Iris Garden: 2014

Merry Christmas from the Iris Garden

When God made music: Genesis chapter 1

²⁰And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

²¹And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

²³And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Then on the fifth day, there were whale songs and bird songs and lots of other bleeps and chirps and clicking, melodies and rhythm, all glorious sounds on the planet earth.

I don’t know. He doesn’t look like much of a musician to me.

Hey, but there’s proof:

Whale sheet music @ hmmc.org

What’s your favorite bird song? I think mine is the sparrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdaE7eaayKM

In December of 1952, Mom married Lloyd Bandy. We moved from Gramma’s house in Fudgetown to Bandyville. I was six and a half year old and changed schools from Ferges to Bandyville at Christmas time in the first grade. They wouldn’t let me start school the year before because I wouldn’t be six until May, time for school to be out. The neatest thing about Pop’s house was an old upright piano. I loved to plink on the keys and make sounds come out. It was the neatest thing, black and white keys that produced pretty musical sounds. (Nothing like that at Gramma’s, although I was slightly aware of the piano at Ferges Free Methodist Church.)

I never got a picture of that old upright, but this pretty much looks like it. Tall, very tall.

Fairly soon, after we moved in, the piano got moved out. At six years old, I didn’t understand.

There was another old upright piano in the big room at Bandyville School. Bandyville School had two rooms: the little room, grades 1-4 and the big room, grades 5-8. There were three huge sliding doors that separated the big room from the little room. Bandyville School had two teachers, Mrs. Alma Sanders in the little room and Mrs. Estelle Travelstead in the big room. If either one was sick or out for the day, the big sliding doors were opened and the one on duty did all eight grades’ lessons for the day.

The best time of the week was on Friday afternoon. The big sliding doors were pushed back and we were all one room. We had “club meeting” on Friday afternoons. Mrs. Travelstead played the piano. She’d always start with “Hail, hail the gang’s all here. . .” And we all knew all the words.

Then she had a little brown song book:

It was an ‘educational edition’ per the front cover. This ALL-AMERICAN SONG BOOK was published as “A Community song book, especially for schools, homes, clubs and community singing.” We sort of had art and music combined while we were having ‘club meeting.’ We also made things and we played games. Games that had questions and answers and such.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat was always sung in rounds. Mrs. Travelstead would divide us into two or three groups. One group would start the song. Then the second group would come in with the first words, Row, Row, Row when the first group got to the Gently. . . The third group would start Row, Row, Row when the second group got to Gently . . . The first group would be on Merrily, Merrily, Merrily. . . We had three groups singing the same song but, well, it was interesting. You might wonder what we learned from that, but I’m sure we learned something. (Discipline, timing, working together, getting it done. . . . )

I guess I had a pretty obvious interest in the music part of club meeting. Mrs. Travelstead understood when I said I’d like to learn to play that piano. I think it was seventh grade. She talked to my mother and volunteered to give me piano lessons at school once a week for thirty minutes. But, I would have to practice. And I had no piano to practice at home. The closest piano was that old upright across the field and across the road in the big room at Bandyville School. Uncle Paul Youngblood, Pop’s brother-in-law, was the janitor at Bandyville School. Uncle Paul volunteered that he could do his work in the basement every day when school was over. That way I’d be able to stay after school and practice upstairs. Then Uncle Paul would clean upstairs after I was done. So Mom said, “Okay” and that if I would learn to play the piano that she’d find a way to buy me one. Mom worked at Smoler’s Dress Factory in the repair department.

So Mrs. Travelstead did what she said and I did study the music and learn to read some and play on the keys. And Uncle Paul did what he said he would do, too. And by the end of eighth grade I was playing some simple songs.

After graduation, Mom took me into town to Mrs. Yuill’s Baldwin Piano and Organ Studio. She asked about getting me signed up for piano lessons. Mrs. Yuill opened the store on 111 West Cherry St in Herrin in 1937. She had pianos and organs and lots of music books and sheet music on the racks. She had studied at SIU and was a music teacher, a business owner/manager and she also composed music.

I thought Mrs. Yuill’s was the neatest place I’d ever been. You can see the two doors with windows on the back wall in a 1956 photo below. The door on the left was my class room. And that piano just behind the second grand is called an Acrosonic spinet piano. (Just FYI and important to know.) Oh, see the guitar, she sold guitars too.

http://www.baldwinofherrin.com/about-us/

So, at the time, all her piano teachers were booked up. Mom agreed to let me learn from Mr. Fred Sears who came over from Carterville to teach guitar at Mrs. Yuill’s. She said Mr. Sears could teach me how to read music and play the piano even though he was a guitar man, so to speak. So he did. I had a regular Grade 1 Piano learner’s book. (I can’t show you a picture of it because I gave it to a kid I knew who wanted to take piano lessons.) Mr. Sears taught me how to read the upper and lower music notes and play them as written. AND then I had a Mr. Sears wire bound book. He’d write out the songs and as I learned them, he would write in some more. This is what it looked like.

Hard to see but it says Doris Grant, RR1 Box 543, Herrin, Illinois. It’s come apart at the wire as I have kept it and used it all my life.

Here’s what one of my first songs looked like. Yeah! A Guitar Boogie.

Learned that. Reading melody on the treble and filling in with left hand chords. Guitar chords on the piano sounded pretty decent. Notice across the bottom, another version of the Guitar Boogie. After I learned the first version, I had to learn to play it all the way through according to the version at the bottom.

What I learned there was rhythm, the importance of keeping the beat. Hardest lesson is when you make a mistake; you better just keep on going. If you think you can go back and fix it, you are already out of rhythm. (That might be a lesson for life too. Huh?)

Then we get on to the next one. Huh, real Boogie Woogie. This one’s Number One. Boogie Woogie #1.

Then there’s #2

Now that is some serious Boogie. . .

By Christmas of my Freshman year in high school, Mom had saved up the money to buy the piano. It was a Baldwin Acrosonic Spinet piano in fruitwood. I don’t know how she did it. But she did what she said, too.

And Christmas found me looking like this.

The writing on this photo is two of the songs I’d learned.

The first was a popular Johnny Cash version. See the words below:

The other is an old bluegrass gospel favorite done by the Louvin Brothers and later by Connie Smith:

So I learned to play the piano. I also learned to play the organ and eventually had my own Baldwin organ.

I also had a keyboard.

That fantastic old upright against the wall belonged to Maud Hawn in Fudgetown. Burl (Mr. Hawn) told me they had it shipped from Chicago on the train and got it off the train by Mr. Harris’s which was where the railroad crosses what is now Stotlar Road on the east side of Bandyville. How I got Maud’s piano is another story, but it had the most fabulous sound board and I loved it almost as much as my spinet.

Mrs. Flossine Carlisle was my friend Clara’s mother. She was another very influential person in my life. I called her, Mommie Carlisle. She had a beautiful picture of a young woman playing a piano always hanging in her living room above her piano. I loved that picture. So when Gary and I decided to remodel and move to his Christopher house, I went ebay shopping and came up with a print I liked. I got it matted and framed and hung in the newly redone living room at Christopher in 2005.

I’ve never felt that I'm a ‘born’ piano player. I was actually ‘born’ to be a nurse and God helped me be/do that first of all. But I love music and I learned to play. I also tried the accordion, the harmonica and a guitar, but I’d better stick to pianos and organs. However, I am still thinking about a set of drums. The most exciting concert I ever attended was at the Atlanta Georgia Symphony and it was all based on percussion. I’ve been blessed to play at weddings, funerals, nursing homes and in almost every church I’ve ever been. At our Christopher church I had a young girls choir group. What fun, what blessings ! I love playing piano with others on guitars and drums.

My greatest blessing is to be able to provide music in His worship service for congregational singing or a special song or during prayer time or just whatever.

I know I’m not the best. I’ve heard lots of musicians who are way better than me. I also know that all He expects of me is that I do my best, and He will always bless it.

I guess you could say, “I saw a man and He set me free.”

I’m so glad God gave us music.

I’m so glad He did what He did on the fifth day.

I’m looking forward to the future.

♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

I think there might be a harp for me to play over there.

Just some thoughts from The Iris Garden to honor my friends who know their roots, who honor me with their special friendship. Native American Indians are loyal friends.

The eagle was considered a sacred bird by most Native Americans. An Eagle Dance was performed. Only the bravest warriors and those most learned of the sacred ordinances were presented the feathers of the eagle.

(Gary Frey loved eagles. This is one from his collection.)

The Cherokee Blessing: American Indians revered the Great Spirit, who presided over all things and created the Earth. The Great Spirit is said to be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient and was often called Apportioner and Creator, the maker of all things and the one who lives above.

(I’ve had this “Cherokee Blessing” so long I do not recall where I got it.)

The Indian Maiden: The Cherokee nation had a 'maternal' society. The women sat on clan councils and oversaw tribal functions. Kinship and tribal roots followed the mother’s family, not the father. The role of “Beloved Woman” was the highest one could attain. The Cherokee woman owned the house and the furnishings. She managed everything while the man hunted. If she wanted a ‘divorce’, she sat his clothes and belongings outside the door and was done with him.

(I got this fine maiden at a crafts festival and I have named her 'Mourning Dove'.)

Cherokee Map 1900: Shows the loss of Cherokee land from the original ownership in the blue, through the end of the Revolution to the final land cessation.

Trail of Tears Map: In 1838–1839 the Cherokee were forced to move west to ‘designated’ Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The route is known as the 'Trial of Tears'. It was also called by the Cherokee, ‘The Trail Where They Cried’. Over 800 miles through North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, to Oklahoma, they suffered from disease, exposure and starvation. Approximately 16,000 began the Trail and as many as 4,000 died. Many of these deaths were due to the “worst winter in one hundred years”(encampment 1838-1839) in Southern Illinois.

Quligi: (Kwe – lee – gee) My friend Quligi is a Cherokee descendant. He attends powwows and in this photo is performing the Southern Straight Dance. There are eight styles of American Indian Powwow Dances, four for men, and four for women. The Southern Straight Dance represents history after colonization in which the man wears a cloth ribbon shirt. Often called ‘The Teacher’ or ‘Grandfather’s Dance’, the movements indicate teaching a younger male how to track.

Gary’s Quilt: He never asked for anything beyond cherry pie. One day he came home from work at Walmart and had a piece of fabric in his hand. In fabrics and crafts they often displayed a quilt panel or stretches of fabric on the wall. They had changed out the display that day and he gave a donation to the Children’s Miracle Network for his pick off the wall. He handed the fabric to me and said, “I want you to make me a quilt.”