As I age I realize some things I learned, and many I did not in my birth to 18 stage of life.
I had a good education in my hometown, then we moved below the Mason-Dixon Line and I was supposed to shoot a gun in gym class, as well as take classes that taught me nothing. When I moved back North, I had to take French and History and Math all over again, then won a scholarship. Small, but useful.
There were two gyms in the South, the boys’ had a gleaming wood floor. We had concrete topped with cheap tile. We got shin spints. The boys shined, as did their wood floors until a remodel was due.
When they wanted to re-do the boys’ gym, we were relocated for two months, mostly to portable classrooms so they could use our gym. Then we were actually sent to a dance studio where they played Cat Stevens.
Tea for the Tillerman. No-one taught us. We danced on our own because someone in the administration found out we were languishing in portable classrooms when they were required to teach physical education.
While I don’t know why the former Cat Stevens changed his identity (perhaps once again, because no-one names their kid Cat) I do remember him and how his music saved me from boredom in the early years.
Perhaps this was my early leadership training. We had no structure, so I made one of girls being themselves. In later years I was elected gymnastics captain two years in a row and still I was very shy and uncertain of my abilities.
When I write and remember these difficult and proud days I think of kids today dealing with drugs and bullying. We never locked our house or cars. Now I am religious in doing so. I lock car doors manually, so that someone cannot get my car code, even though we’re in a locked garage.
There was a day in 1972 when I listened to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” and it was Pop but it got me into folk, rock, country and got me a guitar at age 12, another at age 50. My heroes are Bob Dylan, Joan Baez. Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Alan Mills, Burl Ives and many others including fabled Western entertainer Juni Fisher.
Who were your musical mentors? Even if you don’t write them down, think about them as I think of my violin, piano and voice teachers. They always hold a special place in my heart. From the happy wanderer, Dee
Cooking with Dee 