{"id":345,"date":"2012-07-31T09:27:50","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T16:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/blog\/?p=345"},"modified":"2012-07-31T09:27:50","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T16:27:50","slug":"visiting-the-other-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/visiting-the-other-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting The Other House"},"content":{"rendered":"
This post is part 4 of 11 in the series, \u201cMarvelous Midwest,<\/span><\/a>\u201d about discovering my extended family in Indiana and \u201cukeing\u201d it up in Missouri.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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Lexi and me rehearsing for our “Carnegie Hall” Debut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Somewhere in a lush, woody area of Indianapolis is \u201cthe other house,\u201d shared by Patricia, the matriarch of the Tretick clan, her daughter Blythe and grandson Lexi. Day two of our Midwest visit, the whole family converges at the compact dining room table, digging into burgers, steamy-hot off the grill, and homemade delicious bean salad, Patricia\u2019s specialty. We eat, talk music and family, with a kind of gusto that moves the air in the room. It\u2019s so delicious, the gestalt of it all and a perfect coda to another wonderful day with our \u201cat-last-we-found-each-other\u201d family.<\/p>\n

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Now THIS is the way to play Mozart!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Craig and I arrive earlier and are quickly offered front row concert seats\u2026in the living room. Lexi plops down at the Steinway and plays some finger-twisting classical music as his mother Blythe shouts prompts and suggestions from the kitchen and Patricia sits quietly beside us, eyes closed as if she is swept into a secret garden of music.<\/p>\n

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I later learn something spectacular about my great uncle Sidney, the violin virtuoso and Lexi\u2019s grandpa. He was a showman with a robust sense of humor. (And \u201cbeautiful hands,\u201d according to his wife). I didn\u2019t know he played the piano too.<\/p>\n

Backwards\u2026<\/p>\n

The \u201cJerry Lee Lewis\u201d of classical music? So Lexi and I attempt to replicate this amazing stunt. Believe me, it looks better than it sounds and is, in my humble opinion, a deliriously naughty thing to do on a piano as sacrosanct as a Steinway Concert Grand.<\/p>\n

The whole episode sends me reeling back to my piano bar days when I performed a trick of my own. I played the song \u201cChopsticks\u201d with my feet. Don\u2019t roll your eyes please. I am very proud of this accomplishment. I\u2019d remove my shoes, of course, lean back in the chair, hoist my toes onto the keyboard and hit just enough right notes for the average drunk person to recognize this iconic tune. I had the good sense NOT do this trick in a dress. It\u2019s about the music, not a view of the front porch\u2026 So I tell the inebriated who have moved in for a closer look.<\/p>\n

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Cousin Blythe filling the house with music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My cousin Blythe is a force of nature. She played the cello in the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra for umpteen years and this afternoon, she hauls out her two instruments and plays for us. I have never been this close to a real cello and the sound of Blythe\u2019s bow across those big fat strings, oh my, it shakes the table, the chairs and my bones. This is a woman who not only makes sublime music but can fix anything on an instrument, just like her father Sidney could do.<\/p>\n

And she is the self-appointed family historian too, taking it upon herself to piece together the who, the why, the what,<\/em> the mystery of \u201cthe estrangement\u201d that severed our family in half, like lightning splits a tree. \u00a0Blythe has found documents, clippings, letters. We look at the pictures I have retrieved from my mother\u2019s dusty black trunk in the garage and try, like hell, to connect some dots. But we will never know. And this \u201cnot-knowing\u201d feels like a dull ache that doesn\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

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Craig, Cali, Lexi, Noelle, Anthony, Dan, Blythe, Patricia & Dan’s mother, Mary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All this reminiscing works up an appetite so Blythe and I dash to Whole Foods to snag hamburgers and buns for dinner. But soon I go this-a-way<\/em>, she goes that-a-way<\/em> and I can\u2019t find my cousin. I retrace my steps, slink up and down each aisle, hang out by the registers. No Blythe. I don\u2019t have her cell phone number either so I call my husband so he can call the family so they can call Blythe and tell her to find Cali\u2026 Finally there she is thundering past the fresh fruit and veggies and I\u2019m ready to latch onto her arm like a bulldog so we don\u2019t get lost again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That\u2019s how I feel about this family. I\u2019m holding on\u2026<\/p>\n

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This post is part 4 of 11 in the series, \u201cMarvelous Midwest,\u201d about discovering my extended family in Indiana and \u201cukeing\u201d it up in Missouri.\u00a0 Somewhere in a lush, woody area of Indianapolis is \u201cthe other house,\u201d shared by Patricia, the matriarch of the Tretick clan, her daughter Blythe and grandson Lexi. Day two of our Midwest visit, the whole family converges at the compact dining room table, digging into burgers, steamy-hot off the grill, and homemade delicious bean salad, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogentry","category-midwest"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"},{"value":37,"label":"midwest"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":4,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":138,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":138,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0},{"term_id":37,"name":"midwest","slug":"midwest","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":37,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":37,"category_count":11,"category_description":"","cat_name":"midwest","category_nicename":"midwest","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}