A FATHER’S DAY REFLECTION

Occasionally Anita and I drive to the Tremont area to eat lunch at Sokolowski’s University Inn, a Polish restaurant that serves delicious food cafeteria style. We are never disappointed. Another reason we eat there is to listen to Tom Ballog, an accomplished pianist who entertains the lunch hour crowd at Sokolowski’s and plays some evenings at O’Malley’s Rockliffe restaurant on Wooster Road. A rather short stocky man, one would not identify him as a pianist. But when he sits down at the piano and plays, one wonders why he is not famous nationally. He is a real master of the keyboard. We have two of his CD’s which we often play when we are relaxing in the evening.

We always make it a point to chat with Tom before we leave the restaurant. He told us that one day during the Depression he wanted to skip a piano lesson. His mother thought that would be all right because they were a little short on cash that month and they could use the lesson’s cost of $4.75 for food.

But his father insisted that Tom not skip his lesson. He said, “You take your lesson. I’ll walk to work this week.”

His father’s willingness to make that sacrifice fanned Tom’s desire to become an excellent pianist. He told us that years later he entered a contest for pianists, who would play as many songs as they could from memory. Tom won. He played over 1700 pieces without a sheet of music before him.

Thanks to the sacrifices of his parents Tom has made a living as an outstanding professional musician.

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