The theme for Week 29 is Music, and music has always been an important part of my family life. Listening to music, playing music, sharing music - 'tis quite a shame I cannot sing, (at least not in public) but as my grandmother once said I could not carry a tune if you gave it to me in a shopping bag with handles.
In primary school my specality was the recorder - in grade three I graduated from the standard recorder to the larger alto recorder, before moving on to the flute in high school. I also learned to play the guitar, again at school, saving my pocket money for months to buy my first acoustic guitar. It was only then, accepting that I was serious about learning and it wasn't a passing fad, that my mother produced her own instrument, a beautiful hand painted creamy colored Spanish guitar.
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| My mother Joy with her guitar, early 1957 |
It was only then that I learned my mother had played in a Federal Band in Melbourne during her youth. She had stopped playing when marriage and children took up too much of her time to practice, but she still had the guitar, stored wrapped in blankets on top of a wardrobe. Somehow it survived mouse plagues, moves and years of less than ideal storage. After allowing me to play it for a while she put the guitar away again, and I continued to learn on my own.
After her death I re-discovered her guitar, and it moved with me to my new home last year. Eventually I plan to have it restrung and display it, and hopefully hand it on to another generation.
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