Post by robspace on Jun 27, 2010 15:39:31 GMT 9.5
When I was young, like around 8 or 9, my mom would take me and my brother into the city, 20 miles away, to watch the free park concerts in San Francisco. These were not musicals, but they did play some music from shows from time to time. We would go and sit on a blanket on the grass under some big, old Eucalyptus trees. The scent from these trees is fantastic and on a warm summer day, it's real nice.
The orchestra was real big and had many different instruments. As a kid, this was just fantastic and even though I was into rock and roll of Elvis and others, the sound from this big band was just amazing and has stuck with me all these years.
It really was an eductaion in music appreciation, and I thank my departed mom for introducing us to this and the other art that's available all over San Francisco.
I never realized, until I moved away, what a gold mine of culture I had around me. That city is full of great music and art and now, I live way up North. In a perfect world, I would still be close to all those free concerts and museums and aqariums and yet, still live in a much less populated and serene area. But, we have to give up something every time we move.
Because my mom insited that me and my brother go to these weekend concerts in the park sometimes, we both started loving music and persued it all through grade school and then all through high school and my little sister ended up going through a university on a music scholarship!
She went on to law school and is now a lawyer in California, but, I don't hold that against her. But, I think it's really important to let kids experience music and the arts at a young age and see if it clicks. My grandaughter is now 3 and beautiful, I might add, and is already walking around blowing on a wooden flute I gave her.
Now, when she gets older, I'll give her a silver flute that used to belong to my brother. He died in 2001 and I was given his flute. I had a shop rebuild it and it's now like new, and will go to my grandaughter when she's ready. So, it all started with my mom dragging us boys off to the park. We would much rather have stayed on the beach. But, of course, she was right and in the long run we both became musicians as well as my sister.
I also miss those big Eucalyptus trees. I guess their native to only a few places and there are none here in the Northwest, but many in Cal., and Australia. In many areas of Los Angelas, their banned because of their fire hazard. That great smelling oil is real flammable.
But, I never saw any go up in flames in the San Francisco area, but I guess those LA people have trouble with them burning their houses down. What do they do to prevent that in Australia? Do people just not plant them close to their homes or spray a retartent on them?
As a kid, mom used to boil the leaves to make the house smell good and keep us breathing good. She would also sometimes put their leaves under our beds to kill any fleas. Great tree! Wish they grew up here.
The orchestra was real big and had many different instruments. As a kid, this was just fantastic and even though I was into rock and roll of Elvis and others, the sound from this big band was just amazing and has stuck with me all these years.
It really was an eductaion in music appreciation, and I thank my departed mom for introducing us to this and the other art that's available all over San Francisco.
I never realized, until I moved away, what a gold mine of culture I had around me. That city is full of great music and art and now, I live way up North. In a perfect world, I would still be close to all those free concerts and museums and aqariums and yet, still live in a much less populated and serene area. But, we have to give up something every time we move.
Because my mom insited that me and my brother go to these weekend concerts in the park sometimes, we both started loving music and persued it all through grade school and then all through high school and my little sister ended up going through a university on a music scholarship!
She went on to law school and is now a lawyer in California, but, I don't hold that against her. But, I think it's really important to let kids experience music and the arts at a young age and see if it clicks. My grandaughter is now 3 and beautiful, I might add, and is already walking around blowing on a wooden flute I gave her.
Now, when she gets older, I'll give her a silver flute that used to belong to my brother. He died in 2001 and I was given his flute. I had a shop rebuild it and it's now like new, and will go to my grandaughter when she's ready. So, it all started with my mom dragging us boys off to the park. We would much rather have stayed on the beach. But, of course, she was right and in the long run we both became musicians as well as my sister.
I also miss those big Eucalyptus trees. I guess their native to only a few places and there are none here in the Northwest, but many in Cal., and Australia. In many areas of Los Angelas, their banned because of their fire hazard. That great smelling oil is real flammable.
But, I never saw any go up in flames in the San Francisco area, but I guess those LA people have trouble with them burning their houses down. What do they do to prevent that in Australia? Do people just not plant them close to their homes or spray a retartent on them?
As a kid, mom used to boil the leaves to make the house smell good and keep us breathing good. She would also sometimes put their leaves under our beds to kill any fleas. Great tree! Wish they grew up here.