No.36

"Love the trees until their leaves fall off,

Then encourage them to try again next year."

- Chad Sugg.

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I THINK I would be eight yeas old and Rita five when we began piano lessons. Probably we weren’t particularly keen on the idea (I wanted a banjo) but all decisions affecting we children were made by our parents, and that was that!

Our teacher was Aunt Frances, the youngest of our mother’s siblings, and she had 12 letters after her name! Wow!!

The fact that she was a relation made no difference in her attitude towards us. We were her pupils and we were treated like all the others.

I remember the routine well. Our mother would take us to see Grandma Hardie who lived next door to Frances, and, when my lesson was due, I would go to Frances’ house, go into the hall, where I would change into carpet slippers, and then quietly slip into the big front room to wait till the previous pupil had finished.

I’m sure that in the early days we went along well prepared, for Mother used to sit with us while we did our compulsory half-hour practice every day, very often tapping out the beat with her knitting needle. Later on however I sometimes went for my lesson, wishing that I had been a bit more industrious during the week.

I don't think there was any rivalry between Rita and me. There was certainly quite a difference in our temperaments; I enjoyed being asked to play the piano when visitors called; Rita was reluctant to oblige but never showed this. Later, when we were young adults and the war was coming to a end, we were doing quite a bit of entertaining playing piano duets at local concerts. Rita maintains that our appearances were so numerous that when we appeared whispered murmers were heard "Not those two again!"

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"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photos by Prexels.com

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