An Orchestra Of Life

I have always loved music. When I was a teen, we bought what was called in those days “45’’ records. Smaller than the usual big records we played and very new and innovative. I had a collection of about 100 of them and when I started to work in 1951 and I could afford to, I bought at least one or two a week. They were the popular songs of those days by Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Jerry Vale, Dick Haymes, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and female singers such as Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Teresa Brewer, Connie Francis, Peggy Lee and Eydie Gorme. I saw Eydie Gorme in person with her husband Steve Lawrence in a show when I was newly married. They were a dream couple, attractive and very personable. When you came out from the event, you were smiling. In about 1950, Mom and I walked about six blocks where Peggy Lee was appearing at a car dealership. We were so excited to see a personality of her popularity, it was delightful. Jerry Vale, my husband and I saw at a nightclub here when we had our first dates. I also interviewed Mel Torme when I was sixteen for the school newspaper. When I was a teen, we all went down to a movie theater where Peter Lawford, a well-established actor was appearing live on stage. We teens were so excited to see a live actor; we could not refrain from what they called then ‘swooning’ over his good looks and British accident. He went on to marry one of President Kennedy’s sisters. My husband loved to listen to opera and on the nights he was not working, he would turn them on and listen to them in our family room. Our little doggies, first Candy and then Rhumba were what I used to call opera dogs. They would sit by his side and listen with him. It seemed to make them ‘happy’. When I went for a medical test in Washington, D.C. in 1997, to check something out because the machine was not in use here in Baltimore yet, the lady in charge was a very nice woman and her last name was Music. She told me that since she had married her husband and took his names, she got lots of interesting comments about her name. I refrained from making one to her. I heard an expression on a TV show recently that said “we should beware if the music ever stops. Also, I heard this one and it was said to a man in the hospital. His visitor said to him, “you are smiling, smiling men do not die.” If I had saved my 100 forty-five style records from the fifties, they would probably be worth a good amount of money since they would be a type of antiques. When you are young, you do not think about current things being of worth when they and you get older. You are always striving for the ‘now’ rewards and never really thinking you will be old someday soon and soon is always approaching. I heard it said that “circled wagons are around the person in the news now, to promote them and their thoughts.” However, those circled wagons soon depart for other venues and the person in the news now can disappear quickly. The locations that now seem popular can become unpopular quickly, with a blink of the eye. It is necessary for our young people to focus on their education, their optimistic thoughts to be blended with accomplishments now and ones coming in their future. It is also necessary for us seniors to focus on what we can still attain, even at these senior days and see what we can still do to enhance our lives now. We can continue enjoying music even without the name of music for our name, to read and to be up to date on current events that affect our lives, like the presidential election, to take care of our bodies to the best of our ability, to feel happy as often as we can, to count our blessings and not our liabilities and most of all, to feel advantaged and not disadvantaged. There are all kinds of ‘music.’ There is music on the CD player, there is music which is someone’s name, there is music of the soul when we feel contented about things, there is music of the heart when we receive some good news about family and friends, there is music in activities we blend with such as my beloved ballroom dancing, there is music in our ambition to further ourselves and our goals. So to the lady from 1997, whose last name was really Music, we join with you and we all will be an orchestra of life. elita sohmer clayman Fairfax Station Patch