I, too, knew Miss Hastings. I confess I was shocked to hear my mother refer to her as Mildew. I never took piano lessons from her. My interaction with her was at the New Ipswich Market where I worked. in the early 70's. There were three old ladies in town that kept tabs on each other. One was Miss Hastings, another was Mrs. Emma and another was Mr. Kaarto's aunt. I think her name was Helvi (maybe Russell, memory isn't what it used to be.) They would come in the store and ask me if I had seen the other two recently. At first I found this amusing because Mrs .Emma and Miss Hastings lived side by side. Later , I found it very endearing that the three of them always looked out for each other.
Miss Hastings, or Mildew, as we nicknamed her, as she always seemed to be very old, was my first piano teacher. A group of pupils would go over to her house from Central School for lessons, and we were so entertained by her eccentricities, such as the way she played the piano, swaying back and forth and singing at the top of her voice, the chaotic and cluttered housekeeping, the stairs leading up to a mysterious second floor, the tins of TVP, I which is think is textured vegetable protein, an early vegan food (she was a pioneer in that respect), her emphasis on stretching exercises, and fresh air, probably 1930’s calisthenics, especially when she subbed at Appleton, which was also visionary, I suppose. My mother was always willing to talk about Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs with her on a Saturday. And of course, her famous bathing costume which she wore to the town pool where she would sit in the shallow section and make waves about her in the water! Unfortunately we have such a conformist society today that true eccentrics probably no longer exist. She also liked to talk about the Millerite (?) belief in the end of the world, sometime in the 19th century, when her parents dug up all their potatoes and went up onto a local mountain to await the end of the world. Sadly, they were very hungry the following winter. I think she might have been educated at Radcliffe College, in French and Latin. Hence the subbing at Appleton. Oh, and we also loved the end of our group piano lessons when she would give us instruments such as tambourines, those wooden sticks and castanets to make “music” as she played the piano. She was a unique and, in many ways, a farsighted individual. But she could only introduce us to music. After one year of this eccentric mayhem, my parents sent us to a “proper” piano teacher.
I, too, knew Miss Hastings. I confess I was shocked to hear my mother refer to her as Mildew. I never took piano lessons from her. My interaction with her was at the New Ipswich Market where I worked. in the early 70's. There were three old ladies in town that kept tabs on each other. One was Miss Hastings, another was Mrs. Emma and another was Mr. Kaarto's aunt. I think her name was Helvi (maybe Russell, memory isn't what it used to be.) They would come in the store and ask me if I had seen the other two recently. At first I found this amusing because Mrs .Emma and Miss Hastings lived side by side. Later , I found it very endearing that the three of them always looked out for each other.
Miss Hastings, or Mildew, as we nicknamed her, as she always seemed to be very old, was my first piano teacher. A group of pupils would go over to her house from Central School for lessons, and we were so entertained by her eccentricities, such as the way she played the piano, swaying back and forth and singing at the top of her voice, the chaotic and cluttered housekeeping, the stairs leading up to a mysterious second floor, the tins of TVP, I which is think is textured vegetable protein, an early vegan food (she was a pioneer in that respect), her emphasis on stretching exercises, and fresh air, probably 1930’s calisthenics, especially when she subbed at Appleton, which was also visionary, I suppose. My mother was always willing to talk about Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs with her on a Saturday. And of course, her famous bathing costume which she wore to the town pool where she would sit in the shallow section and make waves about her in the water! Unfortunately we have such a conformist society today that true eccentrics probably no longer exist. She also liked to talk about the Millerite (?) belief in the end of the world, sometime in the 19th century, when her parents dug up all their potatoes and went up onto a local mountain to await the end of the world. Sadly, they were very hungry the following winter. I think she might have been educated at Radcliffe College, in French and Latin. Hence the subbing at Appleton. Oh, and we also loved the end of our group piano lessons when she would give us instruments such as tambourines, those wooden sticks and castanets to make “music” as she played the piano. She was a unique and, in many ways, a farsighted individual. But she could only introduce us to music. After one year of this eccentric mayhem, my parents sent us to a “proper” piano teacher.
Thanks for sharing this. She reminds me a bit about my two unmarried Aunts. Wish I had met her.