[Harp-L] Harmonica Article

[Rooty Baegga <rootybaegga@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1306&dept_id=187819&newsid=14354986&PAG=461&rfi=9

04/15/2005

Musical skills just one key to Boro woman's positive outlook
By: M. English

At 79, Minnie McEvoy attributes her positive outlook to "the babies" she 
tends at Conshohocken's Little Munchkins Learning Center, her smooth 
complexion to L'Oreal's Wrinkle Defense cream and her harmonica skills to 
seven decades of practice.

The Conshohocken woman bought her first harmonica when she was an 
8-year-old growing up near Norristown's Airy and Walnut streets in the 
mid-1930s. These days, she mostly plays for her own amusement. But she also 
relishes her role as a performer with Music Makers, a senior chorus based 
at Conshohocken's Marshall Lee Towers.

"It's a shame more people don't know about us," said McEvoy, who joined the 
group shortly after she'd moved to the Towers from her longtime home on the 
borough's West 10th Avenue last May. "We're not professionals, but the 
people who do come out to hear us tell us we put on a good show."

McEvoy managed that and then some for one recent visitor, mouthing and 
swaying her way through a whole roster of folksy favorites like "Home on 
the Range," "Good Night, Irene" and "Amazing Grace."

Good?

Absolutely.

"Oh ... I think I'm really just OK," she protested. "I just love doing it. 
And I've been playing for so long, I guess you're bound to pick up a few 
things along the way.

"How did I get started? Well, my brother used to send me to get his cigars 
at the corner store. He'd give me a dime for going and I usually used it to 
buy candy. But one day, I spotted this harmonica up on a shelf, and I 
decided I had to have it. I loved the sound from hearing people play on the 
radio, and it was like my dream."

McEvoy began hoarding dimes. Then - "much to my surprise" - she discovered 
the shiny little GLH Hohner International with the fancy plastic case cost 
an affordable 10 cents. "Plus 2 cents tax," she said.

"I was so thrilled," she said. "I was the youngest of eight children and we 
didn't have a whole lot. It was the Depression. And it was rough being the 
youngest, especially when my mom got sick with cancer. She died when I was 
11, and then my old Italian grandmother took care of me. She did her best, 
God bless her. She was a good lady."

McEvoy owns four harmonicas. But her original is "still in great shape, 
except for one little nick" and she treasures it now as much as she did 
during her childhood:

"I played by ear, I guess you'd say. Now, I have some books that show you 
where the different notes are, but I mainly play by ear. I learned a lot by 
listening to the radio, too. It was just fun.

"What else did I do for fun? Oh, I don't know. I remember I loved eating 
bananas as a kid. I'd eat three a day if I could get away with it. We all 
played outside a lot, too. I grew up two blocks from Tommy Lasorda - you 
know, the baseball guy. He's a big deal now, but you should have seen him 
back then. He was a real devil."

McEvoy smiles at another childhood memory - her winning vocal rendition of 
"The Woodpecker's Song" during a talent show at Norristown's old Garrick 
Theatre.

"I read about it in the paper and I walked up there from Walnut Street - 
all the way to West Main and Marshall [streets] all by myself - to try 
out," she said. "I was just a little thing. Fourteen-years old and, maybe, 
90 pounds.

"My mother was dead so I didn't have anybody to tell me how to dress or 
act. But I rigged up a nice dress and wore my saddle shoes. I went to the 
try-outs on Friday and then I went back for the show that Saturday. I was 
pretty nervous because they booed the daylights out of an 18-year-old who 
went before me. I guess I did OK, though, because everybody clapped, and I 
won $5. The next day I went to Chatlin's department store and bought a new 
dress and a pair of shoes. I even got change back.

"That was a big deal for me. I had a part-time job, pairing socks at [a 
woolen mill] on East Main Street for 25 cents an hour while I was in junior 
high, but money was always tight."

McEvoy also found plenty to keep her busy at Rittenhouse Junior High and 
Norristown High schools:
"I played volleyball and ran track and sang in the choirs and glee clubs. I 
was in shows, too. I loved being part of stuff. I guess I liked the attention."

Following her 1944 high school graduation, the local woman worked as a 
sales clerk at Chatlin's and, later, an inspector at Miquon's Hamilton 
Paper Co. After marrying her late husband, James, in 1951, she stayed home 
to care for their three children. She took a job with Montgomery Hospital's 
housekeeping department in the early 1980s and retired in 1997. A year 
later, she joined the Little Munchkins staff.

"I take the bus back and forth and, if it's nice, I get off up the street 
and walk the extra blocks for exercise," said McEvoy, who also has six 
grandchildren. "I'll be there seven years in May and I just love it. Those 
babies are the apple of my eye. You just pick them up, give them a little 
hug, a little song, and they're happy. They're so cuddly and cute, and they 
make you feel so great. I love them. Oh, my goodness. I think about them 
when I'm not there and I don't ever want to leave.

"I never take off. Four years ago, I even had a cardiac catheterization 
done on Friday and went back to school without missing any time. That's how 
much I love it. I always look forward to seeing the kids."

At the moment, McEvoy is also looking forward to her 61st high school class 
reunion, perfecting a harmonica version of her alma mater's signature song, 
"Blue and White," and hoping she has an opportunity to share it with fellow 
alums at their April 9 get-together at Westover Country Club.

"I don't want to be pushy or anything, but I really would enjoy that," she 
said.

Music Makers' next public concert is loosely scheduled for "mid-May." In 
the meantime, members will meet for an informal group luncheon in Marshall 
Lee Towers' community room, Third Avenue and Fayette Street, this Saturday 
at 11 a.m. Seniors interested in performing with the group are welcome to 
join them. Male singers are particularly needed.

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Rooty Baegga

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