Stradivarius

I’ve told several stories about my brother, Rick, and how he would use the fact that I am trusting to his advantage by telling me tall tales and having me believe them totally. Often, I would repeat his outlandish stories only to have the a few people hearing them assume that I was just lying. Since I’ve never been in the habit of lying, most people who knew us realized that my brother had told me a whopper.

What I haven’t yet told you is that my other brother, Gayland, has also duped me. He has had a love of music from an early age. Since my grandfather, Lemmie, was a fiddler, Gayland decided to take up fiddle playing, too. Grandmother Johnie gave him my grandfather’s fiddle so that he could learn to play. With perseverance and a few lessons, he became pretty good at fiddling. In fact, he used to go to the nursing homes regularly and entertain with some other musicians.

Once when I was at his house, he got out his fiddle and let me inspect it. In case you haven’t ever looked one over, they are pretty neat. The wood is beautiful and their gentle curvature looks so graceful. He pointed out that inside the fiddle there was a label that said Stradivarius. I peeked inside and sure enough, there it was. I had heard of a Stradivarius violin before. They are extremely expensive, extremely rare, and extremely old. He let me believe that his was one of those “real” Stradivarius violins.

I realize now that I should have known right then and there that that story couldn’t be true. Our family never had any expensive or rare possessions, just old and sentimental ones.

Some time later, I was chatting in the teacher’s workroom with some of my colleagues about families’ prized possessions. Of course, I had to share my story about my brother’s Stradivarius violin with them. They looked at me like I had three heads and most likely thought, “What a liar, the loser!” Nevertheless, they were gracious and commented, “I certainly hope he takes good care of it.” To which I replied, “Oh yes, he keeps it in its case whenever he’s not playing it.”

It wasn’t until several months later when I stumbled upon a copy of a Sears & Roebuck catalog from 1909 that I realized what a gullible fool I had been. There for all to see was advertised a Stradivarius violin offered for $1.95. Of course, it was a reproduction, but nowhere was that indicated. I’m reasonably certain that Gayland’s Stradivarius is a Sears & Roebuck Stradivarius reproduction since there weren’t but 1200 violins made by Stradivari in the 1700’s.

I look back and wish that I had never mentioned his violin because the one person whom I most admired and to whom I related this story, is now deceased and I can’t go back and tell her that I was a goober and believed my brother’s tall tale. Rest assured that I’m more careful now about what I repeat just for that reason.

"A friend loveth at all times." Proverbs 17:17