By: Donna Pointkouski

Donna Pointkouski — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:24:10 +0000

Leo,
That’s a good idea. It was actually one of the “Carnival of Genealogy” topics in 2009, but one that I was too busy have a submission. My mother’s family had a “spinet” or upright – but no one played. She said there was always a friend or neighbor to come over and play. We got one when I was about 11 or 12, and I began to teach myself in my teen years. I never got that good, but I can play. And you’re right – it’s a lot more fun than the tv!
Donna

By: Leo

Leo — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:02:29 +0000

The phrase “Carols at the spinet” in “We Need a Little Christmas Now” harkens back to an era when a piano was a standard item of furniture for households that could afford one. My grandmother on my mother’s side of the family had an upright piano made by the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana. My mother and both of her sisters learned to play the piano, and many an evening’s entertainment was had with the family gathered around the piano, singing popular or seasonal songs Nowadays, it seems the desirability of having a piano in the home has declined. The space in the living room or family room that used to be devoted to a piano is now occupied by a big-screen TV. It might be an interesting side-project while doing genealogical research to try to determine if the ancestral family owned a piano, and, if so, who in the family knew how to play it. — Leo

Comments on: A Blog-Caroling We Will Go

By: Donna Pointkouski

By: Leo