According to a calendar, today my grandmother should be celebrating her 111th birthday, such a symmetrical (and big) number. I will do it for her.
One of my favorite stories she told was of not having a birth certificate, but as an adult, she was able to get one from census records that provided enough evidence that she was a certain age living at a certain house in Newark New Jersey. The date of birth was not recorded, so she just picked October 15.
Those stories are why I liked to tease her that she as “spunky”
Grandma and me ~1994
I have some of her stories digitized from a micro-cassette tape made during a family visit in 1994. Over the last few months, I have been posting segments to TapeWrite where I can augment the audio with photos, quotes, and text “cards”.
So today was a good day to post the one where she talks about how she learned to play piano as a kid, and how her parents figured out a way to get her a piano. I try to put in perspective of a 1915 immigrant couple with 6 kids in Newark New Jersey committing to a piano purchase.
Happy 111, Granny!
