This image began with a snapshot that I found yesterday as I was looking for a photo to post for their anniversary; they were married April 4, 1943. I usually post 1940s era photos of them taken during their courtship or early marriage. But this is a Polaroid snapshot that I took of them playing the piano in 1971, in the house where I grew up. My husband Mel was away at basic training for the National Guard (he had lost the draft lottery), and I was staying with my parents with my baby girl. I was about 22 and my parents were in their 50s. The photo that I found was damaged, scratched, and deteriorating as Polaroid snapshots typically are. But I love the image of them playing the piano, something I often saw and heard during my childhood. So I scanned the photo into my computer and did some cropping and retouching in iPhoto. Then I used Painter to simplify the background (with cut-and-paste and digital pastel) and used some overlays to add color. As I worked, I thought about how often my parents played piano together when I was growing up. My father was a very talented musician who played piano by ear, as if by magic as it seemed to me as a child. My mother also played the piano and had many books of sheet music which I still own, and the music was and is much too difficult for me to play, even after years of piano lessons. I thought about how they met. My father was from Brooklyn but was stationed in Pueblo, Colorado, for training before he was sent overseas during WWIi. My mother was in the USO and she and my Aunt Edy often went to the USO dances at the Army Base, and they each met their husbands that way. My mother and my aunt would sometimes bring soldiers home for a family meal with my grandparents. I bet that for my dad, the piano in my mother‘s house was a big attraction. I can imagine that they played the piano together right from the beginning. Maybe those duets contributed to their romance. It’s great to remember that they continued to play piano duets throughout their marriage, so I think this is a good photo to post to celebrate their anniversary.
