A Memory of My Momma and Music

 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.