THE ACCORDION PLAYER
I'm really looking forward to addressing the Carroll County Retired Teachers Association on Friday, June 28th. My presentation will focus on the lives of women in the 19th Century, specifically the life of my 3rd Great Grandmother, Susannah Reigle Beckley, who lived her entire life in Carroll County, Ohio during this time period. If you haven't already obtained a personally signed copy of my historical fiction, "Oh! Susannah", then now is a good time to get one.
A relative of mine suggested I make contact with Rose, who is the organizer of the local retired teachers, and I did last year. With our schedules being as they are, I heard back from Rose earlier this year and we didn't really get a chance to talk and exchange information until this past March. After taking care of the business side of things, Rose asked, "Are you related to Wilda Beckley who used to be the music teacher in town?"
"That's my grandmother!," I exclaimed. "She and I used to play for special town events, also at the nursing home, and in some churches; she on her accordion, which had "Wilda" in sparkly letters on the spine, and me on my snare drum. There wasn't a polka we couldn't play to entertain the crowd."
Rose then mentioned how she took lessons from my grandmother from the 5th grade, and right through to her early years in college. The penny dropped! "You're not Rose Mary Cerneva, are you?" I asked. "If so, you were my grandmother's star pupil!" My how this conversation brought back vivid memories for me, of summers in my teen years spent in my grandparent's sitting room most mornings playing cards with my friend Alan. We both would be anxiously waiting for my grandmother's last pupil to pack up their music box and depart. It would only be minutes later when the three of us would be in that 1968 Ford Falcon and heading for the "swimming hole", otherwise known as Atwood Lake.
That accordion and my grandmother's love of music was also a mainstay of each of our family get togethers and those "Beckley Sisters" - my grandmother's sisters - in -law - were always the dancers. What a show! One that I'll never forget.
Wilda Beckley taught 118 students between 1955 and 1982 so it only seemed right that her bedazzled accordion be donated, and for many years on display, at the Carroll County Historical Society.
I was living in New Zealand back in 1997 when my grandparents celebrated their final anniversary together - 60 years - my grandfather, Bill, passing in 2000 and my grandmother following in 2001. But, what a grand party that anniversary celebration was! I saw it on snippets of a video my family had taken and sent down to me. We all remember how the camcorder was all the rage back then, a precursor of our I Phone cameras today.
There was my grandmother in her wheelchair tapping her fingers to the music, for she had suffered a stroke years before, which ended her accordion playing days. There were also the Beckley Sisters I saw on tape dancing up a storm. But, who was playing the accordion? A quick pan by the videographer showed me Rose Mary Cerneva seated front and center with her accordion merrily playing many of the all-time favorites.
"So, your dad invited me and my husband to your grandparent's anniversary party," Rose recounted in our recent conversation. "We were about to pull out of the drive and I told my husband that I should throw my accordion in the trunk, just in case. Then, at the party, your dad came up to me and said, "What a shame that I didn't ask you to bring your accordion." to which I told him, I'll go get it, it's in the car!"
Rose went on to say how playing "The Anniversary Waltz" meant so much to my grandmother as there were tears in her eyes. I readily agreed saying how the glimpse I got was of my grandmother smiling ear to ear, filled with pride and pleasure of hearing these old tunes again; tapping her fingers and nodding while keeping time to Rose's playing of "Sentimental Journey".
It's going to be a sentimental time this Friday at the Carroll County Retired Teachers Association meeting and I can't wait to reunite with my grandmother's treasured student and friend - Rose.