the piano - part II

My mother had always wanted to learn how to play the piano. So one day, she and my dad brought home a player piano. I have no idea how they got it home, or where it came from; it just showed up one day around the time of third grade.

We had never seen a player piano before. How cool that you could put a on a music roll, pump your feet furiously, and the keys would move magically to the music flowing out. The faster you pumped, the faster the song and the more animated the keys. It was magic!

The first song that puffed out of that wooden machine was the song "Windy". The words were even printed on the roll, so you could sing along. To this day whenever I hear that song I think of being in that porch room singing to the tune while my mother pumped away on the pedals. Who was Windy? I always wondered.

My mother was a determined woman. "Don't let anyone ever tell you you can't do something", she used to say to me. She sat at that piano and taught herself the fingerings and how to read music, and she had never played an instrument before. The first song I remember her learning was Michael Row Your Boat Ashore. Even now when I hear that song it reminds me of when I used to hear her humming along as she played (she would never sing), gentle and soothing.