The Piano Recital
I’ve done a lot of thinking about what it means to be a Jew. I’ve read about my racial heritage and talked to others about it. I have a great deal of affection for the rules and regulations of being Jewish but also what it means to be part of the Jewish culture.
This is not always true, but a lot of Jewish children are encouraged to learn a skill outside of what they learn in school. Certainly in my case all I had to do was mention my desire to play the piano, and my parents scraped their budget to save up for a second-hand piano for me. I think Jewish parents like their children to be 1) self-confident and 2) well rounded.
Every year my piano teacher gave a recital. I dreaded this but I didn’t protest; it was just something I had to do. I practiced and practiced my recital piece and I never goofed up once in a recital.
One year my father was asked to go to Boston for a week for business and my mother wanted to go with him. She had almost no experience in seeing other places than Pittsburgh. But my piano recital was scheduled during that week.
My mother had made arrangements for a corsage to be sent to me in the late afternoon before the recital.
Because of the corsage I don’t remember feeling very bad about this. My grandmother was staying with us; but the thrilling part was that MY WHOLE FAMILY came to hear me play. My Golding grandparents came, my aunts and uncles.Afterwards my grandfather told me that because he was so proud of me, he would buy me anything I wanted. There was a special book I wanted that could only be found in Kaufmann’s book department, so he took me there and bought the book.
How could I even have been aware of this? But to them, the adults in the family, not only was I Leslie, I was a symbol of something. I was the eldest on both sides of the family, and the fact that I could get up and play a piano piece in front of everybody and not miss a note was a sign that life was proceeding as it should. My parents had done all they could for me and I was growing up into a “young woman” who was poised and talented. It was something nice for the generations who came before me.
lgmwriting 