I visited my mother-in-law recently and while I was helping her clean out her basement we found her old Sears Silvertone guitar. That guitar was probably more than 50 years old - and it still had the original strings! She told me that she was into folk music and took guitar lessons for about a year, but when her third, fourth, fifth, and sixth child came along, the guitar ended up in the basement. We also found her book of beginner folk tunes with her student markings from 50 years ago.
So, I tuned up those original strings and played folk songs like "Clementine" "Streets of Laredo" and "Oh Susanna" for over an hour while she sung along. Between songs, memories and stories poured out of my dear mother-in-law.
I'm sure the guitar could have sounded better with fresh strings, but I count this as among my favorite musical experiences of my life.
|