by artist Helen Thomas
This first entry is basically a history of facts as they have been related to me over the years... the following pages will relate
to events pertaining to my lifetime as I recall them . All this information may or may not be of interest to the visitors who come
to this site specifically for blues related items. What I 'm writing here is for a certain segment of folks with whom I have a
connection, or personal relationship ...but everyone is welcome to spend a few moments and follow along.
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entry#1
My Parents...(and thiers)
I'm starting way back to a time when a large percentage of citizens in this country were first generation Americans, my paternal grandfather, John Thomas Richardson was such a person. When he met the woman who would become my paternal grandmother (Phoebe Bedford), John Thomas was already an old man with several grown children from the previous marriage.
John Thomas lived in a fine home situated on the three hundred and sixty acres which he owned in Butler County in South east Misouri. Most of this land was timbered and very little of it was much good for anything, not rich farm land to be certain.
Unfortunately, John Thomas passed away when my father (William Morris Bedford) was about twelve I believe, the older children were already away from the area and the fine home and out lying structures soon fell to disrepair and the house was destroyed by fire . When this occured, my grand mother moved in with her sister who lived nearby and my father went to Oklahoma for a few years to live with his step brother and worked in the oil fields there. However, due to an issue with his mothers health he was required to return to Missouri around mid 1930's at which time he met and married a young girl of fourteen, my mother, Francis Alta Margaret Davis, in the spring of 1936.
My dad built a two room log cabin on their property, and with only modest additions to the structure, he and my mom raised seven daughters. There were numerous out buildings and barns built soon after the house, with very little assistance from anyone other than his young (often pregnant) wife and later on we girls were big enough to be a lot of help with all the hard work that both dad and mom had to do. All especially difficult because there was no electricity on the property until summer of 1957.
In 1960, or there abouts, my grandmother Phoebe passed away, and the family moved to Michigan. At this time, the three older girls (myself included) were married. In fact, the family sold what remained of the property and relocated to the town in Michigan where the family which the first born daughter(Louise) married into, resided.
My mother passed away in 1979 , My father in the early 1990's, and the next to youngest sister in 2003(?) I believe. As I write this, (October, 2009) we six other daughters are alive and well.
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# 2
My Siblings
I'll begin by telling you about the earliest event that impressed me sufficiently that it stuck in my memories for the sixty eight years since; It was Dec.21st, 1941, very dark and cold. I am the second of the seven girls borne to William and Fransis Richardson, I was almost three years old at the time, I was all bundled up and carrying a well worn doll in one hand and holding the hand of a neighbor lady as she and I walked along the lane toward my house. Somehow, this lady knew it was alright to bring me back home and was telling me that I had a new baby sister at home. I became highly indignant and told her that I didn't want it, and ask her if she would take it home with her. The lady was quite amused and I was perplexed and annoyed by her laughter!!! That was my younger sister, Joyce Alene, borne at home and without a dr., daughter number three. Daughter number one, Mary Louise was almost five at the time.
I also recall the day that the next daughter (number four) was borne, at home and without a dr....Ida Virginia Addell, March, 1943. Our dad took we three older girls to play for the day at place called Keener Springs Hill. So called because there was an actual live spring at the base of the hill, from which lotsa folks filled barrels at such times that there was low well water levels. We were happy to be there playing even though we hadn't a clue why ...and we got pretty hungry before grandpa and grandma Davis came along and told us we had a new baby sister. We sorta put it all together on the ride home...in the bed of dad's pick up truck.
Then came Lee Etta Francis, number five, also at home but there was a Dr. Clay with mom this time. Louise and I wakened in the wee hours of the morning to the sounds of unusual activity, voices, and some minimal amount of sounds made by our mom, and by then we knew...another baby! (The Dr. administered ether at some time during the delivery and mom was really sick the day after). We probably even managed to roll over and get back to sleep. I think it was during the preceeding months that dad decided he really needed to be building some additional rooms because, I do recall some building going on. And we were in a new bedroom at that time.
The next was Alta Blanche Margaret, Dec. 6, 1947. This time, Louise and I knew there was a baby on the way, we'd learned the signs by then. Louise was ten and I was eight, so we weren't surprised when we were wakened around the break of day by unusual activity and saw a long shiny black car in our yard. It was a clear, cold morning with lots of frost and patches of ice on the ground. This was Dr. Post in attendance this time.
And daughter number seven, Wilma Janet. Probably one of the drs. must have advised that there should be an end to the new babies every other year because this time mom was admitted to the hospital for a scheduled delivery and they did a c-section and a tubal ligation. It was May 14, 1949, I think...the day that she came home from the hospital there was a man in our fields harvesting wheat and Louise and I had to fix the noon time meal which was still called dinner, at least out on the farms in the mid-west. I was ten and Louise was twelve, so that was no real big deal...not sure what we fixed but I do know that our mom was back on duty the next day even though a proceedure of the sort that she'd had was a much bigger deal than it is in 2009. And incidentally, there were still no modern conveniences in our home.
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#3
Painting
From an early age I've been interested in drawing and painting, compelled to do so, actually. Of course as with most people, I did many other things with my life before getting around to seriously pursuing the things which I most wanted to do.
In the early 70's I signed up with an art correspondence course, the actual name of this group was "Famous Artists..." something or another, can't remember now, but they are still in business in 2009.
The first painting that I ever sold was a fairly large canvas, a bull and matador painting that sold for enough to pay for a top of the line Seiko wrist watch for my husband on our anniversary in 1972. I was married to a guy in the navy, had five children and we were living in Virginia Beach, Va. I stuck with the course of instructions for several months, but my husband retired from the Navy in the spring of 1973, we moved back to Illinois and our lives changed rather drastically and I pretty much got away from painting for a few years.Not entirely.
In early `80's, after all our kids were mostly grown and finished with school, Tom and I left Illinois, moved to Arizona and I bagan painting again. I held office in two different Art Guilds for a time, The Prescott Valley Art Guild and The High Desert Artists ( in Chino Valley). I took instructions from various prominant artists in the area, and of course, I exhibited in several events and my work was marketed out of a galleries in Sun City and Prescott.
In `99 we relocated to southern Maryland, because our daughter and one of our sons was settling here and we felt we would prefer living near them. I continued painting, exhibiting and even instructed classes for a couple of years. But, in 2002 we started going to various music festivals and we pursued our interest in blues music and Cajun/Zydeco and my new career of painting famous personalities was launched.
In 2003 I did a painting of the interior of GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB(owned and frequented by MORGAN FREEMAN) and personally presented the painting to him, at which time Mr. Freeman ordered the painting to be hung in the main area of his up-scale restaurant "MADIDI," and my husband and I dined there that evening as his guest. That day was the high light of my art career... meeting and being hugged (twice) by MORGAN FREEMAN.
The next trip to CLARKSDALE, MISSISSIPPI, I took 32 newly painted portraits of BLUES LEGENDS to be exhibited and sold in CLARKSDALE, MISSISSIPPI and the following trip I took another twenty, to also be sold in the same venues...CAT HEAD FOLK ART & BLUES MUSEUM on DELTA AVE., THE BLUES BERRY CAFE (SUPER CHIKIN'S PLACE) on YAZOO AVE. and SOUTHERN EXPRESSIONS on DELTA AVE., next to GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB . There have been several pieces sold from these places and I've met a good number of folks for whom I've recieved repeated commisions for new pieces to add to their collections.. I've made many friends asociated with my painting and thoroughly enjoy making new friends where ever our travels lead us, and I expect to make many more friends as long as I'm able to travel the festival circuit.
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# 4
Music
My dad liked country music, so when we could afford batteries for our radio, we listened to to "THE GRAND OL OPRY"...we'd hear performers such as HANK WILLIAMS, ROY ACUFF, LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS, MINNIE PEARL,
THE CARTER FAMILY, etc...and several others, way too many to mention.
There were folks around with whom we were acquainted who played music, some very well in fact, not surprising because back before television was a common fixture in family homes, entertainment was pretty much a do it your self activity. My dad wasn't as good with guitar and harmonica as some, but he played both reasonably well.
The country school that I attended (OAK GROVE ELEMENTARY) near POPLAR BLUFF, MISSOURI had a piano, but we were never actually taught music there. Of the seven of us, my sister Lee Etta was the only one who ever played music, she did learn to play piano really well.
When I was ten or eleven, I spent a summer with relatives in Texas, who listened to jazz, swing, rag time, etc...heard the likes of BILLIE HOLLIDAY, JELLY ROLL MARTIN, THE DORSEYS, etc...then in my early teens there was the fifties music...very early ROCK & ROLL... on juke boxes, in skating rinks, and the cafe's, and teen hang outs near the high schools. Whenever I recall one place in particular I always remember hearing "THAT'S A'MORE "...(Dean Martin). This was the DUG OUT CAFE across the street from the high school. Not necessarily a favorite of mine, but seems it was played there a lot .
While my husband was stationed at a Naval base in Puerto Rico in the late sixties, we became good friends with a couple of the guys in the NAVY SHOW BAND ( they did a stint in the Carribean on a ship that Tom was on)...one of these guys was JESSIE JAMES JONES, JR. III and he was an amazing musician!!! ( he had attended "Julliard ...") he was a very nice young man, quite a memorable person (and, by the way, a lot of fun)!!! We think of him often.
Tom played guitar (sort of) always had one or two around, and all of our boys learned to play. Each to differing degrees of well, of course. Our youngest, Jim, actually played with a (garage) band during high school in STAUNTON, ILLINOIS and has an impressive collection of guitars now, which he plays whenever he can find the time. Jim's teenaged sons are (quite understandably), very good musicians as well.
I have made several trips with my husband over the past dozen years through out the MISSISSIPPI DELTA region and we're extremely fond of the music of that area, specifically the BLUES, CAJUN & ZYDECO. In fact we make it a point to catch as many music festivals as possible, in that area.
Most recently, Tom has been spending some time blowing harmonica, (my favorite music along with accordion). Certainly, he'll not be "taking it on the road" anytime soon... but it's nice to hear in the background for my "at home activities." Works especially well while I'm absorbed with painting in the adjoining room. Especially while I'm working on portraits of the music legends which is in recent years is what I do most often. Just seems to feel right.
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# 5
Dancing
From the earliest times that I can remember being in places where there was dancing going on, there was a constantly changing kind of music happening so I may not be totally accurate in my attempts to relate toyou just what was popular from one season to another, and that's just about the space of time that various styles of dancing and music lasted before morphing into something entirely different.
In the ninth grade I occasionally spent time with friends in various cafes and/or teen hang outs and enjoyed what was called "pop,"music which was a forerunner of "Rock and Roll."There was "Jitter Bug," Bop," "Boogie Woggie,"etc... but slow dance was still in the mix, to be sure. The style of dress for girls was "Bobby Sox," "Saddle Shoes," " Poodle Skirts,"and "Pony Tails."
This was all in the early `50's...and there was "American Band Stand"...we danced "The Twist," "The Stroll," and later the "Mashed Potatos," "The Monkey," "The Hulli Gulli,".......and so many that I can't even remember now. At some time in the`50's, there was the "British Invasion", and some very extreme changes in music happened with great intensity changing at the speed of sound. I'm no authority on the changing times of music...I only know what I was doing and where I was at different stages of the ever changing music "scene." For instance, I was totally involved with raising my children while the most serious of the "revolution" was taking place...was out of the country when Wood Stock happened. Never got into the "Heavy Metal" or the "psycodelic" phase at all.
Basically, I stuck with Rock n Roll...but converted whole heartedly to "Blues" in the early eighties and have stayed there until adding Cajun and Zydeco to my favorites.
For a very brief period of time, when the cow boy hats, boots and "Line Dancing" the (mini-rage) in the `80's we checked that out...
As I said, a very brief sampling, to be sure! But it was about then during our travels (the kids all grown), that we got really serious about the "Blues Festivals" and we usually manage to stop in part of the country where there is Cajun dance halls. Nothing more fun than that!!!
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# 6
Alligators/Accordions
For the first 35 years of my life I had never seen an Alligator, the closest thing I'd seen was a slab of tire rubber on the high-way that had been slung from a semi-trailer...referred to by some as an "Interstate Alligator"...quite dangerous in it's own rights, however.
The first real `gator I saw was when I took my young son to a zoo while he was being treated as "out patient" at Willford Hall Med. Cntr. Lackland AFB in San Antonio. We lived in Illinois at the time, but I flew med evac. back and forth for the two years that my son was being treated at the base hospital inTexas...
Several years later, after the kids were pretty much ready to be leaving home, my husband (Tom) and I made several trips cross country on motorcycles, and it was during this time that we felt drawn to the bayou country and seeing `gators was a common occurance. There were times when we'd be riding during the night and we'd stop on one of the many bridges over swampy areas and just listen for a big ol' gator to bellow...nothin like that feeling when we'd actually hear it. It was during this time that I picked up on my love of cajun &/or Zydeco music, dancing, food, the fine friends that we made there.
I had a sister in Houston, two sons stationed for awhile at various times in Florida(one army one navy) and Tom and I were at that time living in Arizona. SO, we traveled through Louisianna frequently during the eighties and nineties. We relocated to the east coast in 1999 to be near two of our kids and grand sons, and stopped traveling quite so much, but we attended a "sisters" reunion in Lafayette, La. (my choice) in 2002. We went to several dance halls and restaurants the four days we were there, and finally had the nerve to order `gator for dinner one of those nights. And, it was very good!!! I took photo's of some of the places we went to and painted a nice big canvas of a dance hall and dancers. I love that painting!!! It's never been for sale.
Tom and I go back to Louisianna every chance we get, we have some very good friends there, and I have quite an extensive collection of the music and it's right up there with the blues as my favorite. There is nothing (legal) more energizing than playing Zydeco music !!!
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#7
Cotton Fields
I grew up just a few miles west of the very rich river bottom cotton growing part of southern Missouri, but actually we were a bit more into the low hills area at the edge of the Ozarks. The land in our immediate area wasn't much good for farming unless there was plenty of money to invest in a lot of soil improvement. However, that's really not the point of this particular piece. I'm simply describing the geography of the area where I grew up. The cotton fields began just to the east of Black river, which ran through the eastern edge of the small town (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) The east side of the river was referred to as " river bottom land" even tho there was some businesses and private residence in this the "wrong side of town,"and they did have to deal with the occasional flooding.
When school vacation began it 1954, dad moved our family into a sharecropper shack about forty miles east of Poplar Bluff , smack into the middle of a vast sea of cotton fields. We chopped cotton at first, then we picked cotton through out the summer, then we started school in the fall and picked cotton evenings and week-ends till time to strip the dried bowles from the plants...the dry husks sharp as needles, our fingers cold and bleeding. Of course, this process paid even less than picking the prime cotton. When all this was done for the season, we returned to our home near Poplar Bluff and to the school which we had always attended. That was the only time we picked cotton, and believe me, that was one time too many. But, what don't kill strengthens, right? At least I know what it was like to do that kinda work!!!
I didn't so much as see a cotton field after that, I think, until after I had been married a couple of years and Tom "re-enlisted" in the navy, was driving to San Diego and was run off the road in Arizona. His car wound up a hundred yards or so into a cotton field, he continued on to his destination in San Diego and a ship which was on it's way to be based in Yokusko, Japan for two years. I remained stateside with our two infant sons. Long story short, Tom served another fifteen years (more or less) in the Navy, retired in 1973 and we settled in Illinois until our children were all grown. Then we were in Az. for eighteen years, then came to Maryland.
While we're traveling so often in the Mississippi delta region searching out subjects for a new painting or two, I look at all those hundreds of acres of cotton which seems to never end and I recall so well the miserable discomfort there was in the back breaking hours, in the heat of the summer sunshine, crawling between those rows with the weight of the long canvas bags which just never seemed to fill. And I count my blessings for...oh, so many reasons.
We have visited many of the towns known for being the birth place of various "blues legends" and the old "farms" and plantations which have converted their infamous facilities into museums and NOW benefit from displaying the tools and paraphenalia of their disgraceful past and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about what they're doing. But, at least now there are machines in those cotton fields.
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# 8
Eating "out"
There have been (of course) many restaurants, a lot of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, over the past several decades...I'm relating to you only the few events which sorta jump out of my recollections as I move up through the years, to offer a rather shallow (at best) summary of these topics about which I have chosen to write.
During the years of my childhood, the term "eating out" would have been used in reference to actual open aire situations at which huge tables would have been set up perhaps for family reunions, last day of school picnics, etc...Then, even through my young teen years, the term might apply to events such as the occasional burger at the current teen hang-out.The fact is that I was actually serving food in restaurants long before I was ever seated at a table and handed a menu .
The first trip that Tom and I made together in the summer of `55 immediately after we married, was from our home in south east Missouri to San Diego, we stopped at a little cafe in New Mexico and was served the largest cheese burger that I have ever seen even to this day.
In the mid fifties curb service was the big thing, and carhops on roller skates wasn't at all unusual, especially in and around the larger cities. Bob's Big Boy comes to mind...and some places still do this...nostalgia gimmick of course. A friend of mine used to work at one of these places (in the `50's) and instead of being paid, she actually had to pay them to work there !!! Some very good tips made there...
Tom got out of the Navy in `57, (stayed out a year)...and on our second anniversary, Tom brought home an orchid corsage and asked if I'd like to go out for dinner. We went to a White Castle in St. Louis, ate a bunch of those tiny, tasty, little dollar sized burgers. Seems they were so much better then than now. We'd never been to one of these places before, they were fairly new...not fancy, but it was a very special evening...we didn't go out much back then.
While we lived in Puerto Rico the two years(`68&69) that Tom was stationed in San Juan, we frequently dined at a CPO club on one of the Naval Bases, we always requested a particular waiter and ordered the same thing each time...a salad, black bean soup and lobster tail. The very best lobster anywhere (Longousta) the tails are bigger than most lobsters we've found on the mainland since. I know the food was greatly enhanced by the perfect timing resulting from the attentiveness of our "food server."
There was another place in Puerto Rico that we especially enjoyed . I can't remember the name of the place, it was owned and operated by a family from Venesuala. None of them spoke english at all, fortunately I had been studying Spanish the whole time we were there. Lots of atmosphere, high ceiling, rustic de`cor, with whole pigs and beef quarters spitted over huge fire pits , and a raised stage with live dancers dressed in "Gaucho" costume and Flamingo atire. The men were swinging around these thongs with ironwood balls attached on each end which struck the floor in perfect rhythem with their stamping dance steps. They were amazing to watch!
After Tom retired from the Navy in `73 we moved back to Illinois, we lived there almost ten years until our kids were grown. One event which I remember so well was an evening that Tom and I took two of my sisters and their husbands out to an especially nice restaurant ...Stouffer's... in St. Louis, sometime in `78 I think. It is the top floor of a very tall building, the entire restaurant continously revolves very slowly, so that during the course of dinner we were looking out over the lights of the city of St. Louis. Oh, and the food was very good. After dinner, we went to a bar in Edwardsville, Illinois...The Watering Hole...and drank beer and played pool, (and...enough said about that night)!!!
In `81 we moved to Arizona...we visited my sister in Houston a couple of times each year for awhile, and on one of these visits they took us to a certain Polynesian place for brunch buffet, excellent eats there, we hung out there as long as any of us could maintain the slightest interest in eating. Had time to kill till the afternoon movie which we were planning to see started ...Crocodile Dundee. Loved that movie!!!
For a certain span of time in the `80's three of our kids were stationed in Europe, at the same time. Tom and I flew military "space A" several times over and back to visit them.We did the Oktoberfest in Aughsberg, Germany, very good food , was a fun time...first son Jack, was stationed there. Daughter Sherry took us by train to a couple of their favorite restaurants near Rhinemien Army Base. And fourth son Jim took us to some places around the base he was stationed (Navy ) in Scottland, but the food there is SO bad...Only time we had good food there was the time we caught a ride with a special navy courier three seater plane from Mildenhall AFB (England) to the base that was our destination. The pilot had to make a stop at some tiny airfield near St. Andrews (the oldest golf course in the world, by the way) where they made fantastic grilled cheese and onion sandwiches!!!
The very most memorable dinner that comes to mind though is the one that Tom and I enjoyed as guests of Morgan Freeman at Madidi...his(up-scale) restaurant in Clarksdale, Mississippi , the evening that I personally presented to him (my hands to his) the painting of the Interior of Ground Zero Blues Club. In all honesty, the food is not all it's cracked up to be there, but the company.......glorious!!!
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# 9
(Noteworthy) Automobiles
Well...........I'm just picking topics now just to see what pops up that I can form words around. Starting with earliest recall...
Growing up in southeastern Missouri in the early `40's the vehicle that I best remember was a red pick up truck that my dad drove at the time, he was a "Chevy man"...I recall others that he drove over the years but easy to remember riding around in the back of that truck, pretty exciting for us even though dad never drove really fast, at least not until he got so old that he shouldn't have even been driving.
In the early `50's I was spending a most of the summers in town, working at different cafes or baby sitting in the home of families where both prents worked. I stayed in rooming houses usually and cleaned rooms for my rent, sometimes stayed with my older sister...my point here though is that I never had a problem getting rides where ever I needed to go because every boy I knew had a car of some kind and was, of course, always up for playing chauffer ...getting them to keep moving though, was another thing since their favorite gear to be in was "park." We relied a lot upon the "safety in numbers" solution for these occasions. There was a big ol' black Mercury to be seen cruisin the streets of Poplar Bluff most any evening and weekend driven by Eugene McKinney, and I was frequently part of the group along for the ride, headed maybe for the drive-in movie or just driving around... "being seen riding around." It was along about this time that I met the brother of a friend of mine, spent one evening with him on a blind date, didn't see him again for a year . His name was Tom.
The summer that we lived in Kennett, Mo. (1953) the vehicle most recognized in my circle of friends was another big ol' car, a dark green Hudson . The kid driving this car was Louis, can't recall the last name, but the muffler was shot and we could hear it for miles away...we'd named it "The Green Hornet." My older sister Louise was married by then and away from home but a girl friend from Poplar Bluff, Mona Sue LaBrier was staying with us...and that was enough to keep the two of us just on the edge of trouble.
When Tom and I married (summer of `55) he bought a `48 Chevrolet to make the trip to san Diego and a few months later the car was put up on blocks in his sisters back yard in Phoenix because Tom was leaving on a six month cruise, I was to spend that time there because I was pregnant (didn't drive anyway). Turns out though that Tom came home early because his dad back in Missouri had passed on. That's where he found me and the baby, with his family, because I had taken our new borne son there so that Toms father could see his first sons first son.
The next time we came back to Missouri,(1957) Tom had been discharged for the Navy and we left the west coast driving an old brown Chrysler. This car blew an engine on an Oklahoma turnpike, we rode a bus into Poplar Bluff and purely by chance we met my parents as they were leaving town to go home. We got off the bus, flagged them down and rode home with them in their old green Buick. Not a simple thing either getting them to stop for us because they had no idea that we were coming home and here we were, two young slim guys in Levi jackets, D A hair cuts and carrying a baby. They didn't recognize us, I did have a guys hair style...funny stuff , ya had to be there. My dad took Tom back to Oklahoma and they towed our car home. Then, dad showed Tom how to straighten the valve stems by hammering them on an old block of wood and they put the thing back together and it actually worked. Amazing what can be done when there's no money.
My favorite car ever was a `62 Mercury Parklane convertible that Tom bought for me when we lived in Virginia beach, va. in `65 I think it was. It was powder blue, lots of chrome, white leather interior, blue carpet, snow white cloth top, totally in mint condition! We made the mistake of bringing it to Puerto Rico when we went there in `67 and though it was great having it there for those two years, when they shipped it back to the states it got really messed up, wasn't properly prepared to be shipped I guess and it was pretty much ruined when we got it back to the states in `69.
The cars that we owned after Tom retired from the navy in `73 and over the next ten or twelve years were apparently unremarkable because while I do recall most of them easily enough, none of them seem important untill after Tom retired completely and he and I moved to the high desert plains in Arizona in `81 .We bought property without a well or even electricity, and no phone lines. For over a year we lived in an old mobile home, hauled water, cooked on Coleman stove...just about froze and the only vehicle we owned was a motorcycle and a ton and a half Ford truck which we used to haul wood which we cut and sold for firewood. Didn't really need the money, ( in fact it probably cost about as much to cut and haul as we made). Basically I was indulging Tom's fantasy to live the "rugged" life. We did travel a lot that year or so, made trips to warmer parts of the country. We both had enough of that after a year or so and in `83 we bought a well developed property, built a nice home on it and drove decent cars again.
I had always wanted a Jaguar! So finally, after we moved to Maryland in `99 Tom gave me one for my birthday in 2002 , an `88 XJ6. The car was perfect!!! We still own it and also another, a `94 Van DenPlas...that's the one in the photo (BLUES FESTIVAL page) with Harold Cagler sitting on the fender, in Clarksdale, Mississippi taken about five years ago.
We've recently decided to fly where ever we go, rent cars at airports, it's much easier on the Jags (and on us).
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# 10
Parties
To the best of my recollections there were no parties, not even birthday parties during my first dozen years of growing up at home.
It's totally without rancor that I acknowledge that there also were no birthday presents or more than a very few birthday cakes. There quite simply weren't many cakes at all for us during that time. But the one that I do specifically remember was when I was about nine or ten, my mom let me bake a cake all on my own from a recipe on the Crisco can. I'm sure I had more guidance than I realized at the time and the cake turned out perfect!!! Baked in the oven of a wood burning kitchen range, it was better than any that I've made since. Aren't positive memories a wonderful thing?!
The first party arranged especially for me took place on my birthday in 1961 in our house on Wilson St. in San Diego (back in the navy since `58). Tom planned this event with the assistance of a friend of mine who lived just up the street from us, there were about ten of our friends and a couple of members of his family there. We had a nice stereo, good music to dance to (the living room furniture was moved outa the way)lots of good food, soft drinks and beer...still no cake or presents, but a great party!!!
When we moved to Va. Beach in `63 we became acquainted with several young couples who lived in our trailer park...yeah, trailer park. The term "trailer trash" hadn't yet been coined, actually, we were all military families with the exception of one couple, and quite respectable folks, all. Anyway, the point being that along about then a popular thing for young couples to do was to get together for fun and socializing, the typical party fare, chips n dip, drinks and dancing, once a week in the home of first one then another. Party time!!!Some times we even went to a club on one of the nearby bases.
There was another type of party also very popular around that time, you all know of these events I'm sure...house keys drawn from a bowl at the end of a get together, etc...etc...etc... but, we never exchanged anything more than partners on the dance floor. Those were very dear friends, but in the military friends come and go, lose touch over the years, but I remember them all like it was only last week...it was 45 years ago.Hard to believe!
My kids first actual birthday party was May 5, 1963. I combined birthdays for first and second son, had several of their friends there with party hats, noise makers and lotsa gifts, served cake and ice cream of course...I say that I did this because, as usual, Tom wasn't there. He was away more than he was home while the kids were growing up until he retired in 1973. Lotsa cruises on lotsa ships!!!
We've attended some sensational New Years Eve parties over the years, most recently in nice hotel ball rooms so that we could stay overnight instead of driving home...but the ones that were the most fun by far were back in the sixties at places a bit more rowdy than the nice hotels...the likes of which weren't exactly covered in our budget back then. It's just a lot more fun when a person is very young ;-)
Again, good memories are a wonderful thing. I have a great many very good ones.
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#11
Radios
We obtained an early version of the radio when I was maybe six or so. No electricity so ours was battery poweredand we could listen only for short periods of time lest the batteries be depleted but, some evenings we all gathered closely around the vicinity of the radio and enjoyed shows such as Sam Spade, Mr. and Mrs North, etc...others that I can't recall. Some of the day time programs that mom liked were radio soaps such as Portia Faces Life, Ma Perkins, Helen Trent and Our Gal Sunday. Then there were the Sunday morning church programs which our grandma always liked to hear.
During the summer when we sometimes got to spend the nights with our grandparents, there seemed to always be baseball games in the aire as we ran around and played in the near darkness of the evenings. Grandpa Davis had an old bare spring cot with rugs or quilts for padding which he'd stretch out on after his hard days work and dinner, the smoke from his favorite old pipe pretty much kept the mosquitos away from him while he dozed and listened to Harry Carey doing his best to make St. Louis baseball sound as exciting as possible.
Later on in the early `50's the car radios played a huge roll in entertainment for us. Typically, a number of cars, all filled with teen age boys and girls would congregate at some predetermined location, relatively isolated of course,the radios all tuned to the same station, volume cranked just short of rattling speakers. Some dancing, drinking sodas and (on the rare occasions)... beer. Naturally, there were a few couples who chose to enjoy the music in the privacy of some ones car...for part of the evening any way.
We became very well acquainted with the music of many of the popular groups along with Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Sonny James...
just to name a few...and eventually of course, Elvis.
So many innovative changes in music listening devises over the years, I've owned all of them as they've come along all the way up to the state of the art systems which I currently use on a daily basis...but, none of it sounds as good to me as I remember in these times long passed which I've just related in this article . Ah, sweet youth...
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# 12
Jobs I've Had
During the summer of `53, my dad came home one day and told me I should pack a few of my things, that I'd be going to work with him the next day and that I'd be staying with the family whom he was driving tractor for...said the mom needed to go back to work before she went nuts staying in the home caring for her bed-ridden mother-in-law. There also was two young children of school age that I would have to care for and see that they made the bus every morning in addition to waiting on the old lady. The school I went to was already out but they still had two weeks to go. I'd just finished the eighth grade, I was barely fourteen years old...I lasted there the two weeks till the kids were out of school then I said," No more."
Well, after about a week back home my dad found something else for me...an old lady in town that we knew needed some house cleaning done. A lot of windows, ceiling light fixtures, etc...a lot of climbing tall ladders involved there. That was also a "live in" job, I was there only about a week, and I'm sure she paid me but I know it woulda been very little , I realy can't recall how much.
My older sister was working at a hospital as a candy stripper (this was a situation arranged through the school for daughters of low income families, no welfare as we know it these days...), anyway, I started staying with her in the room she rented and I worked for the lady who owned the place (Mrs. Cummins) for rent on a room of my own. This was a very nice big old house that had been converted into a rooming house, mainly accomodating railroad workers who did routine "turn arounds" in Poplar Bluff. By living in town I was then able to look for other work. The other work I found was day care for a young couples infant child in their home on Cherry St. I was paid 25 cents an hour and breakfast and lunch...that was five days a week so I started paying $4.00 a week rent instead of cleaning for Mrs. Cummins.
When school started again I went back home and did the ninth grade, rode the school bus of course, but still spent most week ends with my sister, dating and hanging out at the local teen haunts, just managing to stay out of trouble. It wasn't that our parents were uncaring about how we spent our time, in retrospect I believe that they just didn't have a clue and I'm sure we told them less than the truth anytime they asked how we spent our time. They basically gave us credit for being much more grown up than they should have.
It was the following summer that the family moved to Kennett, Mo. for the cotton chopping, picking, and "bowling." I covered that experience in a previous chapter about automobiles, so I'll not go into that again. Except to say that when we came back in the Fall of `54 I never went back to school, instead, I worked at a cafe on 5th street, called Mom Barons and that's where I met Tom (again) and we were married six months later when he came home from the six month westpac cruise, during that six months I was working at various other restaurants in Poplar Bluff.
In May,`58 Tom was home ported in Yokosuka (pronounced Yokuska), Japan for two years, I declined going there, our second son, Gary, was only two weeks old when Tom decided he wanted to reinlist in the Navy...against my wishes. In `59 I had occasion to work again for a month or so, in a steak house in Camp Verde, Arizona where I was (with our son Jack age 4 and our son Gary age 2) staying with Tom's sister for part of that two years.
We lived in San Diego from `60 to` 63, our daughter Sherry, and third son Robin, was borne there. Then Tom was transferred to the east coast and we lived in Va. Beach for a few years and our fifth child (a son), Jim, was borne. I worked at Ciola's and The Isle Of Capri, both upscale Italian restaurants, and for awhile at The "O" Club at Ft. Story Army Base near Little Creek, Va. That was the end of my waitressing. But I also attended "Cosmotology School" for almost enough hours to take the state board exams to be licensed, but decided there were easier ways to make money and I drove for a "numbers" bagman, ( bookie to those who may not be familiar with the term "numbers") for awhile, also in Va. Beach. There was, however, too much negativity involved there and my better judgement prevailed after a few months of that.
I sold a bit of Avon products in the early `70's, but that wasn't for me to be sure, and in `73 Tom retired from the Navy, we moved to Illinois (we both had family there) and I went back to school for awhile, did the GED certificate thing, took the required subjects to go for associates degree, but then decided to take real estate classes required for taking the state board in Chicago, I did that and was licensed as Real Estate agent, not broker, (big difference there)...anyway, I actually sold one property but along about then our third son became ill, I pretty much side lined everything except caring for our son for the next two years, and never bothered with real estate after that.
I worked as book keeper in the office where Tom was working for a couple of years in Illinois before we moved to Az. in early `80's,
(a whole different story that) where we lived until we moved to Maryland in the fall of `99, then I taught painting classes and did a few painting workshops.
Other than that, I've worked on strictly volunteer basis...as"docent" in a number of art galleries in Arizona and Maryland, and performed the duties of secretary in two different art guilds for awhile. Ultimately more enjoyable than other jobs I've had...well, with the possible exception of being a driver...? Oh yeah.
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# 13
Sewing
So far back as I can remember anything I remember my grandmother Richardson sitting upright in bed with large pillows at her back for support, this was the position which she maintained throughout every day for the last 30 years of her life. And on most of these days she was sewing, with a needle and thread, mending, making alterations, making quilt tops from old clothing or maybe sewing together strips of our worn out clothing to use to hook rugs for our floors. I guess it was to be expected that I would learn these resourceful skills, since our grandmother lived with us and was an important presence and influence in our formative years at home.
Of course our mom sewed too, specifically during the couple of weeks before school started. All year long without fail, mom saved the fabric from the flour bags so that there would be new material from which to make three new dresses for each of us. We used lotsa flour, because mom baked all the bread that we used during the `40's, and the fabric was very pretty actually. Of course, it was plain cotton (no permanent press then)...so it had to be starched and ironed every time the dresses were laundered....also no electric irons (I'll cover that topic in another page).
The thing is though, that mom didn't even have a sewing machine...her mom did though, and dad (quite reluctantly) would take mom and us kids to Grandma Davis' house so that mom could do the sewing there, on a treadle machine of course, no electricity there either. We had to take turns going along though because we never left Grandma R. home alone.
From the scraps remaining after the dresses were cut, there was always quilt pieces cut of precise size and shape and from these pieces light spring quilt tops were "pieced" together, then stitched to a light fabric as lining, rolled and stretched on "quilting frames" and usually there would be "quilting bee's"...this was where several women sat around the work in progress and within very few hours the quilt was beautifully "quilted" and ready for the edge binding. Several of these beautiful quilts in a day depending on how many hands applied to the task. Best case scenario, the menfolk would stay in the fields or go fishing during this event.
I've not been without a sewing machine since soon after I married, I made many shirts and dresses for my kids and most of my own outer wear for a number of years, eventually learned though, that buying quality fabric cost more than buying ready made off the rack, and without the hard work. However, I still find occasions to sew, and my finest work was the wedding dress for my daughter, Sherry...
Mostly now adays though my sewing tasks consists of attaching badges and such to scout uniforms and the occasional alteration for my daughter or myself.
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# 14
Perfumes
As a child at home I never saw any kind of perfume or cologne amongst my moms toiletries... Jergens almond scented hand lotion and Jergens cleansing cream was the all there was for her during those first years that I recall. Of course things did get better for all of us later on...
I wish they still made Evening In Paris!!! Awonderful fragrance contained in an ever so elegant blue bottle trimmed in silver, it was the "classy" yet affordable frangrance back in the `50's. But there was another, and it seemed to have even greater "staying power"...Atom Bomb!!! A clear glass bottle with a red plastic cap, the whole thing shaped like an actual bomb. I used to use my lunch money to buy that stuff after I started going to school in town. There was a "dime store" on the corner and across the street from school., that was Ben Franklins, actually. There also was Blue Waltz sold there, another fragrance pretty much in the same price range and would also announce the presence of the wearer even before she entered a room. So far as I'm concerned, all three of these have the high end fragrances of today beat hands down.
One of these high dollar parfumes with which I am familiar is Joy, a very nice fragrance made in Paris...Tom started buying that for me when he made his first "Med" cruise after we moved to the east coast in early `60's. He brought back a "parfume bar" containing eight small vials of different scents...my favorite was Joy. The second time he was in the Med he bought a larger bottle...but before he left the ship he bought a nice card for me too, but he dropped the bottle, it broke and all I got that time was the lid and the box it came in (for proof of purchase) with the card, all smelling So good..
I used to like one of Avons colognes...Timeless. My younger sister, Joyce, wore that a lot in the `70's I believe. I bought some awhile back and was a bit disappointed. Along about that time I was really liking Windsong, too. My daughter Sherry wore that frequently, and of course they all smelled stronger and lasted longer back then. I'd like to believe that's because the makers use less of the essential oils now, and maybe they do...but , I suspect that it has more to do with the passage of time and the number of birthdays.
That's okay, an exquisite fragrance is still one of the finer things in life, don't ya think?
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# 15
Flowers
My earliest impression involving flowers was without doubt when early one spring morning one or two of my sisters, our aunt Pauline and I were out tramping around in the woods near our grandparents home. When unexpectedly and totally unprepared for anything so phenomenal, we found ourselves frozen in awe, simply overwhelmed by a vast clearing, carpeted with the brillance of golden Daffodils, undulating gently in the morning breeze and emitting a fragrance more glorious than any perfume imaginable to me even to this day. Apparently, there had been on that site many years before a homeplace, of which all traces had long since been relinquished to the elements of time and had left behind only a thriving source of these lovely flowers which had became totally invasive, as the only indication that the home ever existed there.
There were several different kinds of flowers around our home, though never as many as our mom would have liked. She tried many kinds but with little success, either dad would run over them, mow over them or someones livestock (usually our own) would wander through and trample or eat them.We did have the largest, deepest blue Iris' and a nice big Bridal Wreath bush growing along the garden fence bursting forth with beautiful fragrant little white blossoms along about the time our four peach trees bloomed each spring time.
When Louise worked at Shriners Hospital in St Louis in `53, I spent a couple of days with her and she took me (by bus) to a park somewhere on Kings Highway, I believe , to show me a spectacular place called The Jewel Box. I was only fourteen and Louise was only sixteen...yes, and working at Shriners in St Louis...(youth was treated much differently back then). We rode from Poplar Bluff to St. Louis and back with a guy that Louise was dating at the time, he also worked in St. louis and was considerably older than Louise. I 'd worked and lived in town so much by then that I doubt that our parents were aware at the time of where I spent that weekend. Anyway, I was totally overwhelmed by the whole experience. But, the point here being the Jewel Box...it was a fine, large, brick structure with more glass than brick actually, filled with an awesome assortment of flowers arranged in spectacular design inside and out. The colors arranged in such a way that the whole place really did give the impression of being jewels glistening in and around the sparkling glass setting and the surrounding area. Beautiful place!
It was may in `60 I believe that my eldest son Jack (about five I guess), came in from playing outside, asked for a "Twinkie"...and in a few minutes he came back in, handed the Twinkie to me with a sweet smile on his little face, a pink carnation which he'd picked from our yard stuck into the twinkie like a candle... and said, "Happy Mothers Day, mom." I've no idea where he even heard that it was Mother's Day...we didn't have a TV or even a radio. Not from his dad, Tom was out on a ship at the time. Absolutely blew me away!!!
I love flowers, but I've never been able to keep even a house plant alive. My mom could just break off a leaf and stick it into dirt and, voila!!! a new plant! My daughter Sherry also is very good with growing things, lovely plants and flowers in and around her home at all times. Tom seems to have better success than I, in fact just last week he planted two young Magnolias in our yard. These are probably my favorite kind of tree and surprisingly enough, there are many Magnolias in our area. Just that I always thought they were indiginous exclusively to the deep south, for instance the state tree of Mississippi is the magnolia, but hmmm ...live and learn!!!
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# 16
I'll get back to this another time...currently though, as I find the time, I'm making entries on the "artist's journal" page ... not exactly a daily journal, just sorta when ever I feel like writing only a few lines...