A Memory of My Momma and Music
April 3, 2013
During my youth, my momma and I enjoyed music from her extensive record
(meaning 78 rpm and LP [33 1/3 €] ) records.
Some genres that she introduced to me were
Ragtime, Blues and Big Band Era.
However, she also had an album
of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.”
I see myself now in the living room
of our upstairs apartment on West 10th Street.
As I view this scene, the 7 year old girl takes the 33 1/3 € disc
out of the yellow-covered album
and places it on the record player gently,
she lays the needle gingerly on the outer edge of the record.
Now she is raising her arms to wave them to
the rhythm of the songs, imagining herself the conductor
of the Boston Pops Orchestra.
(This orchestra is a guess so many decades later.)
She plays some of the songs so many times
that the ridges wear away.
Her mother never says to her,
“Do you have to play that again?”
One may wonder why she did not
since the apartment is old with little insulation
and is small for a family of four.
At the twilight of my own life,
I could count this mother as a model
of encouragement for her children.
Time moves on, and several house moves later,
my parents now own their own home for the first time;
it’s 1954.
At this point and time, I watch the mother and the 14 year old
take turns placing records on the turn style and switching it on.
Each time one of them guesses what the name of the song is
as quickly as possible! I am unaware if the two of them keep score;
they just seem to enjoy the competition.
Other times, mostly after the family-owned restaurant is closed,
the mother drives her stunning mint green Buick with a white hardtop around in the country or on the outskirts of town, listening to the radio
and chatting their mother-and-daughter talk.
I feel warmth in my heart,
viewing this simple sharing of love for music,
and the love the two have for each other.
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