High Fidelity
By: susan peterson stamis
Tags: beatles, Dad, hi-fi, Mom, o mio babbino caro, opera
Category: Uncategorized
Early on, I developed an appreciation for a wide range of music, from Alternative to Zydeco and pretty much everything in between. When Dad came home from work, music followed him through the door and he spent countless hours categorizing his numerous albums, recording his favorites on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. His tastes leaned to swing, easy listening and classical; and on early weekend mornings, he rousted us from sleep with dreaded opera.
When anyone asks me what my favorite band is, I unhesitatingly reply, “The Beatles” and I was 13 when their first single was released in America. I Want to Hold Your Hand played on the rock stations of the era and every teenaged girl clutched a transistor radio tightly to her chest in the hopes that the deejay would play that song.
One Saturday, Mom had shanghaied Dad and me for our weekly chores of waxing the linoleum floors and swabbing the dust from the slats of the hi-fi speakers. I Want to Hold Your Hand began to play on the radio! I cranked up the volume and hugged the hi-fi, but my dad, not realizing how deeply enamored I was of the shaggy new band and their new sound, began to mock the music while dancing around the room with the mop.
I begged him to stop (the song was only 2 minutes and 24 seconds long and who knew when it would come on again?) but he persisted until I blew my stack and told him to “shut up.” Well…Mom gasped, Dad almost keeled over, and I nearly swallowed my tongue.
I still love Beatles music, exclusive of many of the recordings they made as solo artists after the breakup, and the mere mention of Yoko Ono gives me a stomachache. In my 40’s I gained a new appreciation for opera when I randomly heard O Mio Babbino Caro on the car radio, and burst into tears remembering my own dear dad.
10 comments on “High Fidelity”
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About Me
My father was a Consular Officer in the United States Foreign Service. He was first stationed in post World War II Berlin, where I was born in 1950. Subsequently, we lived in the Philippines; Jamaica; Guatemala; Washington, DC; Greece; Ceylon and Mexico; visiting many places in between. I was reared by my parents and nurtured by the various amahs, nannies, and housemaids who, every two years or so, entered and exited my little life.
I was educated in American Schools in “foreign lands,” but the most fascinating classrooms were the exotic locales where we lived, and the most inspiring teachers were the colorful people of those exotic and ancient cultures.
The bi-annual “home leaves” which my family spent at my grandparents’ homes in Los Angeles, California provided a sense of constancy to our nomadic lifestyle. My many aunts, uncles and cousins lived there and I eagerly looked forward to those vacations. We were 1st and 2nd generation Greek Americans (all 4 of my grandparents had immigrated at the turn of the century), and thus had foreignness stamped onto us even though we were Americans.
Two of my father’s siblings were also in the diplomatic service, and we world-traveling cousins were a source of endless curiosity to our domestic counterparts when we came home speaking English with unusual accents, reducing the statesiders to hysterics.With his various cameras, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, 16 millimeter, Super 8 and Polaroid, my father rarely lost an opportunity to document the events unfolding around us. After years of waiting patiently in boxes under the stairs, these photographic records are now fulfilling their purpose as mnemonic retrievals of my little life.
Mnemonic Retrievals 
This is so cute!! I’m married to a Peterson boy who not only loves his music 🎶 but adores the Beatles (as do I!) Happy New Year❣️🥳
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Happy New Year to you, too! ❤️
I was so excited to see your new mnemonic retrieval! It did not disappoint! I felt right there in that room waxing that linoleum floor and listening to the Beatles with you and your father. What a memory! ❤️❤️❤️
Happy New Year! ❤️
What I would give to have that hi fi player!
You’d have to fight me for it.
Very sweet memories, Susan, thank you.
Wishing you a Happy & Healthy New Year,
Marta
Marta Fuchs, MLS, MFT Speaker, psychotherapist Author, Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute Co-producer, “The Soldier’s Uniform” http://www.MartaFuchs.com
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Happy New Year to you and Sophie, too!
My dad must have gotten your dad’s music memo—Saturdays were all opera!!
They got a lot of joy, getting us grumpy tweens out of bed on the weekends.