I have
this failing — I can’t listen to classical music for a
long time. Big Sis is horror-struck! Blasphemy! When I
told her that my mind has a tendency to wander, she
exclaimed, “But we were brought up on classical music!”
True, while other folk listened to the latest rock and
roll or pop numbers, my father had this collection of
classical records which he played daily very loudly, so
even now, though I might not know the name of the
composer or the piece of music, I can instantly
recognise the tune.
We
weren’t that fond of those wretched records, thank
goodness we had the ordinary radio to listen to during
the day when he was away at work. My father could play
most instruments, and always had a collection of them at
home.
My mum
on the other hand, loved all her jitter buggy sounding
music and would have her radio on full blast whilst she
sang along and worked. Her dance partner would most
often be the broom! Once I caught her with the kettle in
her hand, making wide, sweeping movements and when she
caught sight of me watching her open mouthed, she burst
into giggles.
Quiver like a jelly
She
could never control herself once she started, and so
would quiver like a jelly, get red in the face and emit
snorts at frequent intervals. Of course, she spilt the
water all around and that made her giggle even more! Do
you know, she had a book with songs handwritten out, and
when in the mood, would lustily sing along, whilst we
laughed our heads off at some of the lyrics. Reflecting
on that now, they made much more sense than some of the
current favourites.
I
think my mum was not too reverential about classical
music too, since when one of us was asked to bring an
old record to the handicraft class to transform it into
a wall hanging, she airily told us to take our pick. So,
it was daubed with lacquer paint, and decorated with all
manner of things which were glued on to the surface to
make a pattern, such as shells, beads or sequins.
It
hung on the wall by a nail through the aperture in its
centre. We thought this was a superb way of updating the
décor in our bedrooms. Pictures of movie stars,
psychedelic patterns and things like buttons and beads
were employed to express our artistic talent. When my
father finally spotted these objets d’art, he really
blew his top!
He
asked mum if she was crazy to endorse the sacred
desecration of these hallowed objects. She defensively
replied that she couldn’t watch our every move, “What
can I do?” (one of her favourite refrains.) So we
volunteered to clean them up, but Big Sis pointed out
that we had only chosen the ones he didn’t listen to
often.
On
closer inspection, he found this to be correct, so he
grumbled a bit more, though rather half heartedly and
told us in future to kindly get permission before
embarking on such projects.
Great embarrassment
He
scoffed at “pop” music, calling it rubbish, but I
remember some years later, he suddenly started playing
songs like Woolly Bully to our great embarrassment!
“See? It’s so simple, I can play it without practising!”
he would say. He had a bee in his bonnet about us going
to watch Elvis Presley or Cliff Richard movies. “Those
are immoral, not suitable for schoolgirls,” he would
say.
So we
had to get second hand information from our lucky
friends, whom we passionately envied. Luckily, one of my
mum’s close friends whose girls were our good friends
came to our rescue and she would say she was taking us
to another movie, but instead we would go for an Elvis
or Cliff one. Sheer bliss!
My mum
was privy to this information but warned us if my father
got to know, she would deny any knowledge of our
deception. I always liked rock music and still do, much
to the embarrassment of the kids. They had to explain
the music coming out of my bedroom, but when their
friends started telling them, “Your mum is so cool!”
they stopped feeling bashful about it.
So,
rock, blues, soul or jazz I can listen to for hours, but
for the life of me I can’t concentrate for long at
classical music. I’m sure I’ll get plenty of scathing
remarks about this! Help! I’m a Philistine.
