Our ward's Christmas Party was this evening and we brought some soup. It was a soup, salad and rolls dinner and then everyone was carpooling over to the Temple for the events that are taking place there every night this month. We decided to go to the dinner and then head home since we have already been to the Temple earlier today and we had some things to finish up before tomorrow.
We sat down after getting some food and Virginia Walker came and sat next to us. We were chatting about music and Sydney. I told her we want to get Sydney a mini piano. She has this little toy piano that only has four keys. And it is all different colors. Since it is better for children to play with toys with their true colors, if they look like something real from life, we want to get her a black and white piano, so she will associate it with the real thing when she sees it. It helps children identify with their surroundings better.
So anyway, Virginia started telling those around us that she would not be in music today if it was not for my grandfather, Gordon Keddington. My grandfather taught music at DVC and was Sister Walker's teacher. She loved his class. She was telling us that everything she knows she learned from him.
Of course that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside hearing someone talk about my grandfather that way. For those of you who don't know, my grandfather passed away 30 years ago, so I never knew him. I hardly know anything about him; what kind of man he was, what his sense of humor was like, what his voice sounded like, and I have seen so few pictures, I hardly can pull together a picture of him in my head.
I asked Virginia what kind of teacher he was. Was he a teacher who taught straight from the book, used outlines or guides, or did he just teach off the top of his head. Virginia said that she hardly ever saw him with a book or prepared lesson. He just knew it all and taught it out of memory and knowledge. Everyone loved his class and people around campus referred to him as the God of music.
That made me chuckle. What a compliment!
Sitting there of course it made me a little sad that I had never known this great man and so many others do. I think most of all I would like to hear what his singing voice was like. That would be a real treat.
(12/13/10) ...OH! And I just remembered another thing Virginia said... She said that she always wanted to do an arrangement that my grandfather had done with one of her choirs but she never ended up doing any of them sadly. They were way too advanced. That just leaves me in awe. Something being too hard for Virginia and her choir??! Its unheard of! But, if it was arranged by grandpa... I guess its possible. He was great, so I have heard.
3 comments:
I remember when I first stared choir with Sister Walker at El Dorado she told the whole choir about Grandpa and how great he was. And if you want to know more about him, I did a research paper on him in high school and put together a binder of stuff for Grandma. She should have it somewhere. She also more boxes of stuff too, like newspaper clippings and things about him. You've heard the cd of him playing the organ, right?
Noooo I haven't
Mom has it somewhere. Ask her for it. In fact maybe they should make copies for all of us.
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