Upper Class

 At a young age we did not know that we lived in the county seat of our large municipality. People came from small surrounding towns to do legal business. Our uncle was a judge, there were legal offices in the three blocks close to the court house. Many lawyers lived in our community.

When I was 14 Nan told me I was invited to the yearly cotillion. It is a social dance popular in the 18th century a version of an English Country Dance. It was an elaborate concert dance for young ladies to come out and be introduced to the public upper class. I never said No to Nan but I had no idea what it was all about or what I was supposed to do. The only dance I knew was the TWIST. There was no slow dancing in the parties I was allowed to attend. Since I have no couture concept of what is prim and proper Nan bought my dress and shoes. I wore white gloves, my hair was put on the top of my head like a bun. Lucky for me one of my friends was invited too. She had far more etiquette and knowledge of what society demanded of us. I showed up and stood in the corner drinking punch. The young society men were there to greet us and chat. An hour went by, finally a dude with an attitude grabbed my hand and pulled me on to the dance floor. I was relieved I did not have to hold up the wall for another minute. I did not embarrass my parents because I never spoke a single word. I was in shock. I did not know people acted so formal and polite. When the night was over, one of the parents drove me home, I never spoke a word about the evening again.

When my grandmother passed away she gave us a grand piano. It was 7 feet long and weighed about 700 pounds. The only place to put it in our house was under the spiral staircase in the house. What are you supposed to do with a grand piano? You give your kids piano lessons. My brother refused to take lessons because he was always playing baseball, shoveling snow or mowing lawns. I was the next child in line and as I said before in this article, I never said no to Nan. A year later my younger sister started lessons, immediately she was practicing 2 hours a day with great proficiency. Then a year later another sister started taking lessons. I was still on my first lesson book. This was main reason I did not practice. Nan would always ask me, Did you practice today? I would always say yes. Nan did not know who was practicing she just knew someone was playing the piano. Finally, the nun teaching me smacked my hand enough that Nan was concerned when I came home from a lesson.  I never went back.

Of course there was a recital. There is always a recital at the end of the school year. My sister and I were dressed alike and we were playing a duet for the audience. We never practiced together for this special event. I just did not care. This would be my last performance of my lifetime on the piano. I should have cared what would happen when we walked on stage but it never entered my mind to worry about her. We sat down on the piano bench, the audience became very still. I played the first three notes and stopped while my sister continued to play the entire song. We stood up and took a bow. I was so proud of her. No one asked questions we just went home and I was punished for a week.

Great Job!