The Glissando

One of the stories in the chapter in The Immigrant and the Outlaw about Childhood on a Farm is called The Old Upright Piano, which begins: 

“It’s been in the family six decades. Most of our history with this musical instrument is good, except for one really bad one.

      “Uncle Delbert found it about 1952 in someone’s shed near Perry, Iowa, while he was doing some wiring for them. He knew that Mom was looking for a piano so my sister and I could take lessons. How much did they want for it? $45. He hauled it to our farmhouse in his electrician’s van. 

      “He and Dad lugged it into a corner of the front room, which had a linoleum floor, a plush plum-colored davenport and chair, a blond black and white television (with a ‘TV lamp’ on it), and in the winter a tall brown heating stove.

      “When she was a girl, Mom envied the kids who took piano lessons. She’d attend their recitals in Dexter, and a couple of those girls eventually became her sisters-in-law. 

“Dad enjoyed hearing his sisters practice for lessons. Years later one of those sisters played for their wedding. The other one sang. Even Mom’s mother took lessons as a girl, riding a horse over dusty roads into town for lessons.

      “So piano lessons were our fate. Sis Gloria and I took lessons from Elinor Chapler in Dexter, at first getting out of school once a week to walk to her house for lessons. Mrs. Chapler had a baby grand piano, a dog that licked our legs, and a parakeet that much of the time had the run of the house and plucked the feathers out of its tummy.

      “Mom made sure Dad got to hear us practice pieces from our red John Thompson books. And even though piano recitals always accompanied planting season, my dad never missed one.

      “When Gloria was nine years old, her recital piece was ‘Chinese Lullaby.’ Mrs. Chapler, who dressed up and wore red lipstick for recitals, with a hat on her plain bobbed hair, announced that Gloria’s piece had six flats. Gloria turned the pages but never glanced at the music. She knew it all by heart. . . . “

Montie Montgomery also produced the audio of it for Our American Stories in 2021.

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Gloria and I performed for those recitals for years, but when I was in high school, my one and only piano solo with the band was The Theme from the Apartment.

I practiced on that $45 upright piano, and the glissando at the end was hard on my thumbnail. It was hard to find an example of The Theme from the Apartment so you could hear the glissando at the end, but this will give you an idea.

Our son Dan also took lessons on this old piano, but I sure don’t remember allowing boots in the house.

The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland is available in paperback, hardbound, ebook, and audiobook through Amazon.com and Amazon.uk.