My Home Town-Millinocket-Music

As indicated in a previous blog, there was always music in our house. My Dad, Lewis Cyr, played a mean fiddle and played with a group of friends at parties, halls, weddings, etc.  My mother played the piano. Many at Friday night, whether at home or at camp, after supper would come a knock on the door and in would come a friend of the family carrying a guitar, mandolin, accordion, or some kind of instrument.  Some times the wives and children came also.   Dad would break out the fiddle, Mom would ditch the dishpan for the piano, and let the music begin.  They would occasionally stop for a breather and a little glass of the clearest home brew that was ever made.  (I know I used to help put the caps on the bottles)
We kids used to dance around either in the living room or on the screened in porch.  If  not to many of us we would climb up the ladder to the loft and we could peer down on the festivities without being under foot.  This was such a ritual that it seemed that these people were just an extension of our family.  Some played music and some just came for the entertainment, which there was plenty of.  Maurice and Gladys Levesque, his younger brother Petite (John) and Doris Levesque, Gordon Olin, Victor Cyr, Eddie Sensic, Ethel and Orman Shedd, Tilly and Dave Pelkey, Frances and Tiny Batchelder,  just to name a few.  Sometimes these evenings would promote a late night spaghetti feed, which was certainly better than a Great Northern Snack (bologna sandwich), a local joke.  A great time was had by all and the music was absolutely wonderful.  My whole family is musically inclined, some sisters play the piano, the ukulele, the accordion, one brother played the fiddle the other played the drums, however, I missed out on that talent.  I can't even play the spoons in the key of T.  But that doesn't stop my love of music, as it is in the soul.  You didn't have much by way of money, but you sure knew how to have fun back in those days!!!  Guess we should learn something from this, but will we?  We always want more than what we had but is that necessarily better?  I think not!  We were rich in another sense, we had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and plenty of love, what more could anyone ask for?