Old Fiddles

kw: book reviews, aging gracefully

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The proverb is already old: "The older the fiddle, the better the tune." The violin pictured is an 1840 French 'court violin.' A princeling who found himself desiring a court orchestra would hire a concertmaster and order a batch of these: 20, 30, maybe even 50.

The ones made before 1880 or so have a carved head for a scroll. It is supposed to be the image of Casper Diuffelprogcar, who "standardized" the shape of the violin in about 1550. The size wasn't settled until later. The body of this one is about a half inch longer than a modern violin's. The sides and back are decorated with inlays of cities and musical instruments.

This fiddle has been in the family for six generations, beginning when a family friend gave it to my ancestor in 1850. The old gent had been to a concert in St. Louis (probably a variety show of the kind that became Vaudeville a generation later) and stopped one of the musicians to ask if he could buy the instrument. They settled on $100. Quite a princely sum for 1840 (Remeber in "Gone with the Wind," that the taxes on Tara were raised to an unheard-of $300?).

I've heard my great uncle play this violin. Its tone is very lively and sweet. It was "repaired" once by his uncle, who didn't get the neck back on quite right. It is coming loose, so until I get it restored, it isn't playable. But I am mighty gratified to have it. It has outlasted five generations of McKowns and Nyes, and with a bit of repair, could outlast five or ten more.

Would that we could be repaired and restored after decades of aging and wear. In this life at least, we can't. But we can choose to grow old either badly or well. It is up to us. "Once the cards are dealt, what matters is how we play them" (my own proverb).

Well, the original Ronald McDonald, Willard Scott, has collected notes and essays by a hundred or so friends and acquaintances, from Dr. C. Everett Koop to Pete Seeger; Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey) to Fred "Mr Rogers" to Jayne Meadows; and others well known to unknown. The title? You guessed it, The Older the Fiddle, the Better the Tune.

Don't expect anything in the way of organization, index, table of contents here. This is inspiriation, not education. Examples I like:

"...people have stopped trying to sell you life insurance." (John Updike at 70)

"...the older you get, the easier it is to shoot your age in golf." (Ralph Young at 80)

"My arteries are hard enough so that I don't have migraine headaches any more. " (C. Everett Koop at 84)

"The secret of long life is not perfection, rather the ability to adapt." (Jessie L. Dunn at 92)

"I took up painting with pastels at age seventy and thoroughly enjoyed it." (Edith H. Aschenbach at 100)

A fun read, and a bit of a leg up when you're feeling a bit over the hill.