The Violin

When I was a child our family had an old friend named Mabel. One of my cousins was even named after her. Mabel seemed to be a little bit cranky to me, yet she had earned a place in the heart of my grandparents and aunt. She had a cute little cottage on tenth street in Coronado and my dad did a little bit of work for her over the years.

I remember that one time when I was quite young Mabel gave me a pet goose. This goose was mean as geese can sometimes be. I was the only one brave enough to get close to it. One time my goose disappeared and was found on the next block. He was having a grand old time in the beautiful fish pond at the apartments on that block.

When I was in sixth grade Mabel gave me a beautiful antique violin. I enjoyed violin lessons given by the music teacher at school. My parents also got a little violin for my youngest sister Betty so she took lessons at school that same year. The problem is that we moved before the school year was over and did not get to continue our lessons. We never got past "Baa Baa Black Sheep." I continued to be proud of my violin though.

When I was a young adult I loaned my violin to the son of one of my friends so he could learn to play. He did quite well and even got to be in the young peoples orchestra. I think it was the San Diego Junior Orchestra. Or maybe it was the Youth Orchestra. Anyway he was quite skilled and really benefited from using my violin. He went into theater and became a teacher in that area.

I eventually got my violin back. The last time I talked to Mabel she thought that I got rid of my violin. I assured her that it was still mine.

My children never got the opportunity to use the violin. Kathy wanted to learn an instrument and was able to borrow an instrument from what was available at school. It was a woodwind instrument that she could never get the hang of. I"m sure she would have done a lot better on my violin, but I did not have it at the time. All of the children would have benefited from music lessons. They enjoyed trying to teach themselves the piano that we had. Laura is a natural at the piano. Griff eventually picked up the guitar and enjoys playing it. Bill may have picked up the guitar at one time too.

Fast forward to the next generation. Our granddaughter Melissa started violin lessons before she was big enough for my violin. She continued private lessons and eventually grew into my old violin. Her parents had to have the violin repaired to get it in working condition. It had been on display at times and that can dry out an instrument. Besides some helpful young hands had handled it and the strings were shot.

Melissa has benefited from her many years of lessons. She played in her school orchestra for a couple of years. I was able to get to Colorado one time when she was playing in a concert at school. She doesn't always use the old violin as she keeps it for special times. She has another violin for using more often. I got to see her play at her church one time too. She is in a group at her church that routinely plays for services. I have yet to see her in this group.

It seems that children who play an instrument do better in school. Melissa had some struggles at the beginning of her school years. She did one grade twice which is not unusual in our family. At least one or two children in each generation going back to my father have had to repeat first or second grade. It appears to me that Melissa started doing great in school as she got into her music lessons. I'm all for schools keeping their music programs. I enjoyed what little violin lessons I had. I especially enjoyed the singing we did in school. I chose to be in girls chorus as many years as possible in high school. Music is good for the soul. I love singing in church.

Paul took many years of piano lessons and it was very beneficial to him. He ended up being the church organist for many years even though he never had a lesson at the organ. He had an opportunity to play for chapel in Korea and that was the beginning of his organ playing. He is out of practice now and he has a bad eye so he is not playing at this time. But he had a long time at the organ and piano which I enjoyed. I'm sure he enjoyed it too. It was really neat when he played duets with whoever was playing the piano at the time. Friendships were also formed by doing this.

Photos are of Melissa Joy Golden with The Violin