I couldn't resist this great vintage pair of maracas on my weekly gander through Gee-Dub, my local Goodwill store. They were $2.99 each, and of course I had to get both. It would be like buying a salt shaker without the pepper. Mellow, with a lovely patina, they're made from gourds filled with seeds and in true maraca form, one of the shakers is pitched high, the other low. I remember seeing some just like these in my childhood, back in the Carmen Miranda/Ricky Ricardo days, when they were oh-so-popular. I think the reason for my attraction, is the fact that in grade school rhythm band, the colt-legged little me was always stuck with either the dull wood blocks or the dumb wood sticks. I longed for the coveted, exotic maraca. Or maybe it's my Native American DNA speaking? Yes, I think it must be.
LOVE the new header!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletetes it's the little carving into the dried gourd skin that captures my eyes! steven
ReplyDeleteThey're beautiful and irresistible. How can you look at these and not pick them up to give a shake. So much fun!
ReplyDeleteAll that, and edible hats.
ReplyDeleteRattles are always a good thing. Did you know that you give rattles to babies because it keeps away the kinds of spirits who might want to steal their souls?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the Cherokee in you that picked up the rattles - definitely!
Absolutely beautiful. Can you imagine them ended up in a thrift store. Guess we never know.
ReplyDeleteQMM
They were selling them separately? Of course you had to get them both. Very interesting. They'll add a little zing to your next party at the manor. Cool.
ReplyDeleteI played the tambourine once in a 'Give me that old time rock and roll' band at a student assembly. What is it about shaking and rattling?
ReplyDeleteOooh Willow, we need some of those for our next party at Necky Knoll House! And that lovely music - we've all just been dancing to it in our kitchen - giraffitude!
ReplyDeleteThat is a precious picture of you Tess. That age is very special and I swear there is something unique at that age, with those grins.
ReplyDeleteIt's the picture of little girls who have short hair because of their age. Before the very first time they grow it out.
Do you know the grin I am talking about?
How is it even possible for someone to talk (or sing) that fast!
ReplyDeleteIs that you as a child? Adorable. I like to think of all the beautiful music they have played over the years and the joy they have been involved in. How could you not be smiling when using them? We call it GeeDubb too!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine what these additions to the Manor will play in future festivities there. I can just see you punctuating a song or verse with a shake or two of these.
ReplyDeleteThe colors and the shape I love. You will have to somehow use them in your poetry reading! ...now, are you on the lookout for the hat? It reminds me of the crazy party hat in "Go, Dogs, Go". (can you tell I have a 3 year old? :)
ReplyDeleteDull wood sticks and dumb wood blocks ~ oh how these words made me smile! I would have traded you my flute for a chance to bang pieces of wood together ... NOW that's fun.
ReplyDeleteThese are certainly the most beautiful maracas I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteSpiffy header, very cleaver! :-)
Where there is a Cleaver there must be a June! ;-)
ReplyDeleteClever it is!
Sorry,
M.
Oh how I love visiting the Goodwill store....what a lovely find! Tess you must have a manor full of gems!! :-)
ReplyDeleteLovely find. I love them, too!
ReplyDeleteDear Willow, Shake, rattle and roll!!
ReplyDeleteGreat find, Miss Willow! I too was in First Grade Rhythm Band! It was the triangle for me! I wanted a drum!!
ReplyDeleteLove seeing Carmen & Co.
Awwwww--cute photo of you, Tess--I'd have recognized you immediately. Adorable--you haven't changed a bit. Those maracas are gorgeous! I remember my aunt brought us a beautiful pair from one of her travels and it wound up right in the china closet we had in our room with all the dolls in it from around the world. So we didn't get to play them very much. Love yours! I can see why you nabbed them.
ReplyDeleteOMG I've got to get that movie. is that Judy Garland? And groucho. plus Carmen. what a riot.
ReplyDeleteyou were a bright eyed, sweet child.
i just sent a vintage pair of castinettes i picked up somewhere to a friend.
gosh, listening to Carmen Miranda is a good as drinking a cup of coffee.
I just had a visual of you dancing around the manor with your maracas in hand, bare feet on the floor boards & just losing yourself in the rhythm of the music. Very therapeutic!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute little girl you were ..and yes, I believe that it must be in your DNA! Wonderful purchase Tess!!
Love the new header and I seriously do not find these sort of things at my Goodwill. Wish I did!
ReplyDeleteOK Carmen Kincaid -- I do expect a video of you with those maracas. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteWonderful and I wouldn't have been able to resist either.
ReplyDeleteThe maraca are very much part of Trinidad culture. Not just for Latin rhythm but also in Parang which I wrote about around the 1st January.
When the local music collective in central PA get together for their monthly house jams, someone or other ALWAYS brings maracas, tambourines, and drums. Me? I go for the maracas. And if I'd seen ones like those, they might have mysteriously disappeared. I have two gourds filled with beans... original maracas, perhaps? I love the feel and sound. Yeah. Our Good Will type stores never have something so precious, it seems. Wonderful. And you are SO right. How could anyone buy ONE of the pair? It would be sacrilegious, I think.
ReplyDeleteNow, if you'll excuse me, I must find some fruit for my head...
ReplyDeleteOh Tess, I was always stuck with the cowbell...
ReplyDeleteno more cowbell :)
There is some kind of wonderful involved with the sizzle of a shaker...and for me I made things right by purchasing a rainstick at a local garage sale
Ariba Chica!
ReplyDeleteMarjorie
Admiringly envious am I of that knack you have for acquiring these collections of 'old' things, and one-of-a-kinds and pieces of significance to your life, your history.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I ever bought older than myself is my violin. At age of 154 years, it barely made the cut (of being older than I--grin!)
Thank you Tess, for sharing a piece of yourself, your life, with us. That is part of what makes a blog worthwhile for me.
PEACE!
No one can say you don't have a great pair of maracas, Tess. Shake 'em if ya got 'em!
ReplyDeleteThe maracas are a great color. Have you been practicing with them, like shaking them as you dance around the kitchen making dinner? Something like the fun maracas can add some sizzle and zing to ordinary days. Even memories as you describe are brought to the forefront. The photo of you as a little girl is so cute. What a sweet little girl.
ReplyDeleteThey are so so gorgeous!!!
ReplyDeleteI remember wanting the triangle.
Cute...and so is Camen and the two maracas.
ReplyDeleteTo pick up the remark by grouchy...I love your header too but half expected it to be another of YOUR faces.
This is GREAT! Funny, I watched the video first and then read through the whole post and thought of Ricky Ricardo before I read that you mentioned him as well. Goodwill has some great finds. Rattle on!
ReplyDeletethey are lovely things, and i love how the design on the maracas echo the carved design on the table they're on. and that is a precious picture of you as a child. i scrolled down to compare the face to your adult face, i love to do that, but all the photos of your beautiful now self have been removed from your sidebar! well, you were a beauty then and you are a beauty now.
ReplyDeleteOkay, there is NOTHING about this post that I don't LOVE!
ReplyDeleteLove goodwill hunting, love maracas, love your memory of the rhythm band in school (I always wanted the coveted tambourine bedecked with ribbons), and love, love, LOVE that video!
Thanks for the great smile it left with me, Tess!
I would have bought those too. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love the new header pic.
Oh Yes! Maracas!
ReplyDeleteNow it's getting warm!
They're gorgeous! So glad they found you. Don't you have the pink tambourine? They will be perfect together!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous maracas, find a way to display them so that guests can also enjoy shaking them.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful...lovely perception of life you have!
ReplyDeleteLisa
You were a cute little bugger back in the day. I always got "sticks" to play in the school bands.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Native American - my DNA goes to Shawnee and Delaware both tribes lived in West Virginia or had villages there in counties that eventually made up WV. Interesting too, my mom was born in 1909 and the Census that year reveal there were only 36 known Native Americans in WV. The rest were of mixed races. My great- great grandmother was Native American and part of a horse trading deal with my Ballengee forefathers. The trade wasn't enough horses so the trader "threw in one squaw" my gg grandmother.
Hard to believe they were priced individually but at least you had the good sense to purchase both!
ReplyDeleteAbe, with all the talk of your famous presidential cousin, I didn't realize you have Native American roots, as well. It's hard to tell with just census information, since most Native Americans, especially women, including my great-great grandmother, tried very hard to hide their ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteA great find! I have a gourd rattle I'll have to do a post on -- they are quite seductive.
ReplyDeleteYouve set me thinking, I brought a Pair back from Poland when I was a kid (Yes! Slavic Maracas!) I wonder what happened to them?
ReplyDelete+Cool New Header,Lady!
i agree the header is amazing.
ReplyDeletexxx
and carmen miranda?
i once was here for halloween
xx
Oh Tess, you've just reminded me how much I've always wanted to find a tambourine languishing in the back shelves of our GW store. I reckon it may just help release the inner gyspy in me, which would rock my darling family to the core!!! Enjoy your maracas Willowochita.
ReplyDeleteMillie x
That's a good deal on some cool shakers. My Dad joined a drum group a couple of years ago; now his basement is full of djembe and xylophone, frog-thingy-clicker and those little Indian drums....as always, I forget the name, but Hari Pal (sp?) is the best I've heard at them.
ReplyDeleteMe, I'm sitting editing and cranking Sabbath. The beat flows through all!
later -
Peter G