Traditions - Passing the music on; Memories of Grandma

0 Conversations

When I was a child, our extended family was very close. My grandmother was one of those sweet, blue-eyed, soft spoken types with big, fleshy arms that you could get suffocated in. She had what we referred to as wind indicator flesh, meaning if she held her arms out parallel to the ground, the wind could move the flabby flesh of her upper arm. But, could my grandma play the piano. Most of my appreciation for music, and later art in general began at family gatherings. My mother's two brothers, their wives, all of us children (3 daughters from each sibling, totaling 9) and a few stray great aunts or second cousins would gather around an old piano that my uncle had and sing for hours. By the time I was 8 or 9, I was weaving through the crowd finding the one singing the particular harmony I found most pleasing, and tack on to them.

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.

1Grandma forgot the words of this line, she la la'd through it, but we rediscovered them when we located the sheet music.

Bookmark on your Personal Space


Conversations About This Entry

There are no Conversations for this Entry

Entry

A203824

Infinite Improbability Drive

Infinite Improbability Drive

Read a random Edited Entry


Written and Edited by

Disclaimer

h2g2 is created by h2g2's users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the Not Panicking Ltd. Unlike Edited Entries, Entries have not been checked by an Editor. If you consider any Entry to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please register a complaint. For any other comments, please visit the Feedback page.

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more