from the time i was a small child, there were two things of which i was certain: that i wanted to be a teacher and that i wanted to make music. i don't know what it was about teaching that caught my imagination. somehow deep in my soul, i could imagine nothing more important than teaching and that was what my life's work was to be. i loved learning and was thrilled when i began school and was taught to read. i was a voracious reader, devouring everything i could lay my hands on. i read the encyclopedia on the shelves of our living room, i read every hardy boys book and every science fiction book i could secure. when i went to stay with my grandparents in the larger town where my mother grew up, my favorite places to go were the library and the bookstore downtown. i spent hours in both. our school library was my refuge every chance i got to go there, and during the summers i visited our little town library frequently to check out new books and to return ones i had finished. reading was my favorite subject in school, and i was one of those nerdy kids who loved to write book reports or give them orally.
i was fascinated by the music that the pianist at our little church played, and, when i started school at the age of five, i begged my mother to let me begin piano lessons. we were fortunate in our little school that there was a piano teacher who operated a studio on the school campus. we could be excused from class for our piano lessons. most of the children in our school lived on farms far from the school in town, and having a piano teacher at the school enabled them to take lessons, something that would have been difficult otherwise. many students took advantage of the opportunity, so miss sigel, the piano teacher, had her schedule filled with lessons from 7:30 in the morning until 5:00 or 5:30 each school day. my mother wouldn't let me begin lessons when i started first grade because she thought i was too young. she promised that, if i still wanted to take lessons when i reached second grade, i could begin. as the end of the summer between first and second grades came, i reminded my mother of her promise, and she enrolled me in miss sigel's schedule of lessons. she and my father went to the town where my grandparents lived and bought a piano for the living room, and i was set for my new adventure.
i now had a new love in my life that took up part of my spare time, so practicing the piano and reading were about all i did outside the school day, other than my household chores and my homework. i did watch that new invention, the home television, but until i was in junior high there wasn't much on until the evening. sometimes in the late afternoons, all the kids in my neighborhood would come to our house to watch old cowboy movies, since ours was the only home with a tv. they couldn't come, though, until i had finished my piano practice. in the evenings when my family watched tv, i would go to the piano and play during the commercials. sometimes my dad would have to tell me that the program had begun again, so i had to stop playing in order from them to hear what was being said. my dad often remarked that i couldn't pass a piano without stopping to play, and he was right. playing the piano came to be part of who i was, just as reading had been from the time i learned to read in first grade.
in eighth grade, our school district hired a band director, so we were offered the opportunity to learn to play a band instrument. i joined the first class of students, choosing to play the clarinet. from then on, i had two instruments to practice, along with keeping up my school work and reading as much as time would allow. by the time i reached my junior year in high school, i knew that i would become a music teacher, combining my love for music with my intention to teach. i pursued my education in the remainder of high school and in college with teaching music as my goal.
in college, i began studying a new instrument: the organ. a new avenue of musical expression and new musical literature were now part of my life. i loved playing the organ, and my zeal for playing it surpassed my love for playing the piano and the clarinet. after graduating from college, i was able to supplement my wages as a public school teacher with work as an organist for churches in the towns where we lived. throughout most of my adult life, i have been a church musician and continue to work as one a couple of sundays a month now that i am well into my seventies.
playing the organ is something of a dying art in our country. few people are willing to put in the hours of preparation and go to the expense of lessons and music that are required to become skilled players when the wages are so abysmal. in the small town where we live, there are four of us who are proficient organists, three of us in our seventies and the fourth in her eighties. when we are no longer able to play, the instruments in the four churches that have them will sit idle, most likely.
i've never regretted the choices i made as a child that propelled me through life. few are so fortunate to have been able to carry their childhood joys throughout their lives, earning their livings by pursuing them. my teaching career has enabled me to have a handsome retirement with more income in retirement than i had when i was working, and my ability to play the organ supplements my retirement income while allowing me to continue my love of making music that others seem to enjoy.
may we count ourselves lucky indeed when the things we love doing support us and our families. may we be grateful that life can bring us such joy. may we encourage others to do what they enjoy most and seek ways to use their passions to develop careers. may we never give in to a humdrum existence that steals the happiness of life from us. shalom.
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