StoryCorps: An affair to remember

Vera Gonzalez didn’t have much growing up – but she did have a passion for the piano. She would sneak into her school’s music room to teach herself how to play. In this StoryCorps interview, Gonzalez speaks to her caretaker, Gladys Ng, about the beginning of her lifelong romance with music.

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VERA GONZALEZ:  It was the Depression real bad. And I said to my mother, "Mama, buy me a piano." She looked shocked, "A piano – we are barely making it and you want a piano." I said, "I like piano." But I didn't say anything else. I kept practicing and practicing.

“How Great Though Art,” that's her favorite so I learned it on the piano. She was in shock.

I said they have a piano in the second hand store for $50. You could buy that.

GLADYS NG: So you got your piano.

GONZALEZ: And my father right away, "Come on, sit and play."

He used to coach me in the Spanish music. I say, "I can't play that in the piano." He say, "Yes you can. Try it, try it." And I did.

My father used to make me get kind of nervous because we all played the piano all day long. He said, “Please, no more music in the name of god! Please stop all this noise!”

I enjoy it. My name is Vera Gonzalez and my birthday is the 30th of this month. I'll be 90.

Vera Gonzalez spoke to Gladys Ng at the San Francisco StoryCorps booth in the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Her interview was facilitated by Eloise Melzer, and edited by KALW’s Jon Atkinson. To learn more about how to participate in StoryCorps, visit their website.