Volumes and Violins ( #AtoZChallenge )

The volume of stuff in our house is not disproportionately frightful in the sense of hoarding--right now everything in our house could probably fit into our living room with a comfortable pathway to other parts of our house.  But then there would be new space for more things.  That's where the scary starts...

Volumes

      In a number of places throughout our home you can find volumes of books.  Most of them are encyclopedias ranging from child level to adults.  About half of these are in Spanish.  I wonder how many homes still have encyclopedia sets? 

     When I was growing up, we had a set of Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedias that I used from elementary school until college.  That old set sat on a living room book shelf for decades.  Over the years my mother added new encyclopedia sets.  It seemed like any respectable home forty years ago had at least some type of encyclopedia.

      Now I don't know that encyclopedias are an especially wise investment for most families.  After all much of the information one might research can readily be found on the internet.  Still, I find myself looking things up in our encyclopedias.  When that happens I sometimes start getting lost in the book as I read through entries that catch my attention.

       And when that happens I feel like a kid again.  Back when I was a kid the encyclopedia was one of my favorite reading materials.  My reading habits back then probably are partly responsible for my eclectic interests.  A couple of encyclopedia sets might not be bad to have around the house, but maybe we have a few too many.  Volumes of encyclopedias need to go.   Now to find the party who is looking for rather outdated encyclopedia sets that are in very good condition.

And Violins

       I've got a few violins around the house, but I could only easily find one for my photo.  One violin that I used to use in my juggling act is packed with the props in the garage.  My electric violin must be in my office closet, but I'm not about to tackle digging that out quite yet.  Also sitting out in my office are a mandolin, a keyboard, and two guitars.  I could supply a band.   

       Unfortunately, I rarely play any of these instruments any more.  I probably should take the time to fiddle around occasionally, but there are a lot of things that I probably should do.  Like my juggling props I consider my instruments tools of my trade.  No telling when having them around could come in handy.  The violins are staying and that's my verdict!

       Do you still own any encyclopedias?   Did you grow up with encyclopedias in your home?   Do you have any musical instruments that you used to play but haven't in a long while?

Too Cool To Fiddle

          The violin became uncool in 1964 when I was thirteen, or that is as far as I was concerned.  I wasn't looking at the bigger picture.  Who does at that age?  None of the Beatles or any of the other popular rock and rollers played a violin and no girl was going to give a moment of their attention to some sissy that did.  It was somewhere about that time that I decided to hang up the fiddle and start playing guitar.

          I'd been playing violin since the third grade when the school I was attending in San Diego, California offered beginners lessons and an opportunity to play in the school orchestra.  I took to the instrument rather easily and occupied first chair of the Riley Elementary School orchestra for the next three years.  I enjoyed playing violin in the orchestra, but lacked the ambition to practice in order to attain a high enough level of proficiency to be a really good soloist. 

          When I reached seventh grade my family moved to Northern Indiana, where the school I attended did not offer a school orchestra.  I continued to take private lessons from a dwarf who played as a strolling musician at a popular smorgasbord restaurant.  The choir teacher at the middle school discovered that I played violin and built a choral number that featured my violin playing for one of the choir programs.  Later, at a school talent show, my next door neighbor and I played a clever rendition of the song "Alley Cat", which went over quite well.   Those were the last times I played violin for many years.

           I dropped the violin lessons and continued taking guitar lessons under the tutelage of the violin playing dwarf.   My parents never forced me to do things I didn't want to keep doing, they only expected that if I were going to do something I would practice and take it seriously.  I tried for a while.  The dwarf musician taught me to play songs like the one about the dog named Bingo and other corny folk-style tunes which would have not impressed any of the girls I wanted to impress.  My guitar teacher did not look favorably upon rock and roll and had his sights for me set on classical guitar.

          Eventually music became too much of an effort to pursue on my own.  I did not know anyone else who played an instrument for several years and it was no fun playing alone.  Years later I went back to the violin and guitar to a limited degree, but missing out on years of practice meant I was not as good as I could have been. 

           Did you play an instrument when you were younger, but no longer play?  Why did you stop?   How much did you practice?  Was practice as much of a chore for you as it was for me?