paradiso

Blackbird wanted me to write more, so I tried to think of an interesting way to oblige. I wanted to blog this song, but Anneke Gronloh has apparently requested embedding to be disabled. Back in 1966, when my mom had died, I went to the family Claassen every day after school, until my father would come home from work. The Claassen family was large, I believe there were four children. All much older than me. Mrs. Claassen and my mom had sung in the church choir together, that's how they were friends. Mr. Claassen was a retired organ and piano teacher who would rarely show himself, he hid in the attic, playing music. But when he did show himself, he could be quite entertaining. I remember him ranting about the TROS, a Dutch TV station, that had declined to send him the sheet music of one of their station call tunes. And about Anneke Gronloh, who had been one of his piano students, but according to him still owed him money. I don't think Mr. Claassen ever taught Armand. I embedded Armand because my brothers had named our orange tabby cat Armand. Which was a very subversive act on their part, my stepmother had no idea who Armand was, or what he stood for. It was a great cat, by the way. It used to jump off our balcony onto the curb, exactly on a pile of sand, that in my memory, was there for ever.