Ring of Fire
I think I've mentioned before that there are a couple of kids that live next door to my parents out here in the country. They're always hanging around over here - I guess it's more exciting than their own house, and there aren't any other kids their age nearby.
A month or two ago the eleven-year old girl shyly asked Mark for a guitar lesson. He complied, and the kid seems to actually have some natural aptitude for it. Through the wonders of the internet Mark tracked down a free guitar in "the city" and gave it to her. (For those of you who are not from Nova Scotia, "the city" means Halifax, no matter where you are in the province. People often say they are going to "the city", or their friend lives in "the city". Everyone knows what city they're talking about. After all, we've only got the one.)
Anyway, so he gave her this free guitar from the city. At first she didn't believe him, and then she was very quiet for a while and sat across the room from the guitar, staring at it. Soon it was time for her to go home, and she looked at my mom and very hesitantly asked her if she was allowed to take that guitar to her house. It was so cute!
Anyway she's been practicing hard, and she had another lesson with Mark the other day. She wanted to learn another easy song - Mark's already taught her the chords for "Louie Louie" and "horse with no name". She had never heard either song before, but she likes them. She claimed her parents didn't know those songs either, which kind of scares me.
They were at an impasse during the lesson, though. Mark tried to teach her "smoke on the water" but she thought it was a stupid song. She wants to learn a Hannah Montana song, but they're too hard. (And also stupid manufactured pop.) Mark kept suggesting songs but she didn't know any of them, and he wanted to teach her something she was familiar with so she would enjoy learning it. Between the two of them, they finally figured out that they had to go down a dangerous road: COUNTRY MUSIC.
We are not country music people.
Mark made the sacrifice and agreed to find an easy country song for her to learn. Suddenly, the wonder that is Johnny Cash saved the day! I forgot that even country music has a narrow window of cool. It was pretty cute to see Mark sitting there jamming on guitars with an eleven year old girl.
... and it burns, burns, burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire!
2 comments:
lol, that's awesome.... good for her for practicing. A guitar is a pretty hefty gift when you're 11. I hope she keeps at it.
What *do* kids do out there? Sounds pretty limited in terms of interesting and productive activities.
Hi Angela!
How's the new digs? These kids help their parents at their jobs (mother cleans houses, dad works with metal at a scrap yard), sometimes the little boy finds other little boys to bike around with. They basically either amuse themselves in their house or yard or else they help adults. That's it.
Right now I'm watching them as they sit on my parents' living room floor and play with lego. They're country kids and very sheltered, but they're actually pretty good people I think.
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