While I was in Texas, one of my traditions is to sit with Grandpa and play guitar with him. Many, many years ago, we swapped guitars. I think my brother got Grandpa’s, and Grandpa got my little tiny one that I think my Dad got for me in Mexico. It fit his hands better than the larger guitar he once had, and he still favors it over the conventional size guitars we sometimes bring over to his house.

Since then, my 97 year old Grandpa has played the snot out of that little guitar. He keeps it by the couch in the living room, and he picks it up often. He told me last week that he often plays along with the guitar Mass broadcast on one of the local radio stations. Now that Aaron is playing, he picks up that guitar when we visit and toodles around on it. Aaron noticed how worn out that little guitar is. You can pretty much tell which chords are played the most, because the neck is literally dented a few millimeters where Grandpa’s fingers have flown. You guitarists out there will know that the frets themselves are only 1-2mm tall to begin with, so dents that deep pretty much double the string deflection. You can actually ‘see’ popular chords like D7, G, E, A and so on. Even the back of the neck is pretty worn, where his palm slides. Near the bridge, the strings are a little thin, too.

Last week, we were trying to figure out(me) or remember(Grandpa) how to play Sabor A Mi, which we finally did. But while we were fooling around, Grandpa tried playing one of the Mariachi runs on the frets, a kind of scale that moves quickly between chords of the song. But he stumbled a bit on the run, then took his hand and shook it and flexed it a bit. “Arthritis, Grandpa?” I asked.

“No,” he laughed out loud, “I’m just OLD!”

PS: The title of this entry is a line is from a Disney movie. Can you name it?