We sang "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain" and "Billy Boy" and "Golden Slippers" and "Yankee Doodle" and many, many more. I don't remember a time when there wasn't singing: as Grandma washed dishes or Granpa worked on the car, as my twice-great aunt shelled peas or as we kids played. My father, I'm told, had a fine voice and I remember him singing "Toora Loora Loora" as we were put to sleep. And after he died the music went on, but after we got a television (in 1954 -- we were NOT the first on the block!) we eventually did more listening than singing.

Then a couple years later Mom made us all learn an instrument: I was on trumpet, my brother Tony on trombone, Ted on saxophone and then classical guitar, my sister on violin -- and all of us took piano lessons.