"When I was a child, everybody was singing. In the evening at home, people gathered around the piano and sang songs. In those days, music was a natural social activity. Whenever people got together, for a party or for any reason, they just seemed to make music; or if you just visited friends, they'd end up singing. There was no radio, no sound in the theaters, so people made their own music."
"One time in Duluth, a friend of the family stopped by to pay us a visit (someone my parents went to school with). I'll never forget him. It's one of my best memories as a child. He was an opera singer, and sang at the Metropolitan. So in the evening, Mom played the piano and he sang a lot of opera. I especially remember 'Habenera' from Bizet's 'Carmen'. I still love it. Also 'La Boheme'. The thing I remember is, he made the walls shake. We were living in an apartment. He also sang 'At The End of a Perfect Day'. Those are the two I remember."
"I grew up with music in the house. My dad had Mother's piano taken out of storage and brought to Duluth, and every place we moved. I grew up with that piano. I took piano lessons in Alhambra, but I didn't want to practice. I preferred to play baseball. My sister took lessons, and she did practice, and she learned to play very well. So it's my mother's fault that I did not learn to play the piano! She let me go out and play baseball. I was more determined than she was."
"About the piano: When Mother was a child, they were living on a farm outside of Holton. A man selling a piano came by on a wagon. They would go from farm to farm, trying to sell the piano. Grandma bought it for her daughter, and she paid for it with egg money. She got six cents a dozen for for her hens' eggs. The piano meant a lot to my mother. She took lessons, and later played at the local theater to provide music for the silent movies. She was very young, about twelve. The music had to change rapidly, to match the emotions and actions on the screen."
"When it was time for my mother to go to high school, they sold the farm and moved to Holton, where she attended high school and graduated. They had a college there also - Campbell College. She worked at the college as accompanist. She also took classes at the college, until she got married and moved away. Her life was built around music. For a long time in Alhambra, she was the organist for the Eastern Star, the Masonic women's organization. She was good, she could play anything. All you had to do is tell my mother the name of a song, and she would play it. She knew so many songs. Life was so different in those days."
"I grew up with that piano, so I've had music in my life since childhood. But my earliest recollection is singing to my mother's piano accompaniment. A song about 'A Poor Old Elephant, to the Circus Went'. That's my first and earliest memory. Those are my oldest and most cherished memories."
"That's what I appreciate so much - the love for music that my mother gave me. "Songs My Mother Taught Me".... I've been very fortunate. We had so many opportunities, and I didn't follow enough of them."
.JPG)
