Just got off the phone from talking to an acquaintance. She’s a friend of some family, but I’d never met her, and never before talked to her even though I’d heard about her for years. Conversation encompassed several different subjects in the course of an hour. When she mentioned the 2010 National Accordion Association (NAA) Convention where she’d just participated, my ears fluttered. Really? Accordion players have conventions? Right here in Texas? Sure ‘nuf?
Wait a minute. Far be it from me to phoof it off. My own grandmother collected pens and pencils. And there are rules about that, did you know? And yes, she attended conventions. How ’bout that? I hadn’t felt a need to mention that en mass for. . . well. . . ever.
Her name is Bert, and Bert taught me an earful, “Check out YouTube for Brent Buswell and his wife, Crista,” she said, and I could hear her Googling. I figured she meant for me to Google, so I did, our Googling sounding like non-lyrical background keying through the phone. “They’re the Stevie Wonder of the accordion,” she told me. “People come from all over the world to this thing–the NAA conventions. The music of accordions is the common language between us. We’re all just enthusiastic, fun-loving folks who’ll sidle up to meet you. We listen to each other play and we dance, dance, dance.” http://www.accordions.com/naa/convention/convention2010/index.html. Wow, I can see how that might happen.
Through her drafts of animated review, I could still hear keys tapping through the phone. Bert was clearly still connected. We talked about the dancing, about polka’s, Russian music. “Oh, so much fun,” she gushed contiguously.
The music played through YouTube. She made it all sound wholesome and grand, and thoroughly insatiable. Certainly it was unique. I imagined myself there. I swayed and tilted, throwing my weight under the imaginary boxy instrument.
But then, my grandmother loved her pencils. And there were rules.
What Other People Do 