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Musicals as the music of childhood

Musicals as the music of childhood

I was exposed to a lot of music growing up. My parents loved music and had the radio on all the time. My mother loved musicals; we used to go to live theater in Kansas City, and I could tell you how many words were different [from the original versions]. So I know musicals in and out, and the jazz stuff, and so forth. Lots of favorites. My husband and I do ballroom dance, and “In the Mood” is one…

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TV and internet were big changes to witness

TV and internet were big changes to witness

The two life-changing technological changes I’ve seen are the advent of television and the advent of home internet use (smart phones included). Arguably, the internet has more far-reaching implications for the way we live now, including our security (identity theft, etc.). But also, arguably, both technologies have invited addictive behavior and have reduced the amount of time most people spend enjoying the company of others and of themselves. Interestingly, meditation practices are becoming more popular each year–no coincidence! Humans are…

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Old flame back again

Old flame back again

Getting older means, among other things, accumulating a splendid pile of memories of other times, other places, and perhaps most poignantly, other relationships experienced over a lifetime, especially romantic attachments, some fleeting, some frivolous, and some deeply felt. Memories of most of these are a little misty, but the more intimate encounters are remarkably vivid. Playmates in childhood, school chums, high school and college flames and flame-outs, serious relationships, marriage and divorce, remarriage and relationships in between, all of these…

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Hit parade

Hit parade

Well, all of you had a more lofty musical education.  Mine was your hit parade.  And that was the music that appealed to me.  And back then they had two books, I think they cost a quarter apiece, and I had them.  I wish I had kept them, but all the songs were there that were on your hit parade.  This was all the popular music.  

Recorders, crumhorns, and shawms

Recorders, crumhorns, and shawms

Well, the only singing I did when I was a younger was, you know, essentially whatever we sang in the classroom.  That was it. [Not at home?] Not at home.  My mother, every weekend we always had the Metropolitan Opera broadcast on. Every weekend.  And you know, usually dad chose what we were going to listen to, but when the Metropolitan broadcast was on, we listened to the Metro broadcast.  My parents were both born in Sweden and they were…

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Singing in school and at church

Singing in school and at church

Well, probably like most of us, I sang.  We had music all through school, and I lived across the street from school so it was close, two blocks or so from the church.  And we had music there too.  And, at least through junior high we had it, I can’t remember if they had one choir or two choirs for the younger kids.  But, the junior high actually had a part in the service every now and then, every month…

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“Why didn’t you sing?”

“Why didn’t you sing?”

I have a story that might be able to be made into a song. I went to church, and Mother was famous in church because she was the soloist.  My dad hardly ever went to church, but this one day he went to church.  I was sitting next to him, we stood up to sing.  For whatever, reason, I don’t remember my motivation, but I sang my heart out.  I just sang really loud for me, the best I could…

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Growing up in a musical family

Growing up in a musical family

Well, in our family, music was part of our life from day one basically.  And especially with Mother playing the pipe organ at the church we went to.  And Mother’s earliest memory of me in my first Christmas program was that, when the kids started singing off tune I looked daggers and just quit singing.  And, we found out, I think sometime in our Arnold’s Park days, that I actually had perfect pitch. And it does not mean I don’t…

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First choir: VOE

First choir: VOE

My story is the opposite.  We were a non-musical family, not at all.  I didn’t go to church.  I tried out for the chorus when I was like in fifth grade and I got rejected. We hadn’t had one before that so I completely…  If I had had any idea of being a singer, that was the end of that.  And so I never did anything, and my family didn’t do anything musical really until I retired, and I saw…

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Dedication to practicing the piano

Dedication to practicing the piano

Before my parents first got divorced, they had an old reed organ that pumped. And so I was learning how to play the organ, and the nuns at the school began teaching me how to play the piano. Then the mice got into the organ and I couldn’t play it anymore.  I just played the keys and memorized it in my head and practiced that way.  And then my parents couldn’t afford music lessons, so the nuns let me clean…

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