Music in the house

 


Music in the house

 

There was a lot of singing in my house growing up.  My dad had a pretty good voice and loved to bellow out songs, many of which were from his childhood.  My mom also loved to sing and had a wonderful voice.  My mom usually sang more quietly than my dad and tended to only sing old Yiddish songs, probably from her European Vaudeville or the Yiddish Theater days.  My mom loved to listen to the singers of that era:  Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Perry Como, etc.  I remember my mom had several records of Mario Lanza and played them while cooking in the kitchen.   Neither of my parents played a musical instrument but it is clear that they loved music and there was a lot of music in our home.  We had one of those long stereo consoles and many records.  And the late 1950 and early 1960s were big on the TV variety shows with lots of singing.  I do not think my parents missed any of these shows.

I still remember my dad belting out the song, “We have no bananas today” almost every morning at breakfast.   Not sure why I thought it was so funny but the more I laughed the louder he sang, 

 Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today.
We've string beans, and onions
Cabbageses, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned to-mah-to
A Long Island po-tah-to
But yes, we have no bananas.
We have no bananas today.

When I was still very young my parents bought a piano and at an early age, I started piano lessons.  The lessons were all of me learning to play classical music.   My parents seemed to have little or no interest in classical music other than hearing me trying to master some Chopin on the piano before one of my recitals.  Anything other than classical I had to pick up on my own. 

By the time I was a teenager, I did have a repertoire of popular songs and my parents would sit by the piano and sing the songs while I played.  Popular songs I can still remember included: “It was Fascination”, “Moon River”, “Sunrise, Sunset” and “If I were a Rich Man”  . I can still remember these songs today.  As an adult, I sang these songs with my parents, and it continued long after my mother died.     Especially Aviva had to endure hearing them in her preteen years whenever my dad came up to Sacramento for a visit. 

Both of our daughters are musical.  Both girls love to sing, and both learned to play musical instruments in school.  Rose is the better musician but has probably not picked up an instrument since college.  Rose sang in a gospel choir while at Columbia University.  Both girls have husbands to play the guitar and there is a love of family sing along. 

And I still love singing jingles from old TV ads.  I normally only remember the first line or two but that doesn’t stop me.  “Ajax, the Bleaching Cleanser”, “B O S C O”,  “I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner” and “Brylcreem, A little Dab’ll do ya.” to  name a few.  Seems I’ve passed this legacy onto the girls who can repeat many of these old classic jingles.

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