Galloway didn’t want his passenger to leave on a bad note.
“How many young ones, then?”
Eugene hesitated a bit. He was staring at a beautiful Christmas tree atop the roof of an emporium. The lights were all out. Still, it was a grand tree: a fir with all the trimmings.
“Eight. At the last count,” Quindlen answered. “Who knows, it might be an entire ball team before we’re through.”
Galloway laughed. “Well that’s a good start anyway. Connie Mack would be that proud of you. Listen lad, if you have the music as you say, why aren’t you playing at one of the grand Christmas parties the protestants have in their plush mansions on the west side?”
Eugene got off his seat and cradled the hand rail of the trolley. He hadn’t gotten up this early to have a conversation, however edifying, with a transit operator or conductor or motorman or whatever they called themselves.
“I can’t read the music,” he said slowly. “I never could. I picked up playing the piano by ear and took to it like a babe to his mother’s breast. It was just something I could do. And I do it very well. But, I can’t play Chopin. If the maestro puts a sheet of notes under my eyes it’s like looking up at an airplane. I know it’s there, but I have no idea how it got there, you see?”
“I can’t read the music,” he said slowly. “I never could. I picked up playing the piano by ear and took to it like a babe to his mother’s breast. It was just something I could do. And I do it very well. But, I can’t play Chopin. If the maestro puts a sheet of notes under my eyes it’s like looking up at an airplane. I know it’s there, but I have no idea how it got there, you see?”
Galloway pressed his lips in agreement and because he was out of ideas. “But, how in Christ’s name have you made it this far supportin’ a wife and eight kids?”
Quindlen shrugged his slight shoulders. “Oh, I found lots of work during the prohibition. At speakeasies and cheap vaudeville shows where you didn’t have to be a real professional; I even tried my hand at the motion picture shows playing the organ before the talkies came out. But, now the law has changed everything. Booze is legal and all the gin joints are becoming respectable.”
REGINA | 85