Sunday, July 6, 2008

I'm Tickled Pink!!

I just visited my friend, Lavinia over at Birdbath Chronicles and, low and behold, she gave me an award. I feel so honored. I haven't been doing this blogging deal for very long and so it is especially wonderful to me. As soon as I get the award on my site I will pass it along, but of course, I am going to think hard about who I will send it to. If you haven't been to Lavinia's site you need to hurry over. She has great stuff all the time. I have learned about art and history and lots of other things, plus she is a great writer and has traveled lots and has stories that just draw you in.

I must tell you that I had a great weekend with Avery. Yesterday we were riding along and she asked me about musical instruments that I learned to play. She is taking piano lessons and her daddy bought her a guitar and she is teaching herself to play it. She wants her own band someday and she writes songs so the guitar playing will come in especially handy.

Anyway, she asked me about my experiences with instruments and I must put this in at the beginning......If you play or love accordions, then please don't be offended. This was just my little experience. It was 50 years ago and I was eight years old. My parents loving Mr. Lawrence Welk, wanted their little girl, Patty, to be an accordion player. I was meek and tended to want to make my parents happy...so I went along with this whole dream for them....for a while.

I would go to this neighbor's house for lessons and the woman told me I could take the accordion home and practice with it to decide if this would be for me. I can't imagine how my face must have looked when she brought it out and I saw this huge instrument with silver decorations all over it. It was gigantic for a child. Plus, it had this odor like it had been sitting in the carrier for a long time. I still can smell it if I close my eyes. Of course, I don't try to think of how it smelled because it makes me want to swallow a lot to keep from vomiting. Well, for three weeks I went to the neighbor's house and struggled with holding this monster accordion and I didn't get very far with it or very good. All that business with the pulling in and out while playing keys was just too much for my brain.

Three weeks after my introduction to the world of music I broke my arm. Yes, I fell off my bike and had a compound fracture. I remember telling my daddy that I just didn't think this was all going to work out and he looked so sweet when I told him. He didn't get angry and thinking back on it, he was probably sick of lugging it back and forth.

Avery and I laughed about my short musical career, that I hadn't thought of in years. That's a special thing about grandchildren...they help you remember awkward and humorous times in your childhood. Who knows, if I would have stayed with it maybe I could have been a famous accordion player in a polka band? or not.

Did you have any false starts with musical instruments?

10 comments:

MuseSwings said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog spot! Thank you for your great comments. Isn't Lavinia wonderful! An award! Congratulations to you and your new blog. I enjoyed reading your posts and shall return on a regular basis to see what's happening as Nana lives the dream.

Maggie May said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Was lovely to get an award from Lavinia as I haven't known her very long. Glad you got one too.
I will bookmark your blog & hope you will drop by again!
I used to play the piano for one year between the ages of seven and eight! However I don't have a piano now! Not sure if I can still play! LOL

Suzy-Q said...

So you were relieved to break your arm?? Who would ever think a child would be relieved! haha

I am here from Lavinia Ladyslippers place......I am glad I stopped by!

I played the piano for 6 years as a child/young teen. I can still play.....slowly. Funny thing is that I learned more from my husband after we got married than I ever did from my piano teacher. I couldn't stand her! I did it for my grandmother.

sweet blog!

Barb said...

Hi Nanatrish,

What a funny post, I enjoyed it very much! I played(or tried to) the piano as a child. I really didn't like the teacher, she was scary and yelled a lot. I haven't played in years.

Have a wonderful week.

hugs,
Barb

Betsy Brock said...

Congrats to you! You deserve this wonderful award! :)

Lavinia said...

Very humourous story, Nanatrish! I'm sure your granddaughter got a good laugh out of it....

I confess I've never been an accordion fan, mostly because all the accordion players I saw when I was young were quite "geeky looking". We used to go to a lot of Greek dances and the accordion player in the bands would invariably be the least attractive....

The drummers were nearly always the best looking!

ps.. I am a battle-scarred veteran from the "childhood piano wars".

Erica Hanks said...

I remember wanting to learn to play the accordian! lol Never got my hands on one though.

In my life, I have played piano and violin. I'm not to great on the piano anymore, my husband and step son are the proficients in our family, but I can still squeak out a tune on the violin!

Congrats on your AWARD!! YAY!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

Congratulations on your award NanaTrish!
I have the same one I have to pass on too!

This post made me laugh! My husband told me his mother wanted him to play the accordian when he was young, but he wanted to learn how to play the drums! They both gave up trying to convince the other, and he can't play anything.

Rosezilla (Tracie Walker) said...

I'm stopping by from Lavinia's blog, to say congratulations on your award. I loved your accordion story. My mom played accordion briefly and laughs about how she learned one song and played it over and over - she's sure the neighbors weren't happy. I played a teeny bit of piano, a lot of snare drum, and a few years in a handbell choir. It was good to make your acquaintance!

Judy said...

Thankfully I was spared the pain of accordian lessons...my older sister tried her hand at it though. We found the old accordian at my parent's place a few years ago...and bestowed it on a brother-in-law who also had played the accordian as a child. He didn't seem especially pleased with the gift!