Stirpes, Volume 39, Number 4, December 1999 Page: 64
80 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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I- P - F F- I 19 w I
The clerk walked quickly toward Father. He
was short, stocky and partially bald. Dressed in a
suit and tie, he looked like most male clerks in
department stores, except that he had a wide
band around his forehead with an eye loop
attached over the left eye that he could raise and
lower at will to examine jewelry with. He asked,
"May I help you?'
Father said he wanted a guitar for me to learn
to play chords on with a country music fiddler.
The clerk put the eye loop on the jewelry
counter and went straight to an ornately decorated
western guitar. It had jewels embedded in
the neck and mother-of-pearl butterflies inlaid
here and there on the body. It was beautiful, just
like something Gene Autry might play.
But Father immediately said, "I don't want
anything that expensive. My daughter may look
grown-up, but she's only an almost 13-year-old
little girl who may never learn to play a guitar."
The clerk then proceeded to bring up three or
four guitars in descending order of prices that
Father turned down also.
Then Father said, "It looks like you're overloaded
with guitars. Just bring out one inexpensive,
plain guitar in good sound shape that my
daughter can learn to handle and skip all the rest.'
After that the clerk fiddled around with
several other guitars and finally handed Father a
Spanish guitar that was black on the sides with a
chocolate brown and British tan marbleized face.
The neck was black. The clerk said, "This should
meet your requirements at the best price I can
make for a quality guitar."
Father asked the clerk to play it so he could
see how it sounded.
The clerk twisted the knobs at the end of the
neck back and forth for awhile to tune it and then
found a pick and broke out in a beautiful flamenco
chord progression.
Father said, "Not like that, country music."
The clerk said, 'I don't play country."
Father said, "Strum a 6, C, and D chord, one
after the other.'
When the clerk had played the chords a few
times, Father asked me to see if I could hold the
guitar and wrap my thumb around the neck. Thatwas no problem. After dickering with the clerk
over the price, Father said, "Put this guitar aside,
I'll probably take it. Now let's see a good G
harmonica.' There were six or eight to choose
from and after trying them all, Father laid one
aside.
Then Father surprised me by pointing to
several medium-sized button accordions and asked
if one was in the key of G. The clerk handed him
one, saying it was primarily for the keys of G and C
both.
Father picked it up and started playing "Put
Your Little Foot," like he had been playing an
accordion all his life. I had no idea Father could
play one. I had never heard him play anything but
"The Twelfth Street Rag' and the "Over the
Waves Waltz' on the piano. I guessed I didn't
really know my father at all. Next, he asked for a
rack to fit around his neck to hold a harmonica so
he could play it and the accordion at the same
time. The clerk hunted around in several different
places and finally brought one out. Father put on
the rack, anchored the harmonica in it, and
proceeded to play "Put Your Little Foot" on both
instruments at the same time!
Father said, "They're in tune, I'll consider
taking both of them."
I just had to learn to play "my" guitar, so I
could play with him.
Father asked for two or three triangularshaped
guitar picks and a thumb pick, and offered
the clerk something like $6.00 for the entire lot:
the guitar, the picks, the accordion, the harmonica
and the rack.
The clerk said, "No, that's not enough."
I picked up the guitar and enjoyed touching it
and the aura of mystery that surrounded it.
Father and the clerk kept haggling until they came
to an agreement. Father handed him a $10.00 bill,
and I never knew how much he got back or what he
paid for each instrument but Father seemed
pleased with the deal.
I took my guitar and hugged it all the way
home, without much faith that I would ever be
able to play it.
Next we stopped at the Chinese grocery store
where you could buy staples in the bulk in what64
STTD PFP c
ECEFMBERFR 1999
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Texas State Genealogical Society. Stirpes, Volume 39, Number 4, December 1999, periodical, December 1999; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth41412/m1/66/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Genealogical Society.