My grandmother was organist at church, and also taught organ. I’ve heard say she taught at Boston Conservatory now and then – I guess maybe she did before she was married. And of course my grandfather toured through the south playing banjo and singin’. It was minstrel and the like he put on all over the place and he had a singing school up here in Hampton, too. He was in charge of the choir in the church and I’ve heard tell church couldn’t start because there’d be gram and grampa and nine kids and they were just about the choir and the organist and everything else! They’d come up Hammond Hill with the surreys about two minutes before time to go… They played minstrel shows. Apparently my grandfather and two girls and two boys, two four five of ‘em, They would go on occasion and be called into a show and do it. Some of the girls played mandolins and Millie, she played violin. Of course she played in — guess you’d call it vaudeville today but it was in the theater. She never made her living as a concert violinist but that was her work. Uncle Jim was a singer and when he grew up he sang in the opera – that was his profession. …We used to have hymn sings down here every Sunday night. In those days there was the Christian Endeavor which was basically sixty percent gospel singing. And then I can remember about once a month the crowd would come in and we’d just sing. And all you’d do – the old Victory songbook. I guess those are long out of print – we’ve still got ‘em…We used to sing here every night, just the family. Every night. We went in the front room there after supper and we sang. You couldn’t go to bed till you’d had some singing. My mother played the piano and she sang soprano and my father bass and then my brother and I swapped tenor and alto after we learned.

George Fuller from “Hampton Remembers”