38 and cloudy, after a gorgeous day in the 50's yesterday with bright blue skies all day. Will fall into 20s and 30s tonight.
March is being true to form, unpredictable. Yesterday was a beautiful day; I finally got my lettuce planted after trying to get it done for a week or two. I used an old galvanized washtub this year, instead of doing this how we usually do--digging up and burning off a piece of ground, building a frame, etc. The tub is right here by the house, easy for me to get to and take care of. I guess it's a small nod to aging, or maybe just a smarter way to grow our early lettuce? I prefer the latter explanation, although it's true that it will be easier on me.
We have been so busy that I have had little time to write, and come evening I've been too tired to think. Not unusual for this time of year, is it. We had a major restock to do at our Marietta booth, after a month of very good sales there. We also had to re-do our window at Ravenswood, putting a big cabinet in place of the pie safe--we tried to change the window every 4-6 weeks to keep it fresh. Well, the big cabinet sold, so tomorrow we'll be lifting another big cabinet into its place.
At home, we have been hard at work on furniture and other to get into our booths, as well as doing the springtime window-cleaning and curtain-washing chore. We've also been cleaning up outside, and last evening did a big tidy-up in the workroom because we could hardly get in the door, and we have some more things coming from an online auction at the end of this week. That means two trips to pick the stuff up and unload it. Sore muscles? You bet. Oddly, though, I am stronger now than when I retired, and it seems that many days I'm moving better than I did then too, so all this lugging and lifting is paying off.
This morning on Public Radio, they played a classical guitar piece that reminded me of something I hadn't thought about in years. When I was about a month away from having my 4th son, I decided to take guitar classes. I ordered a guitar from Sears for 29.95, a lot of money for us back then, and enrolled in an adult education class for 15.00 to learn to play. I was as big around as I was tall, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to even see the frets on my guitar. On top of that, the instructor told me that what I had was a classical guitar, not a folk guitar. I knew so little about music or guitars that until that moment I had never heard of a classical guitar. The instructor, a young black man, was a big guy--not fat, just tall and built--but he took my guitar and played it as it should sound. Classical guitar, it turned out, was his thing, that and the blues--another new thing for me.
As you can imagine, I didn't finish the class. I attended for the month of September but by October I was feeling pretty miserable and regretfully let it go. I never did try to learn to play again, something I regret to this day. At 22, I thought it would be a simple thing to learn, something I could do during those long last weeks of pregnancy. How wrong I was on all counts.
But I am glad I was reminded of that class and that kind instructor today. I didn't learn to play but I learned about more kinds of music. My guitar stayed around for years until finally my sons tried to learn to play it and eventually broke it in a fight. A sad end to what my instructor said was a surprisingly nice-sounding instrument. Eventually one son learned to play a little, and as an adult bought a fine Martin guitar which he could sort of play. Now his daughter, our musician granddaughter Cassidy, has his beloved guitar in Nashville, where, I think it is still making music, and finally someone in the family actually learned to play well.
Definitely a smarter way to grow lettuce - no use getting older if you don't get wiser! I never learned guitar (or even tried to learn) either, but I did learn harmonica which greatly pleased Granny as one of her brothers who died in WWI was a competent player. It's curious that I was playing blues when I was fifteen over here in England, while it was something new to you in the US.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which brother of Granny's that was? Dad loved to play harmonica too, and was pretty good at it. As for the blues, not really surprising given the sheltered upbringing I had, LOL. Such music would not have been allowed in our house, I think. I got married so young I really had little world experience at all. Hard to imagine that kind of cultural isolation today with the internet.
DeleteYes, how times have changed. If I wanted to hear blues music I had to find someone who owned an LP who was willing to lend it to me. I remember going and knocking on a complete strangers door because someone gave me a tip off that he owned some Sonny Terry recordings. There were tapes going around that were fifth or sixth generation recordings on reel to reel tape recorders. There was no way of hearing any music other that pop and easy listening on the radio.
DeleteI wanted to learn to play guitar, too, and piano. I started taking lessons on the piano, but life got in the way, I guess. I still love guitar music, and wish I had learned. I never felt culturally isolated growing up, we just did what we could and I was happy with that.
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel that isolation at the time either, Judy. I guess because you don't know what you don't know? Later I realized that there was an awful lot I wanted to learn about other cultures, music, foods, etc. I didn't resent it, but I sure have tried to make up for it over the years, LOL. Storytelling taught me a lot, and of course just reading, and traveling.
DeleteI may have borrowed someone's guitar, and they taught me two or three chords, and I found out my small hands and fingers weren't able to adapt to those maneuverings. But I do also frequently think of my extreme ignorance when I married.
ReplyDeleteThat was another of my problems, Barbara--a classical guitar has a thicker neck and my fingers could just not reach the chords properly.
DeleteI had no idea there were different types of acoustic guitar! I still have the guitar I was given as a teenager, I can only play a handful of chords but I have kept it. My daughter now plays it ands is learning from a teacher. I was shocked to see how much it might be worth when I was looking for a new case for it online!
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