A Little Problem. (original) (raw)

Ada Hutton was born in 1897. When she was eight, her family moved to Dalhart where she lived for eighty-two years. She was 101 years old when we had our first interviews. Though her memory was fading and sometimes she was a little confused, her sense of humor was still very much intact. She enjoyed telling this story. We had a piano, and to start with, I played by ear, but later I got training. I played quite a bit. I taught myself to play the violin too, and I had a few lessons on the violin. I did very well on it, I guess. I still love music, but I've forgotten a lot. Every now and then though, I'll try to play a little - just for myself.

One time, there was this lady in town who really thought she was something because they had a lot of money. She asked me to play at her daughter's wedding that was going to be at her home. It was a real nice home, and all these fancy people came.

There was a little problem. I only knew the beginning of The Wedding March, and the end. I didn't know what in the world to do. I knew a tune from the opera _Aida_and I thought I could play a little of that and finish up with what I knew of The Wedding March. So, in between I played that. That lady didn't even know the difference.

When I began to play that part that wasn't The Wedding March, I remembered that the preacher was from out of town, and I thought, 'Oh, my!' I was sure he had heard it played the right way and, sure enough, his eyebrows went up and he looked so funny, and I'll bet the way some of the others cleared their throats, they knew the difference too. Nobody knew how sick at my stomach I was though. And, you know, nobody ever said a thing to me about that, but I've never forgotten a thing about that wedding.