When contemplating my move to Arkansas I heard about refrigerators on front porches and treasures under blue tarps. I was told that Beethoven and Brahms had been squeezed into oblivion by bluegrass and country. I didn’t think I could survive without Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. I had heard it performed by orchestras in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Pittsburg, Cleveland and Chicago. Would…
Category: Slice of Life
Music Magic
I have felt the magic ever since I attended a concert by the Philadelphia Symphony. Maestro Eugene Ormandy opened the concert with Samuel Barber’s Suite for Strings. I never knew that 100 strings could sound as one. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony was the second piece. With the down beat the corpulent lady next to me elbowed my ribs. I felt my…
South Mountain Test
My brother Carl had a foolproof test of a car’s worth. If the car could climb to the top of South Mountain without shifting into second gear, it was a keeper. He challenged our father to the contest. Carl’s ’38 Ford easily passed the test, but our father’s old clunker was known to require low gear to reach the summit.…
The 3 Fs of Thanksgiving
I guess I’ve been writing for awhile now! This is something I wrote In November of 1990. I had just turned 18 and was a Senior at Ozark Adventist Academy. I was co-editor for the Mountain Echo, the school newspaper. And when I say school newspaper, it was that…we put addresses on them and actually mailed them! It was the…
Learn to Be Content
What a surprise! I walked into the music department of Barnes & Noble. I was met by a whole wall of vinyl records and a turntable. In December of 1955 I bought a portable phonograph. By the time I paid for it I had just enough money to buy one record — Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony, the Pathetique. I played it…
Songs We Didn’t Know
I had a curious revelation with the hymnal in my childhood church. The hymnal was called Christ in Song. Believe it not, there were 949 songs. As I thumbed through the pages I found about 30 that I recall singing. Unless, that is, when the pastor chose a song among the 919. Mrs. Brown bravely attempted to play an introduction…
These Are the Best Years of Your Life!
(This blog is written with a heart of humor…I hope you read it with one as well!) They say confession is good for the soul, so maybe Tom and I should just say it! We laugh at you! ….I mean with you! All you younger-than-us parents with little Dennis the Menaces. All those cute little tantrums and fat crocodile tears.…
His Name is Hope
I love this time of year! I love the cooler temps. I love the feel of wrapping up the busyness of the summer and slowing down a bit. Of course, I love hay bales, pumpkins, and mums too. And I love the challenge I give myself every year, to eat a new pumpkin-something! Fall leads to Thanksgiving, my most favorite…
DON’T YOU CARE?
The other day Tom asked me if I had written anything lately. To which I answered, “No, I’ve been sort of depressed.” He said maybe writing something would help. Maybe… I loved Bean. She was Rose’s puppy. The one delivered in the snow-apocalypse by Jake and the grossed-out Ben. Bean, the not so smart, not so brave, not so great looking…
Love Never Quits Touching
For three years I taught elementary school. That was 1957 to 1960. I never considered myself an ace in the classroom. Maybe I was too harsh a judge. Last week my grandson met one of my students. Now retired, he had received many awards as an elementary school teacher. He said I was his role model. His mother died the…