My great-grandmother singing in 1967

[electra225]

I've been digging thru all the R2R tapes I have accumulated over the years. I found a tape I had made on or about Christmas 1967. I recorded it on a Voice of Music model 730 monaural tape recorder. My grandparents had taken a vacation to Florida a month or so before this tape was made. This occasion was a surprise family gathering to honor my great-grandma's 100th birthday, in January 1968. She was severely sight impaired and was hard of hearing. Grandpa got her to talking about just general things so we could get her on tape to preserve the occasion. We taped her, played it back, then got her comments about what she had experienced. She thought that was so amazing, she started singing a church hymn. Never was much of a singer, and being 100 didn't improve her voice much. But there I was, listening to a lady who would be well over 150 now, singing, if a tad off-key. Grandpa was talking about his new Oldsmobile. I reckon I'll process this tape to digital. There is also a blurb about the little rug she made me. She talked about the colors in the rug, what they meant. Grandpa had sent her a bushel of grapefruit and a bushel of naval oranges, saying shipping was getting to be worth more than the fruit. It had cost him almost $5 to send the fruit from Florida to Indiana over the holiday season.......

[TC Chris]

At my paternal GM's 100th birthday, she was in a wheelchair and generally, we thought, out of it. Her vision was clouded and we had assumed lights dimmed, nobody home. But there was a big cake with lots of candles (probably not 100, but a firestorm anyway), and we all sang "Happy Birthday." Now this is the cool part. When we finished, Grandma began singing. She improvised a verse to "Happy Birthday" that included statements about how happy she was to be there among us. So lights on, somebody home. I think my sister has it on VHS tape. Again, no great vocal pyrotechnics, but singing at all at 100 years old is remarkable.

Chris Campbell