MARYFIELD - An exceptional group of musicians from the Kipling, Kennedy and Wawota area came and sang at the Villa recently without a sheet of music or song book.
The words of favourite songs came up from our memories to join in. One man chorded on the piano, there were guitars and violins with a mouth organ and ocarina. They grew up singing together.
Music has also been a big part of my life too. My father gave up violin lessons when he came west but when his barn was built he found a piano and hoisted it into the loft with the hay slings for barn dances.
This was the First World War in 1918 and the new principal of Tyvan School was a woman from the Ottawa Valley. I know I was exposed to music in retro. Music teachers came to Tyvan on the Saturday morning train and went back at night. I had a few lessons in the spring or fall, when I could bicycle to town.
The school, which trained teachers at 18 years old, sent a girl to teach and she replaced the man who joined up from 1939-1945.Over the years, there were a few boys in my music classes.
In May, I went to a junior room and spent two years teaching there. There was always a church or choir to join as well. I often went to the school on Saturdays to listen to the Metropolitan Opera in place. I bought a piano with my savings from teaching and Leonard built me a sound system to play my record collection.
Music is still a part of my life here at the Villa, with four congregations coming to worship with us and many other singing groups. We thank you.
From Angela:
January has come and gone very quickly. The weather for the most part has been quite nice. We have finished our shuffleboard tournament and the playoffs and now onto the second tournament. We have been enjoying some floor curling games the last few weeks.
Everyone enjoyed watching one of our staff members’ sons play in the SaskTel Tankard in the final match. Way to go Brayden Stewart.
