A lifelong dream is music to his ears
January 24th, 2008, 1:59 am Hobby Shops
Helping folks cope with life’s burdens taught him that you don’t always get to have what you love most. And even when you do, you might not get to keep it. But he also discovered that if you don’t give up, keep pushing forward, there might be a second chance. That’s what happened with the piano. When he finally got his hands on the keys, it would ease the pain of his own deep loss. Creech is 95. At a time of life when most people cling to the familiar — playing bridge, working crossword puzzles or pursuing other hobbies they’ve perfected for years — he has thrown himself into a whole new world. He delights in the struggle to turn sharps and flats into Mozart and “Over the Rainbow.” It’s not unusual for retirees to take up the piano. But Creech’s teacher, Dzidra Reimanis, has never heard of anyone beginning lessons so late in life. She ought to know — she’s 80 and has been teaching for 50 years. Creech knows he’ll never be a great pianist. He just wants to be able to turn out respectable versions of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and other hymns his wife, Beckie, used to play. “If you get moody or blue, you just sit down at the piano and it lifts you out of the gloomy attitude,” he says. “The sun is shining and the Earth’s not dead and people are wonderful. “Everything’s right.” At Creech’s east Charlotte home, the melody in 4/4 time is unmistakable. 1-2-3-4. So-ome-whe-ere. 1-2-and-3-4. O-ver-the-rain-bow. Creech sits stick-straight, practicing at the modest, brown spinet in his living room. He bought the piano for Beckie in 1935 — paying $15 a month for more than two years, at a time when he earned only $1,200 a year. He tries to play the notes at a walking pace, with one step following another in a continuous flow. But the sound is more step-pause-step, like the Tin Man in need of his oilcan. Creech gets the notes right. But, like all beginners, it takes time to feel the rhythm. His hands, freckled with age spots, move easily across the keys. Sometimes he’ll practice for more than two hours, despite arthritis in his fingers. As a kid growing up in Hickory, N.C., Creech always thought he’d be good at piano. “It was a secret dream,” he says. He was in his 40s when he signed up for his first lessons, with the organist of a church he pastored in Lenoir, N.C. Before he could begin, the bishop transferred him to another church.
2
next
More articles
Tags: attitude, Hobbies, living roomRelated posts
