I was 4 1/2, and had a "big cousin" that I just adored, 10 years older than me. He played piano, and even at 15 was a huge Scott Joplin and ragtime fan. He played amazing stride piano.

So this was April of 1956. He was in his practice room playing their old upright piano. My goal at that time in life was to be wherever my big cousin John was. He was playing, I was watching. Then he finished and went upstairs to his room. I then moved over to the piano and did what I saw him do. Then, from the kitchen, I heard my mother say "Didn't John go upstairs? Who is playing?" And my aunt, who WAS Betty White with her sense of humor, said "Well, there's only 4 of us here. it has to be your son." Then I heard footsteps clomping down the steps and John came down and all 3 of them came to that little room in the front of the house and stuck their head around the corner. John came in and asked me "How did you learn to do that?" and I said, with the brutal honesty of someone not yet 5 years old, "Watching you." And he said to my mother "Get this kid into music lessons. Right now." That was 62 years ago, and I still remember that the song was "Hard-Hearted Hannah, The Vamp of Savannah".

I started lessons the next week. The teacher sat me at a piano that was a mockup and did not play. It was just a keyboard with no harp in it. Above it was a blackboard with a scale on it. I sat at the mockup piano for 6 weeks while I learned enough theory to understand what key was the dot on the 2nd space, what it meant if it was solid, solid with a flag on it, hollow with a flag, hollow without a flag, what the dots behind the notes meant.... then he let me play. However, given my age, I couldn't reach a fifth on the keyboard with my little hands, so I started on this.



And yes, I obviously still have it, 62 years later. And I will never let it go.

When I got a little bigger I moved to a piano, but by age 11 The Beatles were the rage and I had to play guitar.

That cousin died 10 years ago from pancreatic cancer. And because I am such a hermit, nobody knew how to reach me to tell me. I didn't know until about 3 years ago when I stumbled onto the Facebook page of his youngest son and saw a post about a "memorial" golf tournament in his dad's honor.

So here's to you, big cousin John. I owe you big time!! And now I am going to turn my chair around to the keyboard and play Hard-Hearted Hannah, through a few respectful tears.