A Terrific Story for you

While I was in Utah last week, I had the NEATO experience of visiting with my piano teacher. I studied with her from 5th through 11th grade. She was the best thing that ever happened to me during my adolescent years. With all the junk that happens during those years, both at home and abroad, she was the miracle that made me feel loved. So anyway, we went to visit her, I played for her (badly), and she told us this true story about HER very first piano teacher.

This story took place on Easter Sunday, 1939. This woman was in Washington, D.C. with her husband who was going to dental school. One day, they were walking down the street and they came across a bunch of people who were all walking in the same direction. She had a sense that they were headed somewhere important, and told her husband that they should go with those people. Soon, there were more and more people, and pretty soon they got looking around and realized that they were the only white people in a sea of black people. Her husband was nervous and told her he wanted to go home. She said she thought something important was going to happen and she didn't want to miss it. They ended up on the mall at the Lincoln Memorial, and it was Marian Anderson who they were there to see! The Daughters of the American Revolution had refused to allow her to sing for an integrated audience in Constitution Hall, so Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the organization and arranged for her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. Seventy-five thousand people showed up to hear her.

You can hear the clip and see some photos of that historic moment here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkPI0VKM4Fk

A Topic-less Update

Last week my cousin died, so I decided to go to Utah for the funeral, which was last Wednesday. I have a very colorful family, so it's always pretty fun to see them all, which was really why I went. I wasn't particularly close to my cousin who passed away, but I used to be great friends with her sister, and now with Facebook and all, I've been corresponding with her other sister and her mom a bit. My mom and I did some of the music for the funeral. It was actually pretty fun, as far as funerals go. I guess the best way to describe this particular funeral would be to say that it was an "interactive" funeral. They had people write down their memories of my cousin and they read some of them at the graveside and some at the funeral service. They had some guys there with guitars who sang some of her favorite songs, both at the graveside and at the funeral service, and had people sing along. They had a DVD of her photos playing at the viewing. They took the casket to the cemetery in a hearse that was pulled by Harley Davidson motorcycles with many of the procession also on their Harleys, and at the graveside they did what could only be described as a camp cheer, and they let off helium balloons into the sky at the end. It was actually a very enjoyable day. It made me wonder what I would want for my own funeral, not that I have any immediate plans.

Today I took Kevin to the thrift store and bought him a new shirt and a couple of piano books - Johnny Mathis and a Christmas album. Then I made him sing the songs all the way home. It was pretty funny. I remember my mom's piano students playing those old sappy songs (Misty, Feelings, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face), and I remember them being played on FM100. We laughed and laughed. I probably shouldn't participate in that kind of activity while operating a vehicle.