Election Day! Glad it is here and by tomorrow all these
senseless ads will be gone. May the best man win. I have my fingers crossed,
for what, I don’t know. I can now concentrate on what matters to me.
Today I want to take
a piece out of my book and explain it a little further. At the beginning of
each chapter there are quotes by famous people. The quotes relate to the
material in the chapter, for the most part. Chapter 6 has a quote from The Wall written by -Roger Waters
“Mother's gonna keep you right under her wing,
She won’t let you fly, but she might let you sing.”
These words
have a great meaning to me. Throughout the beginnings of the book, the reader
will notice that within the family circle, we used music as our crutches. A way
to pick us up and turn the spirits back to happy. I really enjoyed what music
did for me, it was an escape, it soothed my feelings and certainly it was
pleasant to the ears. I sang with my mother and my Oma. When I finally attended the
Volksschule ( Public School) music
came into life again during 6th grade. I must explain that I was more
a “shower singer” even though we did not have showers, let alone hot water in
Germany at that time. So I made sure that I did not have to choir practice and
when I was found out and had to make that climb to the 4th floor, I
flunked out.
Now that I
am in my sunset years and I look back I can understand much better. My
surroundings mattered to me to be able to sing. I was a loner. The public made
me nervous. No wonder I was perfect for my job in the USAF. They were looking
for a loner, one who could survive being alone. You cannot be more alone than
flying at altitudes where the air is so thin that if you sang no-one would be
able to hear you. But I was not alone, I flew with a pilot. Believe me most of
our 10 hour flights were 90% silence.
So know I
look back on my life and I have to say that ‘ my life was not music but music
was my life’. I became a listener. No one genre of music was really my
favorite. Music, in general, was my enjoyment. During my service days one thing
was altered, and that is that I felt comfortable around my comrades that I once
again began to participate in making music. Could I ever succeed on America has Talent? NO, I’m not that
brazen. In the sixties music was different and we , as GIs, blended our talents
in such a way that what came out was acceptable. My one shining moment during
this time was omitted from the book to save trees. During my stay at Keesler
AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi, my friend and I ended up at the University of
Mississippi when they had a talent show. Since not all the acts that signed up
showed on that evening, the show was scheduled to be cut short. Some good
friends of ours convinced the professor in charge that we might be able to fill
in some of that time. Certainly not my idea, but my friend was a born ham and
beamed from ear to ear. By the time we finished our second song the place was
going nuts, so we did one more. It was this impromptu performance that later in
the book leads to my revisit to the university.
So I did not
listen to momma, I choose flying over singing. I do not regret it one bid. The
only thing I regret is that I crawled into my shell deeper and it has taken me
40 years to stick my head back out.
On another
matter, still working on the final phases to my book. The writing is complete.
Kickstarter.com is all set up to try and obtain the finances to publish. Still
waiting for the video trailer. CreateSpace.com is set up to publish both
paperback format and eBooks. I spoke to my filmmaker son and he says that
perhaps during the Thanksgiving visit we can complete the video and finish the
whole project.
Thanks for
stopping by and reading my blog. Please leave a comment.
New Cover of Book, work still in process. Createspace artists will work with this to actually come up with a workable model.
