1 post tagged “patsy kline”

I poured through a slide show of 632 photos of Midwest flooding.  Names posted as sandbag workers rang familiar.  Some may be grandchildren, even great-grandchildren of people I knew.  Mostly, you recognize them as belong to Des Moines County, or Louisa County, Iowa.  And then, as I read captions, scanning for anything familiar, I saw the name of Brian Schulte in Burlington, Iowa.  I knew him in school, remember when his father was killed in a MVA (gold Mustang).  We studied with the same piano teacher.  Is that small enough a world for you? 

Many pictures of the University of Iowa in Iowa City brought memories.  Surprisingly, the picture that meant the most was not from the university, but again, from Burlington.  It was the Memorial Auditorium, surrounded by water.  The auditorium was a built as a work project in the depression.  Sitting there in the flood waters,  4 stories tall, it looks like a ship.  That reminded me that all its doors have round windows, like portholes.  Inside you could imagine you are in the performance hall of a great ship.  I attended 4-5 concerts there a year from the time I was 5 through 17 or 18.  At that point, my own concerts began to conflict too often to justify series tickets. 

Across Front street is the building that housed the Burlington Music Store.  My teacher's studio was in the basement.  My lesson was at 4 pm Saturday, so we always were the last out of the store.  Many the week I waited by myself in the entranceway of the store for Mom to pick me up.  One time, an exotic (for Iowa) site greeted me.  Here came a lady, dressed in a white western-cut dress with fringe hem.  She was wearing lipstick-red cowgirl boots, and walking a white poodle.  It was a good sized dog, not one of those fit-in-your-purse variety.  Turned out I saw Patsy Kline, who was to perform at the Memorial Auditorium that night. 

Knitting update:  now half-way up the first sleeve of Samus.  Much can be accomplished while watching TIVO'd This Old House.