold hue."

Those are rather poetic words for a Facebook ad, but the items for sale merit the sentimentality: The drums used for 30-plus years by Al Ophus of the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band in the polka room at Nye's Polonaise Room could be yours for a cool $595 via the classifieds website

Posted just five days after the northeast Minneapolis bar's 65-year legacy came to a rowdy and tearful end, the ad is the handiwork of Myron Dargus, a drum restorer who is a friend of World's Most Dangerous Polka Band leader Joe Hayden.

"The truth is, I could clean it up and wipe all the signatures off it, and we'd probably sell it for a lot more money, but of course that's not the point," Dargus said by phone Friday. "I really hope someone up in northeast Minneapolis buys them. It's such a piece of history for that part of town, it belongs up there."

Dargus said most of the 1970s-era drum pieces have been wrapped up and stored above Hayden's garage since 2003, when Ophus died and other drummers came in with their own kits. The one piece missing was the snare drum, which has hung behind the bandstand in the polka room all these years. When the snare drum came down Sunday along with all the other memorabilia being auctioned off the walls, Hayden thought to reunite it with the rest of the kit and sell it to someone who will recognize its nostalgic value.

Click here to see the ad, which pretty well spells out the drum set's worth with descriptions like this:

"Hundreds stood in front of Al Ophus while he played and played, flirted with the crowd and let them lay down their autograph or quote on the side of a drum or cymbal or inside the shell or on a chrome stand.. anywhere they could..they wrote their name, announced the gal or guy they were with or just plain wrote some fun crazy quote like "Born Psyco" or "Love 'ya Al, Gina, and a phone number. … When you look at these drums, you see them on the tiny stage with the colored lights and the band playing away.. it was pure kitch. Own a piece of it along with the memories."

The online auction for the rest of the Nye's memorabilia will begin Monday and continue through April 18, including bar stools, booths and bar signs.

As for the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band, the group itself is not ready to become a thing of the past. Hayden & Co. will perform tonight (Friday) at the newly refurbished Ballantine VFW Hall in Uptown (2916 Lyndale Av. S.). They are also set to make their debut at First Avenue on Wednesday for former mayor R.T. Rybak's book-launch party, and they are scheduling performances all over town well into summer, which can all be seen on their Facebook page.