As I've been making my trip down memory lane lately, one of the thoughts that occurred to me is how much pleasure I've derived from the music in my life. I don't consider myself a musically talented person, but even so music has touched me in many ways.
I guess it all started with my Dad. In the photo below he is the man on the far left strumming a mandolin. This band was called "The Sierra Mountaineers" and here is an excerpt from my Dad's memoirs telling about it:
One day Slim Peterson (Six feet- five inches tall) and Harold Strid (tenor guitar and steel guitar respectively) drove into the Biola Ranch. "I understand you play a mandolin" they said to me. I admitted that I did. "We are getting up an orchestra. How would you like to join us?" I did join them. There were two other steel guitar players and a fiddler. We played together for years, though not always the same group. We played for lots of parties and on some amateur radio hours. We called ourselves THE SIERRA MOUNTAINEERS. In the summer of 1932 we tried to get a job as entertainers on the firefall program of the Curry Company at Yosemite Valley. After a couple of weeks they decided they couldn't use us - we just weren't that good, I guess. They gave us a pretty good tryout with free meals in the Camp Curry dining room and a cabin to live in. Slim and Harald (he is Swedish) didn't want to stay there anyway. They wanted to go home and get married.Both were engaged to be. After the Camp Curry experience our organization just sort of fell apart. Ben Reagan, our fiddler moved away. I was busy trying to get a college education. We never made much money, but we had a lot of fun.
I think that was the story of his life - we never had much money but we had a lot of fun. And some of that fun was centered around music. Although Daddy didn't play in a band when I was alive, he was always strumming his mandolin, walking around the house singing songs like "Girl from Ipanema" and "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue". I can still hear him like it was yesterday. He also sang in the church choir, and in many hymns you could clearly hear his deep bass voice. I cannot hear "The Old Rugged Cross" to this day without getting tears in my eyes as I hear his voice in my mind.
Starting with that as a basis, all of us got into music in one way or another. My sister's voices are much better than mine, and I think they all sang in the choir in church. Our oldest sister Mary has a beautiful singing voice, and also played the organ at her church for years. Next is Fran, who has continued to develop her voice to this day as well as write and record music. Nel is very involved with a group that sings in church, and Liz really enjoyed choir in high school. She was probably the most talented flutist and also square-danced for a number of years. Susie and I just listen to music, although I do enjoy singing when I'm alone. :)
Here are some other ways music has touched my life:
Band
Like many elementary schools, ours offered band to interested students starting about 5th grade. I chose to play flute, likely because many of my sisters did. I played flute until 11th grade, when I had to choose between it and songleading. Like many things, it wasn't just playing the instrument itself, but related memories that remain with me. For instance, in 1976 we formed a "fife and drum corp" to celebrate the bicentennial. It was all fine until we were standing at attention too long on the courthouse lawn and I passed out! That's one way to learn what fainting feels like.
I remember being "challenged" for "first seat" in high school band by another flutist, and practicing and practicing to try to hold that seat. I remember endless fundraisers to buy REAL uniforms. When we finally got them (complete with a "shako" (that hat you see marching bands wear)) they turned out to be a lot less comfortable than our prior uniform of blue jeans and white tops. I have fond memories of band practice for two weeks in the summer leading up to the fair parade, when Mr. Williams pulled together a band made up of all the local jr. high and high school students to march in the parade. I recently watched the Petaluma High School band march in the Veteran's Day parade here and reflected that they have less students in their band than we did in our little town of Mariposa. I remember sitting out on a rock with my flute and the big music book that we had bought from Reader's Digest and practicing songs just for the enjoyment of it. The joys of living in the country, I probably didn't even annoy the neighbors!
Dances
One of my earliest musical memories was in 5th grade. When it rained, we were allowed to play music in the classroom and dance during lunch recess. The other day I heard the song "Locomotion", and it brought me right back to those days. That and "Crocodile Rock" will forever be associated with rainy 5th grade days in my head. Not so pleasant are the painful dances in jr. high, which was my first experience in leaning against the wall, waiting for someone to ask me to dance. I wasn't the most popular kid, so sometimes it was a long wait. This song reminds me of those days.
The Radio
We didn't get the latest technology when we were kids, but I got a clock radio that was one of my treasured possessions all through high school. I recall it was pink, and I think I got it from Susie who probably got it from Grandma Flint. It had one of those settings that allowed you to leave the radio on and it would go off after a certain amount of time. So I went to sleep most of my high school nights listening to music. Good thing I was the youngest and had a room to myself, it didn't even cause fights among the siblings!
I also remember getting to use a transistor radio my Grandma had when we visited her. Again, the wire with the ear piece that fit inside my ear was "high living" to a 13 year old. I would sit on her porch swing for hours listening to music and daydreaming while Mom and Grandma visited inside. I clearly remember the songs "Margaritaville" and "Hotel California" being popular that summer. I bet Mom was thankful for that radio as well, since it kept me from asking "can we go home yet?" I never understood her ability to "visit" for hours when I was a kid, but I think I inherited that gene!
The SING
I would be remiss in talking about music and not mentioning this event. If I recall, Nel started the tradition when I was in my 20s, when she was the choir director at church and needed to arrange for "special music" during the summer when the choir wasn't in session. The tradition lasted for over 30 years as my sisters, nieces, nephews, grandkids, and anyone else we could coerce into singing would stand up in front of the congregation and sing once a year. It was usually around the time of my Mom's and my birthday, so it was a good excuse to get together and celebrate. My birthdays just aren't the same without the SING!
Initially it was published music with a spiritual bent like "Morning has Broken" or "One Tin Soldier". Later on, Fran would write the music and lyrics and we would all learn them, or we would adapt another song that seemed appropriate. Like band, the surrounding time spent at the Ranch as a family "practicing the song" or memories like the time Robin surprised Liz by coming home from Iraq unexpectedly are what made the event so special. We would often picnic after the service, and many great photos were taken.
I remember at least once when the SING was followed by the dessert auction at the church. This was a favorite with my kids, especially the part where they could buy pieces of the cake or other dessert off the people that had "won" them for $1 or so. My kids usually didn't have enough money to outbid others, but the generous congregation often shared their winnings. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of Jerry and Mary from that event. Calories don't count if you share them, right?
While looking for more SING photos I came across this website that Fran created, so for those of you who REALLY want to go down memory lane, you'll find it here.
From Radios to Cassette Tapes to CDs to IPods to Phones
I mentioned earlier the pleasure I got out of listening to the radio, but the other way we used to play music was on cassette tape. I remember making our own tapes by recording off the radio, and what a pain it was when the DJ talked over the beginning or end of the song!
These days kids don't know what a cassette tape is or how to work one, but I have fond memories of having a whole case of these in the car and choosing which ones to play, especially on long car trips like the ones we used to make from SLO to the Ranch. When I was a songleader in high school this was how we played the music to accompany our routines, I remember one of the expenditures fueled by our fundraising was a tape player with a big speaker that we could use to amplify the music. I'm pretty sure John Janeski was in his classroom gritting his teeth as the beginning notes of Steve Miller Band's "Jungle Love" played over and over as we practiced our routine right outside his room. You remember that song, right?
These days, even the 6-CD stereos in cars are outdated, and most kids listen to "their music" on their phones. I remember when we attended Brian's graduation from UCSD in San Diego and we were driving down the freeway. I asked him for a good radio station and was shocked to learn that HE DIDN'T KNOW THE GOOD RADIO STATIONS IN THE AREA! Even after living there for 4 years! I guess kids these days don't listen to the radio much but prefer the convenience of choosing the music they listen to, and having good sound quality through earbuds or airpods.
Speaking of good sound quality, has anyone played a record album lately??? Believe it or not, we still have a turntable and record albums, and one time I played one just to let the kids know what it was like. I was surprised at how scratchy it sounded! I guess we've been spoiled by the sound quality from CDs and streaming music. We played the album after I had told 6-year-old Ethan, frustrated with his whining one evening, that he "sounded like a broken record". It was so funny when he asked, through his tears, "what's that?" and I realized the analogy meant nothing to a kid who had never seen an album played! The good news is his question and the subsequent lesson meant he forgot whatever it was he was whining about - a win-win!
Songleading
Of course I have to include songleading in my musical adventures since that was a big part of my high school years. For those of you who don't know what a songleader is, it's similar to a cheerleader, where you attend the games and cheer on the sidelines. The difference is that during halftime, whereas the cheerleaders do a routine that requires pyramids and sharp movements, we songleaders did a dance routine. This photo from my senior yearbook illustrates the halftime routines (I am in the second photo on the far left).
Just like the other examples, our time spent cheering on sports teams was not where the memories were created. I clearly remember songleading camps in the middle of hot summers at Fresno State, where we spent a week to learn routines, and the endless fundraisers because we needed to pay for camp and for our uniforms. The most memorable was the 25-mile walkathon one April in our swim suit tops and shorts to try to get a tan (I got the worst sunburn of my life!)
We had trials and tribulations of songleading competitions, including one where a member of the team refused to go on AFTER we had arrived at the Clovis location where the competition was being held and we all spent time in the ladie's room trying to convince her that we needed to compete.
Best of all were the lifelong friendships that were formed by the experience. I give my friend Debbie full credit for talking me into trying out our sophomore year, which "brought me out of my shell". Without that experience, I'd still be a painfully shy bookworm to this day.
Civics class
Anyone who was a senior at Mariposa High between 1967 and 1981 would remember Mr. Sinclair. He taught for 14 years after (at least) one other career in the military. He was one of the "cool teachers" and he would let us listen to music in class as we were doing our reading or tests. He let students pick out the album to play, and it made the class so much more enjoyable. I clearly remember Jocelyn Alger tapping out the rhythm of this song, and every time I hear it, it brings back memories of our high school days.
The bad memory I have associated with Mr. Sinclair's albums is one time he let us borrow a "Boston" album because it had one of our songleading songs on it, and we left it in a hot car and it melted. We felt so bad, especially when we couldnt' find the identical album to replace it and had to choose something else. Oh well, you win some and you lose some when you go down memory lane. And I learned my lesson about hot cars and record albums!
I'm sure you all have your own memories related to music, and have the experience of a particular song triggering a certain memory. Today my favorite way to incorporate music into my life is while I am sewing. I sit at the desk in my craft room upstairs, looking out the window, enjoying a cup of tea or glass of wine, listening to the music on my phone and reliving the memories. I hope you have equally pleasurable ways of incorporating music into your lives.
ความคิดเห็น