Lyfting Me Up

George Winston, a prolific pianist/composer died this past week. We were the same age. How our family became familiar with him is a story within a story.

It was 1987 and by a set of circumstances, we welcomed a foreign exchange student from Japan for the summer. This took some quick maneuvering as one of the requirements was, they were to have their own bedroom. Mateo, who possessed the only private room in the house, willingly offered up his space, perhaps to bring in some male reinforcement against three sisters.

Tatsonori Horiyama, from Japan, became a member of our household that summer. He went from being a shy boy to “Mr. T”. By the time he left us, our very chaotic summer ended. “T” had transformed from a shy 17 year old, to a fully engaged young man. We sent him home with an abundance of hugs and experiences.

In mid November a package came to the Post Office in Alamosa. I picked it up and it was both large and heavy. It was from Japan. That evening we opened the package that was full of gifts. The largest of which was a sight hardly ever seen in “The Valley”. It was a Sony CD player. I had only heard about this new technology. We had no CD, heck we did not even know where to buy them. There was also a letter in the package from Tatsonori’s father thanking us for our hospitality. I will never forget these words. “I sent you a boy… You sent me home a man”. He was probably giving us too much credit. Perhaps it was finding his place in the ‘group home’ called “Camp Run-Amok” aka “The PUMPHREYS”.

MK went shopping and found that the K-Mart had just added a small section of CD’s. She bought five of them. One of them was named “December” by George Winston. Every night from Thanksgiving to January, our house was filled with the songs of “December”. George’s lullabies gently put us into dreamland.

A couple of years later he came to Adams State College to perform for the community. I was spellbound by the gentle soul who performed in blue jeans and his socks. He came at least one more time while we were living there. We also experienced his grace once here in Denver. We have almost all of his albums.

I can still remember spending long summer days driving my four wheel drive GMC through the San Juans, while Winston’s song played to my heart. Now with streaming services, CD’s are going the way of cassettes and eight-tracks. I hear that vinyl is making a comeback. Too bad I gave away my classic collection.

Tonight I am going to take my little JBL portable speaker and its magic BlueTooth connection with my phone, and fall asleep as George Winston takes me on a trip through the last 36 years. What a gift his life was.

Onward and Upward

Mark