1960 and Piano Lessons

1960 and Piano Lessons

When I was five years old, my brother who is six years older than me was taking lessons in Alexandria, Virginia.  This was in 1960.  At that time Alexandria was not called  Old Town Alexandria.  It actually was a run down area and not the beautiful, tourist town that it is now.  My brother took lessons from an older lady named Mrs. Whitestone.  She lived in any old apartment building on South Washington street.  ( It's still there) I was scared of that building for one reason.  When you walked through the large intimidating doors. everything echoed because of the wooden floors and the hard ceramic walls.  When I was young, I had a phobia with dogs.  There was a small dog that had an extremely loud bark as you entered the building.  That caused a lot of embarrassing trouble for me.  My father never seem to understand my phobia.  Mrs. Whitestone's apartment was on the second floor.  I didn't start taking piano lessons until I was probably around eight.  But from years  5 to 8, I banged on the piano many hours per day.  When I was eight, my parents decided that I should take piano lessons as well.  I did terribly.  Reading music was just not for me.  My ear was great and I could pick up almost anything at that time. But I couldn't learn to read music successfully.  Therefore, I only lasted about six months with Mrs. Whitestone.

However, I have two really great memories from those days.  One was going to the nearby Murphy's drugstore.  In the back they had a small snack bar with ice cream as well.  My father would buy a banana split or anything we wanted for us.  It is also the store that I purchased my first 45 records including the Beatles 45 "I wanna hold your hand" and " I saw her standing there" as the B side.
In addition, my father would take us to the nearby train station ( in front of the Masonic Temple) and we would sit on a small hill and watch the trains go by.  I have since learned how to read music very well.  My brother went on to study piano at the Shenandoah music observatory.  But life took him in a different direction and he no longer plays music on a professional basis.  As you may know, I still do.