Traditions - Passing the music on; Memories of Grandma
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Grandma never had a piano lesson and, in fact, couldn't read a note of music, but if you knew only one phrase of a song, she could play it in any key you chose. My dad would sit to the side, tears in his eyes while we sang all the old Jolson songs that my mom and uncles liked, and later the more contemporary Tiny Bubbles type of songs. There is a particular song that is the thread for all of this, one that my grandmother sang to my mom when she was a baby, my mom sang it to all of us, and I've sung it to my two. The song title is Baby Shoes* copyrighted in I think 1917. Back about 10 years ago, my sisters and I all became interested in antiques. We found a sheetmusic dealer, and yes, we found three complete sheets of Baby Shoes, one for us each. Mine is matted, framed and hangs above the piano in my living room.
In 1977, we took our show on the road, in a way. We were celebrating Grandma's birthday, the whole family, including my cousins' spouses, and my own. We took up a huge corner of this family restaurant that offered live entertainment. Of course, as they were union musicians, they needed breaks every hour. My mom asked the manager if Grandma could play a while during a break, since that's what gave her the most pleasure, and he said it was alright, as long as the other patrons didn't complain.
Grandma, complete with cane, hobbled up on the stage and sat down at the piano. She started out softly, then my mom and uncles hopped up there, and added a little vocal. Before you knew it, we were all up on this wooden stage singing our 6-8 part open harmony to one old favorite after another. By then I had done some musical comedy theatre so I was floating around the tables, urging people to join us, and they did. We kept on over an hour, a few of the union musicians coming back up, bass, drummer,one horn guy..can't remember what kind of horn. But we had a ball.
Grandma died in 1980, quickly and without pain or fear. My mom has this same gift-the ear. She can't transpose to different keys quite like Grandma could, but when we're all in Chicago, we're all at the piano. Now we're scouring sheetmusic dealers for a sheet for my daughter so she can carry on this tradition with her new son.
Baby Shoes, baby shoes,
mother will always remember
you have forgotten when your feet were bare
mother remembers, she still has a pair of
baby shoes, baby shoes,
to keep them the world she'd refuse.1
If she were to choose,
her life she would lose
before she'd part with your baby shoes.