When I was in high school, my dad put together 
the components of a stereo and we put it in 
what had been my room but I moved into my 

sister’s larger bedroom after she married.
It would be the listening den. He also bought 
boxes of Readers’ Digest 78 rpm records of 

classical music with short biographies (with 
photos or drawings) of the composers. After 
school I would listen and listen and read 

and read about the composers until I was 
pretty good at identifying the pieces of 
music. It served me very well in my college

music appreciation class. Years and years 
and years went by and I always loved listen-
ing to classical music and now as I listen 

to 90.3, the regional classical music station, 
a familiar piece of music will start and I 
will say, “Oh, come on. What the hell is that?”