The Joy of Playing the Violin

There’s something truly joyful about playing music, and I’m so glad my instrument is a violin. For one thing, it’s easier to get into an orchestra, for they generally have 30 or more violinists, whereas they only have a half dozen or so viola, cello and bass players, and even fewer individuals on each woodwind, brass and percussion instrument.

In addition, the violin is easy to carry so that the player doesn’t have to do what cellists and double bass players traveling on airplanes must do and pay for extra seats for their instruments. Things are even more complicated for  pianists or organists for they constantly have to adapt to a different instrument wherever they play.

I have been playing the violin for 66 years now, and I surely hope I’ll get more years in the future. I especially loved playing in the Battle Creek Symphony for 31 years and finally retired only four years ago. I still write program notes for each concert, and my sweetheart, my son and I help out by taking tickets and passing out programs.

True enough, my career was completely English in nature, teaching British and American literature and writing articles and columns. But I’ve loved playing violin for even longer. And these days it’s even more of a predominant passion, for though my memory for words slips, I still remember music just fine.

I certainly don’t claim any comparison with Albert Einstein and his brilliance -or, for that matter, his musical talents - but we both loved the violin for many years. As he put it, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”

I’ve had that same kind of enthusiasm, too, ever since 1946, at age six, when my musical mother decided that I should have proper piano lessons. She took me to a music school in Winnetka, north of Chicago, and the piano teacher there sat me down at a huge grand piano and asked me to play for him. After I played some simple little pieces, he said I should close my eyes and tell him what note he played. I obeyed and was immediately able to identify each note. When he realized that I had what he called “perfect pitch,” he said to my mother, “She’s a string player.”

He did recommend that I first take a couple of years of piano, for that would teach me more about the base notes and chords, but then when I was about eight, he said I should start violin. If you have heard beginning violinists, you know that it’s a very difficult instrument to make sound good. My mother was extremely tolerant, however, and  immediately began playing accompaniments with me.

We played together every day and eventually began playing for our family, for Sunday School, and for old folks’ homes. Most of time time we both played by ear, for, as my Mom always said, “Paper just gets in the way of having fun.”

These days I play many times each month with the Olde Tyme Music Group here in town as well as for special solo or accompanied programs at various churches and old-folks’ homes. December is an especially full month with dozens of invitations to play Christmas music.

I’ll close simply with another great quote from Einstein, a man I admire tremendously, and whom I surely agree with: “I get most joy in life out of music.”

These are finding strength from a terrible disease

Chances are you have never known anyone suffering with Progeria, for there are only just over 100 known victims in this country.

I first learned of this disease when reading an excellent, best-selling book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by the Jewish rabbi, Harold S. Kushner. He wrote the book in 1981, not long after his poor 14-year-old son Aaron died after suffering from Progeria.

I was really sad reading about little Aaron, for he was an extremely bright, loving boy, but he stopped gaining much weight at eight months and lost all of his hair by age three. In addition, he had a thin but disproportionately large head and a small jaw and dry and scaly skin. Sad to say, he never grew much taller than three feet high.

I looked up Progeria online and found some excellent accounts of this terrible disease. One especially sad one, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzyJyCZqumw), tells the story of a poor family in India who had five of their seven children suffering from this disease.

Another one, (http://www.progeriaresearch.org/meet_the_kids/), published in May of this year includes a map of the world, showing that this disease is found mostly in eastern America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Korea and Japan. It’s interesting that no victims have been reported in either Australia or Russia.

This site also features pictures and information about 16 amazing and bright children who suffered--and in some cases have already died--from this terrible disease.

For example, a teenage girl named Hayley from England, won the prestigious Children of Courage Award and has appeared in several documentaries and stories about Progeria. She and her mother even wrote a book about living with Progeria called “Old Before My Time.”

Quite amazingly she said, “My life with progeria is full of happiness and good memories.  Deep inside I am no different from anyone. We are all human.” Another victim, a 17-year old fellow named Sam, has received highest honors at his high school in Massachusetts, has served as a percussion section leader in his band and is an Eagle Scout. He has even been interviewed on national television about his condition and his accomplishments.

And a six-year-old girl named Adalia, from Texas has over ten million followers on Facebook.

Rabbi Kushner and his wife were of course extremely sad to lose their loving son. As he explained, however, after his son’s death, he began to understand God in a much deeper sense and therefore became a much better rabbi and human being.  

God has given us free will, he points out, and therefore He does not control our lives. “Because our tragedy is not God’s will, we need not feel hurt or betrayed when tragedy strikes. We can turn to Him for help in overcoming it, precisely because we can tell ourselves that God is as outraged by it as we are.”

Elsewhere he says, “No one ever promised us a life free from pain and disappointment. The most anyone promised us was that we would not be alone in our pain, and that we would be able to draw upon a source outside ourselves for the strength and courage we would need to survive life’s tragedies and life’s unfairness.”

I truly recommend Kushner’s book, for though I’ve had polio (suspected), cancer, open heart surgery and a stroke, I’m certainly not blaming God. I’m simply very thankful to be alive and doing well.

Brilliant Local Historian, Elizabeth Neumeyer

I hope folks in Battle Creek realize how lucky they are to have such an amazing citizen as Elizabeth Neumeyer.

“Liz”  first came to town in 1968 to teach American, Michigan and local history just a few years after Kellogg Community College began.

She is a very educated lady, for she earned not one but three Masters Degrees, one from Central Michigan, in history, and two from Western Michigan University, one in  counseling and one in communication. These two later degrees she achieved while doing full-time teaching.

In addition to being a professor for many years, she was a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of Battle Creek and helped start Heritage Battle Creek Journal back in 1991.

She also wrote books while teaching. One very impressive one, for example, is  called “Mother: Ella Eaton Kellogg,” about the wife of the famous John Harvey Kellogg. The book is almost 100 pages long and contains some great photographs of the Kellogg homes and family.

Ella and her husband not only adopted 11 children but also raised more than 30 others over the years. Liz even includes a list of all of the children, including their names, ages and brief remarks about their adult lives.

She also explains how the Kelloggs founded the Haskell Home for Orphans which nurtured 150 to 200 children each year. As though all of this work with children weren’t sufficient, they also ran classes for mothers of kindergartners and helped supervise the children’s play and development.

Part of the reason for writing that book was in order to succeed in getting Ella into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame through the Battle Creek Historical Society.

Though she has formally retired, Liz seems to be just about as busy now as ever.

Together with another really hardworking, devoted Battle Creek  citizen, Mary Butler, Liz works many hours a week studying and writing about local history for the Heritage Battle Creek Journal.

In addition, the two of them teach classes on local history for the Institute for Learning in Retirement.

She and Mary, together with some local teachers, won a Michigan Historical Society Education Programming award for a series about education here in town.

Liz also writes a monthly column for Scene Magazine on the origin of street and road names in the Battle Creek area and holds a monthly history roundtable at Northpointe Woods where she can learn even more about Battle Creek from its many senior citizens.

Just recently Elizabeth was asked by KCC to work with Marty Stilwell, the Learning Resource Center director, and Mark O'Connell, the Vice President of finance, on a history of the school for the college’s 60th anniversary in 2016, continuing from the one Dr. Neva Bartel did from 1956 to 1986.

Matthew Samra, one of Liz’s former students, now teaches English at KCC. As he says, "We co-taught many courses together at KCC, and I was always impressed by her breadth of knowledge. If you were enrolled in her history course, you can bet you'd be exposed to some sociology, literature, and psychology along the way - among with other rich, interdisciplinary subjects."

I have even been privileged to have this brilliant and entertaining student and friend in several of my ILR classes.

Thank you, Liz, for all you do for us all.

If you want to read more about local history, you can go to www.heritagebattlecreek.org.

Dena Phaff Haas, Artistic Battle Creek Photographer

Dena Phaff Haas is a bright and talented lady here in Battle Creek who has brought joy to hundreds of people through her photographs.

Dena was born in the Netherlands, but her family came here when she was just two years old. Her father was a photographer, so though she studied all kinds of art at Calvin College, she eventually came to emphasize photography and moved into her dad’s business about 25 years ago. She wisely opened a studio right next to her house, so that she could be close to her children, even while working.

I met Dena quite a few years ago when she started taking special photographs of two members of the Battle Creek Symphony for each concert. The very large professional pictures have always been displayed in the hall outside the auditorium where  the orchestra plays, and mine was one of the pictures. I especially liked that picture, bought it from the orchestra and still have it hanging in my music room at home.

Over the years Dena has also taken literally  thousands of pictures of babies, young children, high school seniors, brides and grooms, families and business people.

You can go see 15 of her wonderful pictures on display at the Brownstone Restaurant in downtown Battle Creek. The owner admired her work and requested special pictures for his doorway and inside walls. If you’ve already been there, you’ve no doubt seen some, for three of them have been hanging there for over five years.

Even if you can’t go to Brownstone, you can see a number of her wonderful photographs on line by simply going to http://www.phaffstudio.com/.

Dena sometimes presents inspiring quotes from the people that are on display. One lady, for example, said, “I've discovered that I must be flexible and open to new ideas, yet remain true to the core of who I am... My physical and mental strength grows by being stretched to the limits of my endurance."

Through all of the years of full-time photographing, Dena says that she has been touched when people have come back to her to say how precious her pictures have become for them. This has been especially true when family members have died. As she put it very touchingly, “Photographs in a sense stop time, for it only takes a part of a second to freeze moments forever.”

Dena introduced me to the word “Chiaroscuro,” which describes artwork that emphasizes illumination and shadows. Her photos just outside Brownstone are more emotionally dark, whereas the pictures inside are more light and positive. These contrasts, she believes, describe human life for us all, for we have both negative and positive, dark and light events in our lives, and both help us to develop our deep understanding, tolerance and, in most cases, love of of life.

As she put it, "So much of what I do in both my art and photography is devoted to seeing and analyzing light and shadow.  To me this is also a metaphor for my life's journey.  My belief in and worship of the God of light is an important part of who I am."

Battle Creek artist Andrew Freemire admires Dena tremendously and urged me to write this column. As he put it, “There are photographers, and then there are photographers. As in all disciplines, there are those that have the academics and do fine, but then there are those that have the academic, the innate talent coupled with genuine passion.  Dena has the later blend, and the results are so evocative/comfortable/inspiring."

The Joy of Writing a Column

“Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anyone I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.”  Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin is a much more famous columnist than I’ll ever be, and I do admire him. He is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and has even written novels--a job I’ve never even tried. I must say, however, that I disagree with what he says about needing to feel rage.

I almost never feel rage, so it certainly isn’t a part of my job with the Enquirer. I write about subjects I care about, and I truly try to be positive and encouraging because I would at least hope to influence my readers to want to make their lives not only a bit more informed but also more fulfilling and enjoyable.

Moreover, I feel nothing but gratitude that the Enquirer has allowed me to compose well over 1,000 articles and sentencing reports and close to 300 columns. I’ve worked for them part-time for 16 years, ever since I retired from teaching English at Olivet College, and I’ve loved it the whole time.

Because I now do a column for the paper every Friday, I really appreciate it when my friends suggest subjects for me, though of course I don’t always feel that I can take their suggestions. For example, one dear old friend from college wanted me to do a column about a prisoner out in Minnesota. My friend visits and admires him, but I don’t know him personally, and after I read about his various crimes, I just didn’t feel comfortable trying to emphasize his intelligence and good character.

I must say that my favorite positive subjects for my columns are certainly not about people’s crimes. It’s rather about all of the music that I play on my violin for older folks. Along with English, which was my career, music has always been my passion, and each time I’ve done a column about my love of music, I’ve received really nice, positive responses.

I’ll be 75 in December, and my memory has gone way downhill since I had open heart surgery and a stroke. It definitely takes more time to write my columns these days, but I still seem to be able to do it and still enjoy it. In fact, my very nice boss, Charles Carlson, humorously said I could keep writing columns forever.

My sweetheart, whom I plan to marry on Dec. 3, 2039, when I turn 100 and he turns 107 1/2, always reads my columns in advance. He had a fine education in England and is downright fussy about proper grammar and language. Even though he was an engineer and I was an English professor, he often has good suggestions for slight changes.

Yet another thing that I appreciate about the paper is that they put a little picture of me by my columns each week. I’m no beauty, but sometimes people I don’t even know come up to me and say they feel they recognize me through my photo and like my columns.

Finally, I’d be glad to get more suggestions for future columns. You can email me at lindajoscott@gmail.com or call me at 269 763 3041 with your ideas.

Perhaps you would even allow me to come and interview you, and I’d really like to do just that.

Two Memorable Funerals

I am generally a positive column writer and would rather write columns about happy subjects you would all enjoy and feel good about.

This column, however, is about two memorable funerals two days in a row. On Tuesday, Oct. 14, I attended the Catholic service for Helen M.Cox Lothamer at the large church in Charlotte. Helen was a wonderful woman who had 15 children, 46 grandchildren and 52 great grandchildren. After having all of those births and raising all of those children, she has happily stayed in close touch with all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren all of these years and lived a healthy, happy life all the way up to the age of 96.

Thirteen of her children are still alive and 12 of them were at the service along with most of her grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as dozens and dozens of her children’s and grandchildren’s spouses and other relatives.

I was honored to get to play my violin with Helen’s talented pianist daughter, Susanne at the service. I have played for a number of occasions over the years with her, including their family weddings, funerals and parties, but this one was especially sad but memorable for both of us.

And, speaking of large numbers, there were almost 30 priests there, for Helen Lothamer’s second child, James Lothamer, who conducted the service has been a priest for many years and is a close friend of many others of his profession.

Then the very next day I attended another equally unforgettable service for Samuel David Carpenter, who was an outstanding lawyer with Vandervoort, Christ and Fisher Law firm here in Battle Creek.

This was also a huge funeral with beautiful reminiscences from all four of Sam’s children as well as one from his nephew, Dave Carpenter, and another from a law partner and close friend, Chris T. Christ. There was even a wonderful video tribute called “A Life of Faith” about Carpenter’s many ways of  sharing his remarkable talents and his beliefs with many people in this area.

As a teenager, Sam was successful in statewide Ohio competitions for his performance on violin and ukulele. Music remained a very important part for Sam’s life not only because of his own talents but also because his loving wife of 55 years, Helga Frank Carpenter, was a professional piano teacher.  

As an adult, Sam played a piano anywhere and anytime he could find one, in homes, churches, restaurants, hotels and malls and in many senior living facilities. He played piano by ear and when asked about his favorite song, he replied that he would be happy to play any song he knew. As he said, “With so many beautiful melodies, I could play all day and never even scratch the surface.”

I certainly don’t claim to be nearly the wonderful person Sam was, but we did share a common love to play music anytime we could. I had my violin with me at his funeral because I was going afterwards to Northpointe to play for their 15th anniversary. So at the reception at the Battle Creek Country Club, I was able to play people’s requests. This wouldn’t be appropriate at most funeral receptions, but many people who loved Sam seemed grateful that I played in his memory. Some of them even said that Sam would have loved to play with me if he could have been there.

Funerals are of course sad occasions, but both of these were also extremely inspiring and memorable for us all.