1958 String of Pearls

Tommie introduced me to the Glenn Miller Band in 1958, Moonlight Serenade and String of Pearls.   I was a 10 year old country boy from Monte Vista Colorado landing in the big city, Los Angeles of 1957. I'd never had dinner at a restaurant, but thanks to my uncle Jake and my Grandfather Federico, exceptional hunters, we had a constant stream of venison, elk, rabbit, and duck. But life was about to change dramatically.

It must have come from her parents, Jotaro and Taka Ishihara, because my mother started me on the violin almost as soon as I arrived in California. It was hard to listen to me play the violin. It was so hard my mother asked me to close the bedroom door, and play in the bathroom after closing that door as well.  Soon she bought a trumpet for me as I joined Mr. Ross and his Concert Band.  My Monte Vista, Colorado childhood world was about to open in ways too subtle to detect.  

Tommie introduced me to her favorite drummer: Gene Krupa (solo: scroll to 3:38)

Then she introduced me to the Glenn Miller Band and Moonlight Seranade and...

and String of Pearls...

But my favorite moment was the first time my mother introduced me to 

Rhapsody in Blue.  

 

1972 The Grapes of Wrath Pickup Truck

1972. Leandra, just a toddler, Jason almost a glimmer when we bought our first home. Moving from our first apartment at 315 South Chapel Avenue in Alhambra to Westmont Drive was just a few miles away but we needed some kind of moving truck for that short distance.

Still teaching at Foothill High School in Pasadena, I asked if anyone might be willing to help. Always a smile on his face, Tim Morrison was the happiest student I would every have in all my 39 years of teaching.  He had a 1949 Ford pickup truck and volunteered to make several trips.

Mattress, box springs, crib, dining room table and chairs, lamp shades, sofa, laundry baskets, book shelves, coffee table, television, and boxes of kitchen ware.  It was quite a sight for our new neighbors when we arrived with the first load packed high and overflowing, like a scene from the Grapes of Wrath.  But Tim bless his soul was smiling and beaming as he drove up and set the parking brake.  He looked like he was having fun. It's been 48 years and I still remember his smile.

Peering out of their living room windows, you gotta wonder what the neighbors were thinking.  "Martha, take a look at whose moving into the neighborhood."