Last Days

I was puttering around my kitchen in East Syracuse, N.Y., the other morning, without the slightest hint that the sky was going to fall. The announcer on the local public radio station began talking about KFAC, AM and FM.

I grew up in Los Angeles, and I also grew up listening to the programs on KFAC. My mom kept the radio dial glued to KFAC, partly because she enjoyed the music, and partly, I suspect, to instill a little culture in me . . . well, it worked. I grew to love the music I heard on that wonderful station.

Good grief--does everything in this country have to be propelled by dollars? Classical music has a small audience in the United States because it takes a little education, a little time, and a little patience to develop a familiarity with the work of the great masters. The flip side of that coin, and sadly the one that many people never experience, is that once you let classical music into your life, you will enter into a love affair with Beauty; an affair that will last a lifetime, because classical music embodies qualities of symmetry, grace, and lyricism that no other musical form can hope to match. Now, a great source for the perpetuation of that treasured Beauty is gone.

GLORIA TIDWELL

East Syracuse, N.Y.