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Reunion today reminds me of music which sticks in my head A homecoming at Summer Shade, KY and hearing Ralph Rush sing "The Last Mile of the Way," brings back memories of songs which get stuck in my head - from a hymn Momma sang to humorous ditties to a comforting, often repeated performance which says 'Columbia' as much as any other music Ed Waggener Some music sticks in your brain, whether you want it to or not. When I read about the 83rd Branstetter Park Reunion near Summer Shade, set for today, Sunday, August 23, 2009, It took me back to about the 40th one, which I attended as a the editor and reporter for But something else at that event haunts me to this day: Hearing the song, (When you walk) "The last mile of the way," for the first time, and which I remember as being sung by, or led by, Mr. Rush himself. It brought to mind the other songs which get stuck in one's head. None can match Momma singing 'In the Garden," while she worked after the supper was over at 705 Jamestown Street. Momma was a gourmet Knifley-style country cook. Singing wasn't her fame. But that song, as she sung it, is the most beautiful one I've ever heard, and is to this day. Elvis Presley is great singing "In the Garden," but I would trade hearing him sing it a thousand times to hear Momma sing it once. There was another song I heard for the first time at that house on Jamestown Hill, which sticks in my head, which came in on a black and white Dumont Tv, with sounds and sights picked up by a magnificent Tenarotor on top of the big house which stood there. That was hearing, as many non-Catholics heard, for the first time, Ave Maria when it was sung during President Kennedy's funeral. I was 23 years old, but the world was much bigger then, and so much more mysterious. It wasn't until years later that I heard Luciano Pavarotti singing "Panis Angelicus," and for awhile, it was my favorite hymn not sung by my mother. It still almost is. Then, during the Civil Rights movement, we all learned "We Shall Overcome," and some wished, back before it was okay to want to be black, that it could be the school fight song. It was hummed a lot, and sometimes sung with a racist "We are not a-fred," before everyone learned better. It wasn't until years later when NPR did a story on "Lift Every Voice," which is often referred to as "The Negro National Anthem," that I found a song which supplanted "We Shall Overcome," one in my memory. Daddy sang songs nobody else did. One is particularly annoying to me, even today when I can't clear my mind of it. It was more of a chant, but it went "Hick-te-me, hick-te-muh, hick-te-ma, to - dee!" He loved it. I hated it. But i can't forget it. What was fun was Dad singing and became imbedded was "The Bear Went over the Mountain," which hasn't been a head clogger, but nifty, and "When I Was at the Animal Fair," which is. The song which goes in circles In the 50s, there was a great country singer who had more hits than Hank Williams. We townies were far too sophisticated to appreciate the hillbilly music they played on WAIN, then, but this singer, this Webb Pierce, had one song which just wouldn't go away. I don't anything about music, so forgive me for remembering it as rustic rondo, and I'm not sure it's title is "Even Though," but that's the part which stuck with me as what the title ought to be. It went in circles, I thought. and I remember how well Webb Pierce would lay it on the last syllable when he sang, "Even though you took the sunshine out of my heav -unnnnnnnnnnn." Even though she had done that to him, he sang, "I will always be in love with you, my darlin', even though you do me like you do." It was the vogue in those days, as both Max Shulman and Mike Morris were wont to say, for true love to be "all yearning and no fulfillment," filled more with heartbreak than happy ever-aftering. So "Even Though," was a nigh perfect hillbilly song. An Adair County High School classmate, Donald Graham, was from Breeding, and he was as sophisticated in country music as Jackie Morris, a worldly 206'er, was in rock 'n roll, and he explained something of Webb Pierce's greatness to me. Up to then I had accepted, as fact, that most of the wisdom of the world was within the city limits of Columbia. The street troubadour in Knoxville, TN In high school, Darrell Young, Henry Hunter Durham, and I were chosen by the great Columbia civic club of the ancient times, the Kiwanis Club, to go to a Key Club convention in Knoxville, TN. Besides learning from Fred Troutman how to mix ketchup and Worchestershire sauce into a fancy condiment for filet mignon, and hearing several dozen variations of the moral of "The Bridgebuilder," there was one chilling memory. It was of a blind troubadour on Gay Street, who sang, in front of the conventions' Farragut Hotel, "If I ever needed you, I need you now." At 10:30pm in the evening, with a relative street quiet, it was an unforgettable song. It seemed his clear voice cutting through the chill mountain air that night was the the one call for all yearning humanity. It's in our DNA that some songs are stuck in our heads It's in our Adair County DNA not to forget some songs: Cassius Stone singing dozen's of stanza's of "The Great Speckled Bird." Happy Chandler's clear tenor voice raising optimism and hope for us in 1953 with Happy Days are here again, and we got them, those happy days, when Happy and Pete and Grover put down blacktop on more gravel roads in the history of Adair County; a record which stood until Governor Louie Nunn came into office. Happy's singing had the same reassuring effect on us as some other great male voices, still around, like Bro. Terry White leading "Jesus, I come," at the Columbia Christian Church, with, for that song, his matchless voice just slight above the congregation's setting a slower tempo That was the same feeling so many of us felt on first hearing Joan Baez sing "Amazing Grace," a cappella. We had loved the song before. But we revered it afterward. Some get trapped in our heads for their greater meaning Some hymns stick in our minds so much for their greater meaning. "Battle Hymn of the Republic," is one; and for listeners to WHAS 840 when it was a real radio station and brought us music, "once more from within the everlasting hills of Salt Lake City, Utah," by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Sunday morning, right before the spoken word by Richard L. Evans, that was the version which would never leave our heads. Or the compelling message of Jean Sibelius wonderful anthem, "Finlandia," which was in the service often when Paul Kneipp was pastor at the Columbia United Methodist Church, with words which offered a whole new kind of patriotism, at least in the words of Lloyd Stone version in the Methodist hymnal: My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,A song of peace for their land and for mine. Those were words of war-ending brotherhood, almost as alien a concept as the idea of an international ban on flags to help lower belligerence. It was a far-cry from the martial "Onward Christian Soldiers," of the church of my youth. "Just As I Am," is a head sticker, not only for its power for salvation, but for salivating, as well. I'll never forget how hungry I'd get at 12:17pm at church on Sunday waiting to get home to dinner and eat Momma's fried chicken while the preacher held out for 27 stanzas of that invitation when his fervor hadn't expanded the church's roll that day. I never thought, until now, whether the school mate who rededicated his life to full time Christian service for the two-dozenth time on one of those days had overdosed on religion, or whether the act were one of self sacrice for the entire congregation - to get us all out of there before one of us endured the plight of the poor starving of other continents we heard so much about in them days and keeled over, right there in the church house, from malnourishment. Some of the holy words which stuck in our heads were the stuff of humor. In those days, before Garrison Keillor defied the deities with heretical lyrics to songs, we would not have thought of intentionally changing the words to church music. The fact that lightening hasn't struck him down for putting "Tuna Casserole," to the music of "Whispering Hope," is no assurance for us that we should put blasphemous phrases in sacred song. Changing words to hymns, intentionally, still blasphemous But we could sing religious songs in a derisive tone. "Don and Earl, Your two young Christian Sangers from Knoxville, Tennessee," singing, "Where could I go but to my Lord for the Mercury Life Insurance Company" on 1950's WAIN Radio, was made for parody. It stuck in our heads, and we sang it often, adding satirizing lines about the wonderful benefits one could get with Mercury Life Insurance, "Now friends, if you are covered by Mercury Life insurance, and you are struck. And Killed. by a green Ford woody station wagon on Hurt Street on a odd-numbered Tuesday, the Mercury Life Insurance Company will send you one thousand dollars - that's one thousand dollars - if your insurance payment is received at least 30 days in advance of its due date." The variations were endless, and funny, until the Pythons did it so much better, when Michael Palen explans to the policy holder, "It says right here in your policy that under no circumstances will the company pay a benefit. . ." One recording, 'Lord Build me just a cabin' may exist "Lord Build me just a cabin," was a a head sticker from another genre, for Townies and it and "Just a rose will do," was an all-time great "album" Darrell Young, Donnie Harvey, and I sang as a trio. A recording, I was told within the last two decades, is extant - though I would give good money were it not. The song which says, "This is Columbia" There are other songs stuck in my brain. One that stays in my mind and conjures up "Columbia" as no other music can, is when I hear "Now the day is over," on the Columbia Baptist Church chimes in the evening. Some commuters tell me they share that experience, that they are always thrilled when their commutes bring them back into town just in time to hear comforting music which says, "This is Columbia, and all is well in the world." Though today - because it is Branstetter Parks 83rd Homecoming today - I mostly think of Bro. Ralph Rush singing "When You Walk the Last Mile of the Way," at Branstetter Park, it is still a memory which pales when paralleled with the one most enduring music forever stuck in my head, remembering when Momma sang "In the garden," while she worked after the supper was over at 705 Jamestown Street when we were kids. That song, as she sung it, is still the most beautiful one I've ever heard, or, I suspect, ever will. This story was posted on 2009-08-23 12:59:04
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A Kindred Spirit: How much does customer service matter A reminder to send Celebrations Just look at Corinna now. Hanging out with the Gov! Great Wooded South IV: Buttons (ADV) Send Yard Sales early for best results Bloomington Chapel corn toss, volleyball tournament Ideas and Renters, Save the Courthouse, meets Aug. 25, 2009 Thinks going for Lowe's Garden Grant a great idea Mystery shrouds disappearance of Trabue House sundial 83rd Homecoming at Branstetter Park, Summer Shade, KY View even more articles in topic News |
 
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